Clovis Unified considering new school attendance boundaries
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Clovis Unified School District is dealing with some growing pains. As the population grows, some schools are over capacity, while others are underused. This week, the school board will consider new school attendance boundaries, after weeks of hearing from concerned parents.
Fresno mom Julie Han has a busy day, shuttling her three kids around. So it made no sense to her that her home wasn't within the boundaries of a school just a mile away. "It is the difference of a three minute drive to Fugman versus 8 minutes to Valley Oak," she explained.
Now, Clovis Unified's newly released boundary proposal has the Copper River neighborhood going to Fugman, not Valley Oak anymore, and feeding to Clovis North not West. That means Julie and her neighbors no longer have to apply for transfers, just to go to the closest school. Julie says her oldest son's transfer got approved after three tries: "We along with with all of our neighbors that we know with small kids all ended up transferring our kids to Fugman and it was a long, drawn-out process."
Those are the sort of complaints Clovis Unified administrators tried to take into account, through five area meetings with parents throughout the district. Don Ulrich, Assistant Superintendent for Facilities for Clovis Unified said, "It's a big deal because it affects families, and anytime you change schools, that can have an affect families, so we want to make sure we're listening to concerns about that change."
The district will also recommend the board approves a priority transfer option for upper grade students wishing to stay at their current schools. The window will open November 19th and close December 9th. Ulrich explained, "We can achieve that objective of balance over time. So that means does that 4th, 5th, 6th grade student have to move next year? They don't really have to."
Local realtors like JT Contrestano are closely following the district's decision too. "There's certain buyers that want certain schools, certain zip codes, they're real particular. You find them a nice house but it has to be in this area so it doesn't work." While he says it's too early to tell if property values will change with the boundary shifts, he wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Here's the link to the District's proposed boundary changes:
