Ambuehl Set to Lose Nicest Building on Campus to New High School

Upset that a new, high school program will displace 150 fourth- and fifth-graders come September, parents at in San Juan Capistrano are gearing up to attend tonight’s school board meeting.

In April, the board of trustees for the approved the launching of an independent high school, which has since been named West View Academy. Students from anywhere in the district will be able to take courses online, but they will meet with a teacher one-on-one weekly. The location of the new school was not discussed at the time.

Then on Thursday, Ambuehl parents learned that the newest building on their campus, which currently houses the fourth- and fifth-grade classes, will be the site of West View Academy and a K-8 home-school program.

“We were blindsided,” said Debi Kellermann, mom of a current third-grader.

The building was originally the site of a private preschool. In 2003, the school district bought the property and opened it to Ambuehl students in 2005.

Now known as the “300 building,” it’s only a “stone’s throw” from the kindergarten playground, as mom Maureen Bournazian put it. She has an incoming kindergartner in the fall.

“My husband is very concerned about it. That’s not a place for it, for a kindergarten to be located next to a high school,” she said.

With only two days to organize, parents have been scrambling to get petitions circulated, and a number of them plan to address the school board tonight. However, because the item is not already on the agenda, the board will not be able to discuss it or take action.

“We’re going to fight it. It’s not [a done deal] as far as I’m concerned,” vowed Bournazian.

School district officials believe they can cordon off the high school sufficiently. “West View Academy will be housed in a separate building, with a separate parking lot, and separate entrance,” said district spokesman Marcus Walton.

But parents don’t consider a fence good enough—not when you can hear older students cussing, Bournazian said.

West View Academy is set to open with 75 freshmen and 75 sophomores, according to an April report written by district staffers to the board of trustees.

Eventually, those students will be driving themselves to those visits, crossing a bike path the elementary children use to get to school to park their cars.

“You’re just taking a building and putting up a fence. That doesn’t make it separate,” mom Carrie Weeks said.

Trustees Sue Palazzo and Ellen Addonizio toured the school today, parents said.

When asked why the high school program is coming to an elementary campus and not or  high schools—which still have room for students beyond their boundaries—Walton said: “Locating these programs in the old Tutor Time building is the most prudent and responsible decision that could be made.”

Currently, there are about 180 Ambuehl students housed in six classrooms of the 300 building. Because of declining enrollment, about 145 students are expected next year, Weeks said. There are three unused classrooms in the main building, but they’re less than ideal.

The main building was built in the 1970s, when school architects favored an open design. Instead of doors, the classrooms in the main building have large, permanent openings. Noise travels easily, and with the older students walking to different classes for math and science, it’s going to get a lot noisier, Weeks said.

“You have to have the best learning environment for our children. We’re trying to get our scores up,” said Bournazian. “They’re setting us up for failure.”

Beyond the empty classrooms, students will likely have to be shifted around to take advantage of some portables that house the YMCA after-school program, a leased “mommy-and-me” program and a room where students go when they are pulled out of regular class to get extra attention in some academic subject, Weeks said.

These portables are less than ideal, several parents said. The carpets are old, ventilation is poor and moisture from rain is trapped beneath the buildings.

“It’s not one year’s worth of ick. It’s a lot of years of ick,” Weeks said.

“Portables are designed to be temporary,” Kellermann added.

Many parents said they don’t understand why currents students who use the 300 building every day have to make way for high school students who will be dropping by only once a week, Weeks said. But when she mentioned this to district officials in phone conversations, they told her it would be too expensive—$20,000 each—to move the portables away from the elementary school.

The Ambuehl parents’ protest will not be the only one of the night. Also on tonight’s agenda is a proposal that in Mission Viejo .

Kellermann said she has no issue with West View Academy in concept. “The program itself is fine. I have no problem with the program. But even at zoos, they separate the animals by size. You don’t put the elephants next to the jack rabbits.”

The school board meeting starts at 7 p.m. at district headquarters, 33122 Valle Rd. in San Juan Capistrano.