One of the county's best school districts, San Marcos Unified, is building more schools to make room for thousands of new students. But parents in one neighborhood aren't happy with the district's proposed plans.
The district posted its plans to redraw attendance areas on its Web site. Under the latest version, some students in San Elijo Hills would be sent to a new K-8 school outside their neighborhood.
So some parents are taking action. In the past two days, they have organized meetings, started a petition, designed posters and created a Facebook page.
"We care about our kids. We care about each others' kids. We care about our community," said parent Hailey Adams.
Adams and other parents say these plans to realign school boundaries will destroy the strong sense of community that brought them to San Elijo in the first place.
"You know, that New England feel that I grew up with in a small town back east. Didn't think we'd find that in San Diego, but we did," said parent Suzanne Beyerlein.
"A lot of us have passed up job offers and other opportunities to be able to keep our kids at these same three schools," said parent Alpana Patel.
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The realignment would bring students from other areas to existing schools in San Elijo, which parents say would cause even more problems.
"You can imagine that's even a traffic nightmare. People will be coming into our community as we're driving out," Adams said.
SMUSD Assistant Superintendent Brad Lichtman said representatives from all 16 schools in the district helped draw the new boundaries.
"No child is going to be left behind, to use that term. They're all going to get a wonderful education," Lichtman said.
Lichtman adds some parents are always upset with the results.
"But usually after a year or two, you know, people become satisfied," he said.
It seems the parents' actions have made an impact. The district has scheduled another meeting for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at San Elijo Middle School. School board members will have the final say on any change in district boundaries.
