Ocean View Plan Would Seek Anglo Students First : Desegregation: The proposed magnet, aimed at drawing whites so that the district will qualify for federal funds, may be inherently discriminatory.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Frustrated over their progress in correcting racial imbalances, officials of the Ocean View School District have proposed a desegregation plan that they admit could be inherently discriminatory against Latinos and other minorities.

The plan that administrators presented to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday night calls for creating an elective-based “magnet” program at Oak View Elementary School that would offer classes not available elsewhere in the district starting in September, 1992.

Paul Mercier, assistant superintendent for programs, acknowledged that the voluntary magnet program could be discriminatory, in that it would chiefly attempt to draw Anglo students and enable the district to qualify for federal desegregation funds.

“We have to keep in mind what the purpose of this program is,” Mercier said. “The purpose is to attract white students to Oak View.”

District officials and national desegregation experts say the proposal’s benefits--moving toward districtwide integration while offering attractive new programs such as art, drama, music and industrial arts at a mainly Latino school--outweigh its drawbacks.

While the new elective courses would be offered to all Oak View students--89% of whom are minorities--the 175-student magnet program would give enrollment preferences to Anglo students from other schools, Supt. Monte McMurray said.

As a result, many students who live in the predominantly Latino neighborhood surrounding Oak View could find themselves shut out to make room for magnet students. And minority students at other schools could also be discouraged from transfering to Oak View.

Latino parents and activists contacted Wednesday were hesitant to comment on the new desegregation plan until more details are made public during the coming weeks.

District officials aborted their original desegregation plan because the federal Department of Education Office of Civil Rights has yet to approve the proposal.

Oak View teacher Anita Garcia Lachenmeyer said she believes neighborhood parents will favor the new plan over previous district desegregation efforts.

“They have a concern about their children being bused, and they want to have their neighborhood school,” Lachenmeyer said.

The new proposal would also close Crest View Elementary School, where minorities make up 67% of the enrollment, and transfer the students to nearby schools. The plan would then transfer 240 of Oak View’s 660 students to neighboring schools by redrawing the school’s boundary. It would create an open-enrollment policy for Oak View students, providing transportation for any who wish to attend another district school.

Kim Lam, another Oak View teacher and the school’s Vietnamese liaison to the district Integration Advisory Committee, said she backs the new proposal. Although it would initially limit minority students outside Oak View from entering the magnet program, she said she is confident the plan will expand to accommodate a wider cross-section of students.

“The kids will be integrated. That’s the important thing,” she said.

Ocean View’s plan is unanimously supported by its 35-member Integration Advisory Committee, composed of teachers, administrators and parents, Mercier said. Three desegregation consultants to the district have also endorsed the plan, he said.

State officials and desegregation experts said that similar ethnically based, voluntary magnet programs have become increasingly popular among school districts across the nation as an alternative to mandatory integration plans. In California, about eight of every 10 school districts with desegregation plans use the magnet concept, said Edd Fong, press secretary to State Controller Gray Davis.

A series of community meetings on the new desegregation plan are scheduled next week, beginning with one planned for 7 p.m. Monday at Crest View.