(November 24)  Fifty-eight of San Bernardino County’s schools have received the dubious distinction of being placed on the California Department of Education’s 2015-16 Open Enrollment list.
In essence, schools placed on the state’s open enrollment list are deemed to be among the 1,000 lowest achieving schools in the state. Parents of students in those schools can apply to have their children transfer to another higher performing district school.
The list is derived using a formula that reserves 687 spots for elementary schools, 165 middle schools and 148 high schools. Charter schools and schools with fewer than 100 valid state standardized test scores escape being rated for open enrollment.
Those schools in San Bernardino County singled out for their poor performance were the San Bernardino County Office of Education’s San Bernardino County Special Education School; the Columbia International Science School of Math & Technology and Adelanto Elementary School, both in the Adelanto Elementary School District; the Barstow Unified School District’s Crestline Elementary and Montara Elementary schools; the Bear Valley Unified School District’s Big Bear Elementary School; Valley View Continuation High School in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District; Walnut Avenue Elementary, Ramona Junior High, Dickson Elementary and Anna A. Borba Fundamental Elementary in the Chino Valley Unified School District; Paul Rogers Elementary, Woodrow Wilson Elementary and Alice Birney Elementary in the Colton Joint Unified School District; Cucamonga Elementary School in the Cucamonga Elementary School District; Birch Continuation High School, Citrus Continuation High School, North Tamarind Elementary and Cypress and Tokay Elementary in the Fontana Unified School District; Helendale Elementary School in the Helendale Elementary School District; the Morongo Unified School District’s Joshua Tree Elementary School and Palm Vista Elementary School; the Needles Unified School District’s Vista Colorado Elementary; the Central Language Academy, De Anza Junior High, Ray Wiltsey Middle School, and Kingsley Elementary in the Ontario-Montclair School District; Lugonia Elementary and Victoria Elementary in the Redlands Unified School District; the Rialto Unified School District’s Bemis Elementary, Dunn Elementary and Frisbie Middle School; Rim of the World Unified School District’s Valley of Enchantment Elementary School; San Bernardino City Unified School District’s Indian Springs High, Arrowhead Elementary, Manuel A. Salinas Creative Arts Elementary, Del Rosa Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, Mt. Vernon Elementary, Del Vallejo Middle School and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School; Liberty Elementary and Green Tree East Elementary in the Victor Elementary School District; Victor Valley Union High School District’s Adelanto High School; the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District’s Dunlap Elementary and Valley Elementary; Silver Valley Unified School District’s Yermo Elementary School; the Snowline Joint Unified School District’s Vista Verde Elementary School and Phelan Elementary School; the Hesperia Unified School District’s Eucalyptus Elementary, Hollyvale Elementary and Hesperia Junior High; the Lucerne Valley Unified School District’s Lucerne Valley Elementary; the Upland Unified School District’s Citrus Elementary and Upland Elementary; and the Apple Valley Unified School District’s Phoenix Academy and High Desert Premier Academy.
Parents who seek to have their children placed into a better performing school will generally be accommodated. In most cases, however, bus service for students traveling to a more distant campus is not provided.
Schools in San Bernardino County were among the poorest performers statistically in the state per its ratio of open enrollment schools. San Bernardino County, with a population of 2,088,371, is the fifth largest county in terms of population in California. Riverside County, the fourth largest county in the state at 2,292,507 population, had 52 open enrollment schools. San Diego County, the second largest county in the state at a population of 3,211,252, had 65 open enrollment schools. Orange County, the third largest county in the state with a population of 3,114,363, had 58 open enrollment schools. Los Angeles County, the largest county in the state with a population of 10,017,068, had 193 open enrollment schools. Contra Costa County the state’s ninth largest county with 1,094,205 population, is the county closest to being half of San Bernardino County’s size. It had 22 open enrollment schools.