Aliso, Trabuco and Linda Vista Elementary Schools Deemed ‘Surplus’

The committee responsible for examining surplus properties of Saddleback Valley Unified Schools voted again Thursday to name three schools under consideration of being closed as surplus properties that could be leased out.

The district’s 7/11 Committee met Thursday and approved its final report unanimously. During the 40-minute hearing, nine speakers asked the committee to reconsider designating Aliso, Trabuco and Linda Vista Elementary schools as surplus.

The meeting came one week after a controversial hearing in which the committee unanimously approved its final report before it heard any testimony from the public. That angered some parents, who by rushing through the process.

The question of whether any schools will be closed this year rests with the district’s elected school board. It is expected to take up the issue of school closures at its meeting Tuesday night.

The Real Property Advisory Committee, known as the 7/11 Committee because of a legislative requirement that it have from seven to 11 members, established a priority list for six surplus properties owned by the district. This list is:

1. A warehouse at 23602 Via Fabricante
   in Mission Viejo
2. O’Neill Elementary (which was closed
   in 2009)
3. Trabuco Elementary
4. La Tierra Elementary (also closed in
   2009)
5. Aliso Elementary
6. Linda Vista Elementary.

The committee, which does not consider whether schools should actually be closed, found that the district had an excess capacity of 2,925 spots for its elementary school students in 2010.

It also recommended that the district lease the properties, rather than sell them.

Several speakers at Thursday’s meeting questioned the district’s methodology for its enrollment projections, warning that the district might be caught flat-footed with overcrowding if it closes too many schools now.

Rob Lange, whose two children attend Aliso Elementary in Lake Forest, testified that the city will be gaining 4,300 new homes in the coming years. Lange said that just this week the Lake Forest city council also discussed the possibility of re-zoning additional land for residential building.

“These homes will have children, and these children will need schools,” said Lange.

Later, 7/11 Committee vice chair Molly O’Grady asked Jeff Starr, the district’s business director, whether the district’s enrollment projects looked at the 4,300 new homes planned in Lake Forest.

Starr said the district staff had met with the developers, who will be building new tracts of homes in a multiple year project.

“There’s enough declining enrollment to offset those additional students,” Starr said.

Lange also testified that when the city of Del Mar went through its school closure process, its 7/11 Committee spent eight months conducting meetings, public hearings at multiple locations, and touring school sites before it released a final report.

“Another school district took eight months. This district spent a cumulative time of two hours and 27 minutes” before completing its work, Lange said. “Not one of them had the backbone to say, ‘I heard some interesting things. Let’s take a step back.’ ”

Parents also raised safety concerns, since closing schools will require children to walk farther to new schools.

Laura Bloom, a parent at Trabuco Elementary, testified that students from her school would be reassigned to Robinson Ranch, which is two miles away. The only route out of the canyon is up a steep road, with switchbacks and no sidewalks. She said parents have been told that transportation won’t be offered to a new site.

“The road has no pedestrian access. I don’t really even see how it could be used,” she said.

Linda Pappert, a teacher at Linda Vista Elementary for 24 years, testified that she is concerned about students who would have to cross busy La Paz Road to get to their new school if Linda Vista is closed.

“What is the value of risking one student life in that traffic?” she said. “It’s an accident that will be waiting to happen.”

The district is considering school closures due to its budget crisis and declining enrollment. SVUSD has the highest rate of declining enrollment in the county, which is costing it $3.8 million a year, officials say. Closing an elementary school saves an average of $500,000 a year, according to the district.

While the district scheduled the additional meeting Thursday in order to ensure that parents felt heard during the process, many of the 30 parents and teachers who attended left saying they were unsatisfied with its final report.

“If a business person were to make a decision with this little information, they would be let go,” said Aliso parent Bart van Aardenne. “The area is still growing. We don’t have a clear picture of what’s going to happen.”