Santa Ana : Board Expected to Pick Site for High School

A site for a new high school is expected to be chosen at tonight’s meeting of the Santa Ana Unified School District board.

Members are considering five sites, none of which exactly fills the bill, according to Assistant Supt. Anthony Dalessi. The optimum high school site would be 40 acres, Dalessi said, but “there just isn’t a piece of land that is sufficiently large for a high school that doesn’t already have something on it or plans to put something on it.”

The board also has a sixth choice--to delay action for additional study--but time constraints suggest a decision will be made at the 7 p.m. meeting, to be held at the district’s headquarters, 1405 French St.

Construction of the school will be financed by the state, and a site must be identified to continue the financing process, Dalessi said. Officials are hopeful the new school will be open by fall, 1988.

Because of rapid growth and skyrocketing enrollment, the district’s three regular high schools are filled to capacity or beyond. Each of the schools was built to accommodate 2,200 students, but Santa Ana High School has 2,800 students and Saddleback High School has 2,700. Enrollment at Valley High school is at capacity.

The property that comes closest to meeting all the established criteria--”probably the most appropriate”--is a 34.5-acre site on the west side of Grand Avenue, just south of McFadden Avenue, Dalessi said. That proposal, however, is expected to be unpopular with county government, since 60% of the land is county-owned and there are plans to develop it.

A second site under consideration, and originally the leading contender, is vacant land across Grand Avenue due east of the first site.

That property is owned by Santa Fe Industries, which has plans for a large-scale development, Dalessi said. Despite those plans, district and county officials met Monday to discuss the possible purchase of eight acres of county-owned land that could be used as a parking lot to supplement that site’s 25 acres.

A third, 33-acre site, on the northwest corner of Grand and McFadden avenues, is fully developed with about 20 different owners.

The final two sites are south of Edinger Avenue, an area considered less-attractive since most of the students who would attend the new school live in north Santa Ana. One, on the northeast corner of St. Gertrude Place and Standard Avenue, is a 40-acre vacant lot also owned by Santa Fe Industries. The fifth, 32-acre site, is located in the 1800 block of South Grand Avenue on the east side of the street.