Orange Unified Board Reverses Decision to Close 4 Schools

One month after it decided to close four elementary schools at the end of the school year, the Orange Unified School District Board of Education on Monday night reversed itself and voted 5 to 2 to keep the schools open.

The board’s vote--taken in the presence of about 300 parents, teachers and other spectators--came after Supt. Kenneth Brummel announced “with considerable embarrassment” that the district had erred in revenue projections for the next school year.

Brummel said $781,000--$447,000 in uncollected property taxes available and $334,000 in funds the district had overlooked --”will make it possible to continue next year the four elementary schools, while the education master plan is prepared.”

He said the new recommendation that the schools be kept open was made on the basis of “information unknown to us before this week.” He added that two errors in previous budgetary predictions caused the district to overlook $334,000.

One error concerned raises granted to blue-collar and clerical workers, which had been entered into the budget twice.

The master plan is to be completed and presented to the board by January, 1986.

On April 18, before a crowd of nearly 1,000 residents, the board--by a 4-3 vote--followed Brummel’s recommendation to close the four elementary schools: Panorama in Crawford Canyon, Riverdale in Anaheim, Jordan in Orange, and Villa Park in Villa Park.

Storm of Protest

That decision--based on a tight budget and declining enrollment--sparked a storm of protest and criticism. Last week, a parents group announced that it would vigorously contest the reelection in November of two of the four board members who voted to close the schools, Milton D. Jensen and Ruth C. Evans. Jensen and Evans were the two board members who changed their votes Monday.

The parents’ group also hinted that it would seek a recall election for the other two members who voted for closure, board President Eleanor Pleines and Russell Barrios. Pleines and Barrios again voted on Monday to shut the schools.

Board members Joe Cherry, William Steiner and Robert J. Elliott opposed the closures in both votes.

Brummel’s original recommendation went along with a proposal by a parents’ committee, the Citizens Steering Committee for Better Schools, which the board had asked to study data and make a recommendation on school closures.

Another board-sanctioned parents’ group, the Professional Advisory Committee (PAC), contested that proposal, saying there was ample money in the district to keep the schools open for at least another year. By then, committee members said, the district will have had time to develop a master plan to cope with the future. Any action without a master plan would be premature, the PAC group said.

The closures first became a matter of urgent discussion late last year when new administrators discovered an unexpected $4.5-million deficit. Recently, however, the troubled school district’s economic picture has grown considerably brighter. Officials now say they not only will be able to stop the flow of red ink but also establish a sizable reserve fund.

Deficit Forecast

As recently as January, preliminary budget predictions for the 1985-86 school year forecast a deficit of more than $2 million.

The PAC report, issued two weeks before the April decision to close the four elementary schools, identified $1.85 million in “quantifiable” revenue for the 1985-86 budget and other “non-quantifiable” budget adjustments that would generate additional savings and revenue.

At least $1 million of the savings was immediately included in budget proposals by district administrators, and a surplus of $1.5 million was predicted when the decision to close the schools was made. Closing the schools was expected to save between $500,000 and $700,000 annually.

A fifth school, Peralta Junior High School, is still scheduled to close at the end of the school year. Its students have been reassigned to Yorba and Cerro Villa junior high schools.

Monday’s vote at the district headquarters in Orange came after the board heard comments both pro and con from six residents. The audience packed the meeting room and spilled out into the adjacent hallway.

Supt. Brummel said he regretted the “unhappiness and inconvenience” that the board’s original decision had caused. However, he said, a “volatile enrollment,” changing economy, and the uncertainty and lateness of the state’s educational budget preclude 100% accurate predictions on the part of school administrators.