School District Has Second Thoughts About Center

Yorba Linda, a city that takes pride in its small, hometown flavor, is experiencing growing pains on its eastern side.

To accommodate growth, the city and the Placentia Unified School District are considering an unusual agreement in which both would pay for a community center to be built as part of a new school. The idea may be only the beginning because they also are considering an even larger project: financing a new school together.

But the school board, which will consider the proposal tonight, is having second thoughts. One risk, board members say, is the possibility that the city will lose its liability insurance.

Meanwhile, some residents are growing impatient with the school board’s hesitation. Those residents, who have attended recent school board meetings and signed a 400-signature petition, said the schools are overcrowded with new students bused from the growing eastern end. New schools, they said, are long overdue. And so is the community center, they said.

“The parents are angry. Make no mistake about it. We’re going into an overcrowded situation next year,” resident Ed F. Hart said.

Indeed, the Fairmont and Woodsboro kindergarten-through-sixth-grade schools are “considerably overcrowded,” said John M. Perry, Placentia Unified School District assistant superintendent of administrative services.

Both schools already are using portable classrooms and plan to add three or four more in September to accommodate the growing student population, Perry said.

Already one year behind schedule on the construction of the Travis Ranch School in east Yorba Linda, the school district is anxious to move ahead with the community center that would be part of Travis, Perry said. Construction of the K-8 school for 1,000 students is expected to begin within the month and end by next year, Perry said.

Joint Financing

Under the proposed agreement, the school and city would jointly finance the $3.2-million, 20,000-square-foot community center. It would include shower and locker rooms, food service and eating areas, band and choral music rooms, a combination weight-training and dance room which could be converted to a stage area, and a gymnasium with a full basketball court, Perry said.

The school would use the center during school hours, and city-sponsored activities would take place at other times.

Before entering into an agreement with the city, however, school board members want to ensure that the city redevelopment funds that will help finance the community center are a “proven revenue source.” The city’s 1 1/2-year-old Redevelopment Agency is relatively new, and this would be its biggest project to date, said Bruce Channing, assistant city manager.

The school board also wants to review other issues, including the possibility that Yorba Linda, like other cities across Orange County and the state, could lose its liability insurance.

“We’ve been going through a normal process of study. Sometimes it’s difficult for people not involved in the process to understand why it takes so long. The school board wants to make sure it’s getting into a situation it can handle in the future,” Perry said, referring to several delays in voting by the school board.

But the city is ready to commit to the project. Last week, City Council members, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, approved the joint agreement with the school district because the center would “ultimately benefit the community as a whole,” Channing said.

The council also voted to lend the Redevelopment Agency money to finance the project, Mayor Michael Beverage said.

Another project on the drawing board is what school and city officials refer to as the “King school site.” Plans for the proposed 1,000-student school on 26 acres in the east canyon area call for even greater city participation. The city would give the school district $10 million between 1990 and 1995 to pay for the new school, Channing said.

“Rather than say, we (the city) have our own problems to deal with and you guys go figure out on your own how to deal with the increase of population,” the city opted to help finance the facilities and have joint use, Channing said.

Yorba Linda’s population is about 40,000. The east side is the fastest growing with about 1,400 new homes expected by the end of the fiscal year and another 1,000 units during the 1986-87 year, Channing said.

Tonight’s 7:30 p.m. school board meeting will be held at El Dorado High School.