Vanishing Act : Yorba Linda District Opens School Year Amid Hopes of Never Doing It Again

When Yorba Linda School District begins classes today, it will be the first public school system in Orange County to start the 1987-88 year. Ironically, the early start could be the beginning of the end.

“Yes, this may our last year,” Yorba Linda Supt. Mary Ellen Blanton said. “If all goes well, we hope Yorba Linda will be merged with Placentia Unified by next summer. So we’re hoping this is our last year.”

Few governmental entities, including school districts, ever seek to abolish themselves. But Yorba Linda elementary district, with about 1,700 students, is that rare exception. After 20 years of battling, unsuccessfully, to get its own high school, the Yorba Linda district has decided it would rather switch than fight.

Specifically, Yorba Linda, which has kindergarten through eighth grade, hopes to merge into Placentia Unified School District, which has kindergarten through 12th grade.

The merger would put all of the city of Yorba Linda into Placentia Unified. About 78% of Yorba Linda’s city limits, including the rapidly growing eastern portion, is already in Placentia Unified. Only the western part of Yorba Linda is in the small Yorba Linda (Elementary) School District.

Not surprisingly, Placentia Unified also favors the proposed merger.

But it is less than popular in Fullerton Joint Union High School District.

“We’re not opposing it, but I worry if this might be the first bite of two bites of the apple,” said Fullerton Joint Union High School District Supt. Robert Martin, whose district has about 800 Yorba Linda students in one of its high schools.

Bite No. 1, Martin explained, would mean that Yorba Linda sends all its elementary students to Placentia Unified. Bite No. 2, he said, could mean that Yorba Linda would try to send all its high school-age students to Placentia Unified, instead of to Fullerton’s Troy High School, which they attend now.

And Bite No. 2 definitely wouldn’t be acceptable to Fullerton, Martin said.

Now, Yorba Linda high school-age students must attend school in the Fullerton district, which is not geographically next to the elementary district, a situation unique in California. And for 20 years, residents of western Yorba Linda have complained that their highschool-age students must drive up to seven miles each way, traveling past closer Placentia high schools to get to their assigned high school in Fullerton.

Western Yorba Linda residents once had hopes that the Fullerton district would build a high school in their area. When that effort failed, Yorba Linda unsuccessfully tried to secede from Fullerton to form its own high school district. Fullerton Joint Union High School District fought the secession. As recently as last year, Fullerton was successful in bottling up proposed legislation to permit all Yorba Linda elementary graduates to be in Placentia Unified high schools.

This year, however, Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) introduced a bill that allows Yorba Linda School District to merge into Placentia Unified. But in deference to the complaints of the Fullerton district, the bill says that all Yorba Linda district students would still have to attend high school in Fullerton.

That provision means Fullerton would not lose the 800 or so Yorba Linda students who attend Fullerton’s Troy High School and would lose no state money. So the Fullerton district has decided not to oppose Lewis’ bill.

If money is behind Fullerton’s insistence in keeping Yorba Linda’s high school students, it also is a factor in the move by Yorba Linda parents and school officials to seek the merger with Placentia.

“Being in a unified school district will offer more educational advantages to our students. There are many things our little district just can’t afford right now,” Blanton said.

The reason stems from a peculiarity of state law that gives higher per-student funding to unified school districts with grades K through 12, than to elementary districts with grades K through 8 or K through 6. The increased funds the same number of students would get at Placentia could be translated into more school services for them, Blanton said.

But more money isn’t the only motive, Blanton said.

“Community identity is one big reason we want the merger,” she said. “So many people think we’re all in one district, and we’re not.”

Lewis’ bill has passed the Assembly. The assemblyman said he is confident it will pass the Senate and be signed by Gov. George Deukmejian within a few days.

If so, Yorba Linda School District could be in its last year. But don’t count on it, warned Martin, the Fullerton school superintendent.

“That bill requires the voters of Placentia and Yorba Linda to approve it, and it also requires an environmental impact report, approval of the county Committee on School District Organization and approval of the state Board of Education,” he noted. “Now all of that possibly could be done by next July, but I’m doubtful. I’d hate to see people in Yorba Linda get their hopes up and be misled.”

Yorba Linda School District officials remain hopeful nonetheless.

“It’s possible,” school board member Karin Freeman said. “I’m not sure it can be done, but it would be so good for us if it could be completed this year. . . . Frankly, we’re surprised it has taken so long.”