Local News in Brief : Yorba Linda : State Board of Education OKs Merger of Districts

The Yorba Linda Elementary School District is a giant step closer to going out of business, and its officials are pleased.

District officials said Monday that the district’s request to merge with the Placentia Unified School District had been unanimously approved by the state Board of Education.

“Now the only remaining thing is submitting this to the voters in both school districts,” said Yorba Linda School District Supt. Mary Ellen Blanton, who added that each school board will probably place the merger referendum question on the Nov. 8 ballot.

“It’s up to the boards, but I think they will pick that election,” she said. Both school boards strongly favor a merger.

Yorba Linda, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school district, has for more than 20 years sought to be part of a unified school district, which is one that has kindergarten through 12th grade. Unified districts also receive higher state funding per pupil from the state.

Yorba Linda’s efforts in previous years have been blocked by the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, which receives the elementary graduates of Yorba Linda Elementary School District and did not want to lose the state money that the students represent.

A compromise state law passed in 1987 calls for allowing Yorba Linda Elementary School District to merge with Placentia Unified but still requires high school-age students in Yorba Linda to attend the Fullerton Joint Union High School District.

State law requires that a majority of residents voting on the merger issue in both school districts must approve the question. So far, the proposed merger has met little opposition in either city.