School Merger Foes Organize to Fight Plan

Opponents of the proposed merger of the tiny Yorba Linda Elementary School District into the larger Placentia Unified School District have formed a new organization, Citizens Against School Annexation (CASA).

According to Carolyn Clark of Yorba Linda, a CASA founder, the organization has about 50 members. She said Monday that CASA hopes to “educate voters on the truth by exposing the rhetoric that is being used to ‘sell’ the merger.”

The merger proposal will be on the Nov. 8 ballot for voters in both school districts. If a majority favors it, the 1,800-pupil Yorba Linda school system would become part of the 17,500-student Placentia Unified system in the fall of 1989.

The merger has the backing of the city councils of Placentia and Yorba Linda and also unanimous support from the two school boards.

Clark charged Monday that officials from the two district boards “are perpetrating a ‘win-win’ illusion regarding the benefits” of the proposed merger. Clark, in a prepared statement, also accused the districts of using “distorted facts” in expressing their support for the idea.

“I view this as similar to a corporate takeover,” Clark said of the proposal. “We think parents should start asking questions about the ‘company’ that is planning to take over our school system.”

Clark argued that Yorba Linda should keep its own school system because it has $2.8 million in a special reserve account that would be turned over to Placentia Unified should the districts merge.

The $2.8 million is proceeds from the sale of surplus school property and, by state law, must be used only for building purposes or for financial emergencies. Yorba Linda Elementary has tapped the reserve several times in recent years when it could not make ends meet from its regular operating budget, said the district’s superintendent, Mary Ellen Blanton.

Placentia Supt. James Fleming said Monday that his district has a $3.5-million building fund of its own and also that it receives an annual appropriation of about $1.7 million for building or refurbishing schools from the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency. (Placentia Unified serves portions of Anaheim, eastern Yorba Linda, Fullerton, and Brea as well as the entire city of Placentia). Since Placentia Unified has its own building fund, Fleming said, it is wrong to say that his district wants the merger in order to inherit Yorba Linda’s building-fund money.

Clark also advanced the argument that Yorba Linda voters should oppose the merger because Placentia Unified has overcrowded schools in the eastern part of its district and underenrolled schools in the western part.

Fleming disputed that assertion, saying that not all schools in the eastern part of the district are overcrowded. He said the district is remodeling one school to provide more space and plans to build two schools.

Fleming agreed that schools in the western part of the Placentia district have enrollments that are under capacity. But, he said, enrollment at those schools is still sufficient, and there are no plans to close them. “We believe in the neighborhood schools concept,” Fleming said.

Clark, however, said she thinks that Placentia Unified is not functioning as it should because it has some schools that are crowded and others that have low enrollments. “We are going to try to educate voters about the problems in Placentia Unified,” Clark said. “Up to now, there has been one-sided information about the merger because our (Yorba Linda) school board and our school superintendent have only been speaking about things in support. We think voters need both sides of the issue.”