Class Boom : Heralding the return of growth after a decade of declining enrollments, many of county’s 29 school districts are shopping for land, planning new facilities

Like drought-stricken farmers who are finally seeing rain, Orange County school officials are heralding 1988-89 as the year of growth:

* In Santa Ana, school officials are shopping for land--planning to use eminent domain if all else fails--to build new schools.

* In south Orange County, subdivision builders are working with school districts to put new schools among the burgeoning housing tracts.

* And in north Orange County, many underused schools are filling up for the first time in more than a decade.

A Times survey of all 29 school districts in the county found that, after a decade of decline for a majority of those districts, 19 are now growing, two are staying even and only eight still show enrollment losses. The declines in three of those districts--Newport-Mesa Unified, Ocean View and Cypress elementary districts--amount to less than 100 students each.

The return of growth is literally money in the bank for the school districts. Under the state’s complex average-daily-attendance funding formula for schools, more students equal more money.

Gloria Tuchman, who is both a first-grade teacher in Santa Ana Unified and a school board member of Tustin Unified, summed up the benefits of having more growth money.

“Many things that you’ve wanted to get for your classrooms, you couldn’t when enrollments were declining and money was short . . . growth lets you consider options, such as hiring more teacher aides.”

Tustin Unified this year is coming out of a 14-year period of constantly declining enrollment, during which money problems worsened each year and the district closed 10 schools.

“We went through hell when our school district was declining in enrollment,” said Maurice Ross, superintendent of Tustin Unified. “This year we’re turning the corner for the first time.”

What is significant this year is the turnaround of individual Orange County school districts--not the overall county gain in students. On an individual district basis, the growth rate ranges from a 6% increase predicted this year in Capistrano Unified School District to the .1% gain in Huntington Beach City Elementary School District. The big change is that most of the districts are forecasting growth, rather than decline.

On a countywide basis, the combined student growth is expected to register only about a 1% increase this fall, the Orange County Department of Education said. That projection is much higher than the U.S. average of .2% expected this year but considerably lower than the 2.7% increase in students throughout California.

The reasons for the growth in student enrollment vary but are grounded in what is popularly called the “baby boomlet.”

After a phenomenal growing spurt in the 1960s, fueled by the “baby boom” children who were born after World War II, most Orange County school districts slumped into declining enrollment in the late 1970s and early 1980s after the children graduated. The birth rate dropped; less new housing was built in much of the county, and inflationary costs cooled the once-heavy migration into the county.

That trend shows a distinct turnaround in school year 1988-89.

Baby boom adults had children of their own, who are now attending school. Housing construction is flourishing in south Orange County. And a worsening Mexican economy is sparking a flood of Latino immigrants who are helping fuel the rapid population growth in the Santa Ana area.

Santa Ana Unified, unlike most other districts in the county, never stopped growing. For the past 10 years, it has been gaining about 1,000 new students a year, most of whom were new immigrants.

As of last fall, minorities represented 89% of Santa Ana Unified’s enrollment, with Latinos accounting for 75% of the total.

Costs of Growth

There is no end foreseen to that growth, school officials said. But they added that growth has not been a total blessing; expenses of growth in Santa Ana Unified have so far been advancing faster than income.

“You don’t necessarily get ahead just because you’re growing,” Santa Ana Unified Assistant Supt. Anthony Dalessi said. “The reason you get additional money (from the state) is to pay for the added teachers and supplies and facilities you need when you’re growing. Maybe if you were just slightly growing, and you didn’t need to build new facilities, maybe then you could get ahead.”

Santa Ana Unified plans to build one new high school and 11 elementaries during the next five years. Lack of open land in the city has posed the biggest problem. On Aug. 9, the school board voted to use eminent domain, if necessary, to buy inner-city lots. Eminent domain allows a school board the legal right to force a purchase from unwilling sellers.

Still, with the notable exception of the lack of available land, Santa Ana Unified appears to be in good shape to meet its explosive enrollment growth. Dalessi and Supt. Edward S. Krass said the school district has qualified for state funds for the new schools, and money for the initial buildings is already flowing from Sacramento to Santa Ana.

Santa Ana Bond Issue

The state’s central fund for school construction, however, has all but dried up. A measure on the November ballot in Santa Ana calls for a bond issue to provide more money into that pool to pay for continued construction.

“We’re hopeful that voters will support the bond issue for construction funds on the November ballot, which will help us complete our construction program,” Krass said.

In contrast to Santa Ana Unified, three districts in south Orange County have available land for new schools. The big problem for Irvine Unified, Saddleback Valley Unified and Capistrano Unified has been in finding money to build.

Jerome Thornsley, superintendent of Capistrano Unified, said, “A big issue we face is acquiring funds for school construction. One of the greatest challenges for our school district in the 1988-89 school year will be a (districtwide) Mello-Roos election which we will probably hold in the spring.”

The state’s Mello-Roos law allows setting up a procedure so that developers and new home buyers pay special fees to help build new schools.

Financing Arrangements

Both Saddleback Valley Unified and Capistrano Unified already have limited Mello-Roos financing arrangements involving housing developers in their area.

Irvine Unified Supt. David E. Brown said his district has been able to continue building new schools because of cooperation from the Irvine Co., which is the area’s largest landowner, and the fees generated from the Mello-Roos law.

“However, meeting the needs of our rapidly growing student population is still a concern, even for us,” he said.

The scene in south county mirrors the housing boom in the northern and central parts of Orange County in the 1960s and 1970s, when new subdivisions sprang up almost overnight.

“We could hardly build schools fast enough in those days,” said Cheryl Norton, spokeswoman for Fountain Valley Elementary School District, which has stabilized enrollment this year for the first time after 15 years of decline. She added: “Fountain Valley in the 1960s was like south Orange County is today. We were building and building, but then our city got all built out. The schools then went into decline.”

Decline also hit many other northern and central Orange County school districts in the 1970s and early 1980s. Like Fountain Valley, many of those districts this year are making a turnaround, either with stabilized enrollment for the first time or with a return to growth.

Peak Years

Those districts, while stabilizing or slightly growing, are about half the size of their peak years. Westminster Elementary School District, for instance, peaked with 13,697 students in 1967-68; this year the district expects 7,425 students.

In Centralia Elementary School District in the Buena Park-La Palma area, the peak enrollment was 7,200 recorded in 1969-70. This year, Centralia forecasts 4,292 students. On the other hand, Centralia’s projected enrollment this year is in the growth column--a welcome trend, school officials said.

Four of Orange County school districts have projected enrollment to be even, or a loss of fewer than 100 students. For them, 1988-89 means stabilization, after years of decline.

In Newport-Mesa Unified, which expects to lose fewer than 100 students overall this year, Supt. John Nicoll is relieved.

“We’re beginning to grow again at the elementary levels, and in the long range, there will be overall growth in our school district,” he said. “We don’t anticipate closing any more schools, and in fact, we will probably be slowly reopening schools.”

Huntington Beach City Elementary School District has been losing students for 12 years, ever since its peak in 1975-76. This year, that school district is projecting an increase of four students--as opposed to most previous years showing an annual decline. “The decline seems to be behind us,” Supt. Diana Peters said.

Although Yorba Linda Elementary is now out of its pattern of decline and is slightly growing, the district school board has voted to seek a merger with adjoining Placentia Unified School District. The merger question will be on the Nov. 8 ballot in both districts.

“If we become a part of Placentia Unified, our students will get more funding because a unified district gets more money per student than an elementary district,” Yorba Linda Elementary District Supt. Mary Ellen Blanton said.

Foes of the merger, including a new organization called Citizens Against School Annexation, have said that the money issue is being exaggerated and that Yorba Linda does not need to merge.

Merger Plans

If the merger is approved, Placentia Unified will gain all 1,800 of Yorba Linda Elementary District’s students. But even without such a growth spurt, Placentia Unified is among the highest-growth districts in Orange County.

Like the boom districts in south Orange County, Placentia Unified’s peak enrollment occurred just last year--with 17,500 students. And also like the growing south county districts, Placentia Unified expects to top its enrollment peak again this school year--jumping to 17,800.

Placentia is thus a north Orange County district that has been on a continuing growth pattern.

But the focal story in 1988-89 education for the county concerns the turnaround districts--the ones that are reversing decline and even showing growth. A big example is Orange Unified, which has lost students for 11 straight years, but this year projects a 3.7% increase in enrollment.

Orange Unified Supt. John Ikerd said: “Growth gives us a turnabout--a shot in the arm--so that we can move forward and do a lot of the things in education that we want to be doing, such as added programs for the kids. I think it just makes for a much more positive climate.”

ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT GROWTH For the first time in a decade, a majority of the county’s school districts are projecting enrollment growth this fall.

1988-89 1987-88 Projected Peak District Enrollment Enrollment % Change Enrollment Capistrano 21,213 22,476 +6.0 21,213 Irvine 19,281 20,350 +5.5 19,281 Saddleback 22,294 23,258 +4.3 22,294 Orange 24,524 25,435 +3.7 30,774 Magnolia 4,333 4,489 +3.6 5,904 Buena Park 3,806 3,920 +3.0 4,975 Lowell Joint 2,353 2,421 +2.9 6,722 Santa Ana 38,197 39,321 +2.9 38,197 Fullerton 9,850 10,050 +2.0 13,000 La Habra 4,358 4,430 +1.7 6,400 Placentia 17,500 17,800 +1.7 17,500 Yorba Linda 1,855 1,884 +1.6 2,433 Centralia 4,230 4,292 +1.5 7,200 Savanna 1,773 1,800 +1.5 3,200 Anaheim City 12,653 12,839 +1.4 14,962 Tustin 9,885 10,002 +1.2 14,500 Brea-Olinda 4,409 4,450 +0.9 4,848 Fountain Valley 6,009 6,021 +0.2 11,866 Huntington City 5,286 5,290 +0.1 21,193 Los Alamitos 5,900 5,900 even 5,996 Westminster 7,423 7,425 even 13,697 Newport-Mesa 16,106 16,030 -0.5 26,262 Cypress 3,472 3,450 -0.6 7,500 Garden Grove 36,289 35,931 -1.0 53,114 Ocean View 8,517 8,427 -1.1 14,031 Anaheim Union 21,130 20,297 -3.9 37,500 Laguna Beach 2,250 2,120 -5.8 3,650 Huntington Union 15,655 14,370 -8.2 21,193 Fullerton Joint 12,630 11,439 -9.4 15,361

% Change From Peak District to 1988-89 Capistrano +6.0 Irvine +5.5 Saddleback +4.3 Orange -17.5 Magnolia -23.9 Buena Park -21.2 Lowell Joint -63.9 Santa Ana +2.9 Fullerton -22.7 La Habra -30.8 Placentia +1.7 Yorba Linda -22.6 Centralia -40.4 Savanna -43.7 Anaheim City -14.2 Tustin -31.0 Brea-Olinda -8.2 Fountain Valley -49.3 Huntington City -36.3 Los Alamitos -1.6 Westminster -45.8 Newport-Mesa -38.9 Cypress -54.0 Garden Grove -32.4 Ocean View -39.9 Anaheim Union -45.9 Laguna Beach -41.9 Huntington Union -32.2 Fullerton Joint -25.5

Source: Individual school districts