Trustees Will Sue to Get School Site

Trustees for the overcrowded Santa Ana Unified School District voted Wednesday to sue the county over its decision not to sell the district a six-acre parcel where a much-needed elementary school was planned.

The Santa Ana Unified Board of Education voted 4 to 0 to initiate eminent domain proceedings against the county at a hastily called meeting at which Supervisor Roger R. Stanton criticized fellow supervisors for their vote Tuesday against the sale.

Trustees also set a public hearing for Oct. 11 to receive comments on their intention to acquire the land--located at Grand and McFadden avenues. These actions are required by law in order to pursue condemnation of the property, district officials said. One board member was absent.

The vote came after the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 not to sell the land--a sale that Assistant Supt. Anthony Dalessi claimed had been a “done deal,” approved by the state and agreed to by the county General Services Agency.

The site was once considered by supervisors--and rejected--as a site for a county jail facility. But supervisors who voted against the sale expressed concern about relinquishing county-owned surplus land before resolving the question of where to locate a new jail.

An initiative sponsored by opponents of a planned Anaheim Hills jail site would require all new county jails to be built in Santa Ana. On Tuesday, instead of deciding whether to put the initiative on the 1989 ballot or adopting it as an ordinance, supervisors delayed action until Oct. 16 at the request of County Counsel Adrian Kuyper, who said he wanted to examine the issue.

“This is not an issue of planning in the future for kids we think we may have,” Dalessi told school board members at the special meeting. “We already have those kids now. Our only recourse at this point . . . is to initiate condemnation proceedings.”

Notification Today

The school district plans to formally notify the county today of its attempt to condemn and force the sale of the property.

Supervisor Stanton, whose 1st District includes Santa Ana, along with Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, voted to sell the property to the school district.

Stanton, who attended the emergency school board meeting, vowed his support for the district and read a letter that said, in part:

“While I cannot speak for the board majority, I personally support any action on the part of the district which would minimize the delay in development of this critically needed school.”