Schools: Yes on B and C

After 74 years of operation, the Yorba Linda School District is seeking to dissolve and merge its kindergarten-through-eighth-grade classes with the neighboring Placentia Unified School District.

The central reason for the formal annexation action, and for voter support of the move, is that it would be best for the students in both districts. That can be achieved with a Yes vote on Measure B in Placentia and on Measure C in Yorba Linda.

The smaller Yorba Linda district is too financially strapped to provide its students with the educational programs that the Placentia district can. For the last five years Yorba Linda has been dipping into reserves and cutting back on its special programs while Placentia has had an annual surplus of funds.

A merger would benefit students in both districts. Yorba Linda’s students would be able to take music, art and special reading classes not now available to them. The school day could be expanded from six to seven periods for middle-school students, and educational support services that Yorba Linda cannot afford would become available.

The Placentia district would increase its base state revenues by an estimated $2.9 million a year, enabling it to add student programs and reduce class sizes without an increase in local taxes.

Some opponents fear a loss of local control. But all representation would not be lost. Two trustees from the Yorba Linda school board would sit on an expanded Placentia school board for two years, and then all voters in the merged district would be able to vote on future board members.

It’s a workable plan, and it’s far preferable to the status quo. If the annexation is rejected, Yorba Linda will keep losing money. And that almost certainly would mean further reductions in school programs and, ultimately, possible takeover by the state if the district became financially insolvent. That fate has befallen other districts in the state that didn’t have the opportunity or the foresight to make the reorganization effort now before voters.

The governing boards and staffs of both districts and the city councils in Placentia and Yorba Linda favor the annexation, and the state Board of Education has unanimously approved the proposed merger. Now it is up to the voters. We urge them to vote Yes on Measure B in the Placentia Unified School District and on Measure C in the Yorba Linda School District.