Escondido, District Agree on New Elementary School

Escondido city and elementary school district negotiators reached agreement Monday night, breaking a deadlock that has stalled construction of a much-needed grade school near Kit Carson Park.

Trustee Sid Hollins said details of the agreement would be released today and will be ratified by the City Council and the Union Elementary School District board Wednesday.

The negotiators in the two-hour session included Mayor Doris Thurston and Councilman Jerry Harmon for the city, and James E. Lund and Hollins for the school board.

The city filed suit Feb. 24 to stop the school’s construction.

Although most public discussion of the controversy about the new school has involved the district’s payment of $600,000 of the off-site improvement costs, both city and district officials agree that the controversy goes deeper.

The feud between the two governmental agencies is not new, nor does it result merely from last June’s election, which saw two new council members shift the body’s stance from pro-growth to managed-growth.

Relations between the city and the district have been strained for years as city officials have refused to increase developer fees sought by the district to finance school construction. School officials say that today’s crowded conditions would not exist if the city had agreed to district requests for increased fees.

District Assistant Supt. Elmer Cameron complained that the city “has been treating us like a developer” by holding up construction of the much-needed school, which is scheduled to open in September.

But Councilwoman Carla DeDominicis disagrees. The council sought an injunction against the construction of the new school, she said, because the district has been “acting irresponsibly” in building its schools in undeveloped areas with inadequate public improvements such as sidewalks and traffic signals.

In three recent instances, the schools were located in areas where off-site improvements cost the city “millions of dollars,” she said.

DeDominicis explained that the city seeks to ban the construction until the district commits itself to conduct an environmental study of the school’s impact on the area and agrees to pay a third of the $1.7 million in estimated off-site improvements around the site at Bear Valley Parkway and Las Palmas Avenue.

Cameron pointed out that the new school is not growth-inducing, “because we are just trying to house the children we have now.” He said 3,500 of the district’s 13,000 students are now in temporary quarters and three elementary schools are closed to new enrollees. New students within the Central, Miller and Lincoln elementary school boundaries must enroll in more-distant schools because of the crowding, Cameron said.

The new L. R. Green School will be built entirely of portable classrooms and will house 600 students in the kindergarten through sixth grades. In future years, buildings will be added for administrative and library space, Cameron said, but the relocatables will remain as classrooms.

Parents of elementary school youngsters are scheduled to attend the Wednesday evening City Council session to air their views on the controversy. Cameron said he does not think district officials will attend.