Escondido

Escondido Union High School District trustees are expected to vote tonight to begin the search for a second new high school site within the district, although no funds are available for its purchase.

The district already is committed to acquiring a new high school site within the community of Valley Center to the northeast of Escondido and is considering the acquisition of a second 50-acre site along North Broadway, where most of Escondido’s housing development is occurring.

Schools Superintendent John Cooper said Tuesday that the district will apply for a grant from the state to acquire the North Broadway site if the board members approve the search.

The state is currently out of property acquisition funds, he said, but a state bond proposal is expected to be placed on the June, 1990, ballot for school site acquisition and building purposes.

The search for a high school site in Valley Center is under way, Cooper said, but he predicted that it would be difficult to find a proper location because of the pressures of development, which boost the costs of flat, undeveloped acreages of the size needed for a 1,500-student high school.

Valley Center is projected to have about 865 high school-age students by the year 1998, below the number to fill a high school, but Orange Glen High School, which Valley Center students now attend, is rated as overcrowded.

Cooper said the district is committed to the construction of a high school in Valley Center and would not replace it with a north Escondido campus.

Both new schools will be needed within the next decade, he explained.