FULLERTON : Board to Consider Leasing School Sites

The school board on Tuesday 9 will consider ways to use extra school property to make money.

The idea is to lease sites no longer needed by the school district, Supt. Duncan Johnson said. Schools likely to be considered are Acacia, Beechwood, Commonwealth and Orangethorpe elementaries and Ladera Vista and Nicolas junior highs. Beechwood, closed in 1984, is being leased to the Fullerton Joint Union High District.

The district office at Valencia and Pacific drives also is a likely candidate to be leased for commercial use if another location can be found for the offices, Johnson said.

By leasing property, the school district could borrow money for major school renovations and use the lease income to repay the loan.

“Other districts have generated large sums of money” by leasing extra land, Johnson said.

The Orange Unified School District also is looking at leasing surplus property, Assistant Supt. John Perry said. The only problem has been deciding when a school really is surplus and won’t be needed again, he said.

Last year, that district considered leasing the closed Olive Elementary School to a developer, who would build apartments on the land. Instead of selling the property for about $3 million, a long-term lease would have netted more than $10 million over 12 years, Perry said.

After public protests, the Orange school board suspended the lease plan. Before proceeding, he said, board members want to make certain enrollment won’t increase and create a need for the school.

The Fullerton board on Tuesday will consider hiring a Newport Beach consultant to study the district’s property and find locations suitable for profitable use.