Ocean View Board Delays School Closings for a Year

The Ocean View School District Board of Trustees backed away from a controversial plan to close three district schools as a budget-cutting measure and voted Wednesday night to postpone any school shutdowns for at least a year.

After three consecutive nights of board meetings at the Marina High School gymnasium attended by hundreds of angry parents, the board agreed with their advisory committee’s suggestion to postpone the shutdowns of Golden View, Haven View and Lake View elementary schools until the district desegregates a predominantly Latino elementary school and considers implementing a middle-school system.

Members of the Master Planning Committee of Eleven, made up mostly of parents, complained that the six weeks allotted to come up with a school closure and consolidation plan was insufficient and therefore recommended a yearlong postponement.

Officials said the school closures would have shaved about $750,000 from the district’s annual $40-million budget.

The district is faced with a budget shortfall of up to $1.8 million. Trustees supporting the delay said they will extend the district’s deficit spending for another year before considering dramatic spending cuts, which may include school closures.

“Even though we have to dip into our reserves a bit more than we’d like to, the effective operation of this district will not be interrupted,” Trustee Sheila Marcus said at Wednesday’s meeting.

Marcus and board members Janet Garrick and Carolyn Hunt voted in favor of the committee’s recommendation. Trustee Elizabeth A. Spurlock and board President Charles Osterlund abstained.

“I have a very difficult time accepting a recommendation to do nothing,” Osterlund said. “We either go forward or stay where we are.”

Times Staff Writer Tony Marcano contributed to this report.