SANTA ANA : Schools Going Up at Record Speed

Construction workers are busy this week grading a site on East Brown Street for yet another school, a now familiar sight in a city where new schools are being built at a rate of about two per year.

The Santa Ana Unified School District, already the largest in Orange County with 43 schools and nearly 43,000 students, is in the midst of a $225-million school construction program.

The 1980s were a decade of tremendous growth for the district, where about 1,000 new students have arrived each year since 1985. And that growth shows no sign of leveling off during the 1990s.

District officials estimate that the student population could reach 50,000 within the next few years, a phenomenon they attribute to the number of high-density apartment complexes built during the 1980s in neighborhoods once dominated by single-family homes, said Mike Vail, senior director of facilities.

“We need these new schools as soon as we can build them,” Vail said.

To pay for the new projects, the district has had to rely heavily on state money earmarked specifically for building new schools. Approximately $50 million of the fund was used to build the district’s fourth high school, Century, as well as Sepulveda and John F. Kennedy elementary schools, all opened during the 1989-90 school year.

Scheduled to open by September, 1991, is James Garfield Elementary School. In the meantime, a makeshift campus of portable classrooms has been constructed on the playing fields of the Garfield school site and will be used until the school is built.

State funding has also been approved for George Washington Carver and Martin R. Heninger elementary schools, with construction beginning this fall. Carver is scheduled to open in 1991 and Heninger in early 1992.

The district received state funds to buy the land for Adeline C. Walker and Martin Luther King elementary schools but has not yet received money to begin construction. Two more elementary schools are in the planning stages.

“The pivotal question is funding,” Vail said. “If something happens to State School Building Program funds, that will put a major hitch in our plans.”

The district has had to be aggressive in obtaining land for the new schools, “but we are also trying to minimize the impact on people whose property we are acquiring,” Vail said.

In addition to buying a school from the Tustin Unified School District, Santa Ana has bought commercial, residential and church properties. All landowners have settled on a selling price with the district without negotiations going to trial, Vail said.

“The fact that we have to go on sites that have already been developed presents a tremendous challenge,” Vail said. “No one could have predicted that the city would change the zoning from residential homes to apartments in so many areas. No one in the school district could have projected this happening, so the land was not set aside.”

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SANTA ANA SCHOOL ENROLLMENT

Santa Ana Unified School District’s student population has grown by more than 1,000 students each year since 1985 causing the district to plan for 15 new schools -- three which opened this year.

The following chart reveals the district’s enrollment increases during the past five years, current enrollment, and projected enrollment increases for the next five years.

Alternative Year K thru 5 6-8 9-12 Programs Total 1985-86 19,735 7,732 8,486 361 36,314 1986-87 20,341 8,013 8,601 460 37,415 1987-88 20,774 8,176 8,806 441 38,197 1988-89 22,283 8,464 8,734 548 40,029 1989-90 23,710 9,131 9,496 508 42,845 1990-91 24,488 9,465 10,218 556 44,727 1991-92 25,440 9,853 10,606 532 46,431 1992-93 26,438 10,106 10,859 555 47,958 1993-94 27,333 10,501 11,252 526 49,612 1994-95 28,427 10,913 11,611 541 51,492 1995-96 29,423 11,368 12,061 578 53,430

Source: Santa Ana Unified School District