OXNARD : School Board Moves to Acquire Land

The board of the Oxnard Elementary School District passed a resolution Wednesday to acquire 28.13 acres by eminent domain to build a new intermediate school for grades seven and eight.

Board President Jack Fowler said, “The district has been discussing this matter with the property owners for over three years but has failed to come to an agreement. In order to move forward, we must gain title.”

The proposed school, which will be called the Robert J. Frank Intermediate School, would be in the northeast area of Oxnard at the proposed intersection of Juanita and Latigo avenues. Frank was a science teacher who taught in the Oxnard district for 40 years.

“He was the most outstanding teacher anyone in our community ever experienced,” Supt. Norman R. Brekke said. “He had such talent and charisma, and his name was always involved with such descriptions of praise, that the choice of naming the school after Robert J. Frank was received with great enthusiasm by the residents of Oxnard.” Frank died several years ago.

The school district has 14 elementary schools, which feed into two intermediate schools. The new intermediate school will house about 1,500 students, Brekke said. It will cost about $16 million to build and should be ready for students by the 1993-94 school year.

Money for the school will come from a $40-million school bond passed by Oxnard voters in April, 1988. At that time, the bond called for construction of four schools, but increased construction and site-acquisition costs have caused the district to scale back its plans. The bond now will only provide three schools and an addition of 11 classrooms to an existing school, Brekke said.