Neighbors Protest Proposed New High School : Oxnard: Residents say the campus would bring gangs, drugs, crime, graffiti and traffic, and push down property values.

Fear that juvenile delinquents would vandalize nearby neighborhoods and force down property values prompted about 50 residents Wednesday night to protest the proposed location of a new Oxnard high school.

Led by Christopher and Patty Kingsley, two Ventura special-education teachers who live in the nearby Summerfield tract, the neighbors told the Oxnard Union High School District board that the district should find an alternative to the site at Gonzales and Patterson roads, just west of the city limits.

“It’s definitely going to bring down the neighborhood,” said Elaine Siebers, also a Summerfield resident. “This is like throwing up a nuclear plant to me.”

Several other residents told the school board the old Oxnard High School is a good, structurally sound facility that is not threatened by planes at nearby Oxnard Airport.

The existing Oxnard High School at 5th and K streets was declared a safety hazard by state officials because it is beneath the flight path of Oxnard Airport, said Robert Brown, the district’s business manager.

The state, which ranks the new Oxnard High School as a top priority for funding, has agreed to provide $20 million for construction from an $800-million bond issue approved in November, he said.

The district would have to pay for the land and some other expenses. It is not known how much the land will cost.

The 50-acre Gonzales Road site was one of two recommended last year by a school board committee from a preliminary list of 20 properties. The district has not yet purchased the land, but the board has already approved building plans that are being reviewed by the state.

The Oxnard City Council recommended the Gonzales site last summer and changed the city’s General Plan to allow it, Brown said. The council plans to annex the property to the city.

The Graham family, which owns the acreage, was notified this week that the school district intends to condemn the property for public use.

Ag-Land Services, which wants to build 800 houses across Gonzales Road from the new school, has offered to reimburse the district for the 50 acres in exchange for City Council approval of its project, Brown said.

The Kingsleys organized a hasty grass-roots protest last month after learning that the new school would probably be built near their home. They appealed for support from residents of Oxnard’s Summerfield, River Ridge and Strawberry Fields subdivisions, where home costs range from $250,000 to $500,000.

In a flyer distributed to more than 800 residences, the couple said a high school would attract gangs, drugs, crime, graffiti and traffic, and push down property values.

The school board Wednesday night released a preliminary study on the environmental effects of the proposed new school.

The study says the impact on traffic, noise, drainage and air quality would not be significant enough to require a more complete study.

The school district plans to hold a public hearing on the issue at 7 p.m. on Jan. 24.

District officials hope to start construction of the school, which would accommodate 2,400 students, the next school year, and complete it for the 1993-94 year.