Sweeping Reorganization Plan Seeks to End School Debate : Education: The $10-million proposal calls for a new building, closing two sites and construction of condominiums to generate money for the district.

A six-year debate about what the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District should do with its underutilized schools and property in the Ocean Park area of Santa Monica may finally be on the verge of resolution.

A $10-million plan recommended to the school board last week by Supt. Eugene Tucker calls for an extensive reorganization of schools and child-care centers on the district’s four parcels of land in Ocean Park, including construction of an elementary school, the closing of two other school sites, and development of condominiums on parts of two parcels to generate income for the district.

The proposed school, designed for 660 students and expected to cost $7.5 million, would be built at Los Amigos Park, a 5.6-acre parcel of district land at 6th Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.

The school would accommodate students from John Muir Elementary School, which has about 300 students, and from the Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH), which has an enrollment of about 150. SMASH, noted for a variety of experimental approaches to education, would be preserved as a separate entity at the new site, district officials said.

About half of Los Amigos Park would remain open space, with athletic fields for school and public use. Tucker said the overall plan for the four sites entails no net loss of open space.

The school could be ready in three years.

The reorganization plan got a boost last fall, when voters approved a $75-million bond issue for capital improvements. A steering committee made up of parents, teachers and community activists studied the educational needs of the area, solicited public comments and came up with a plan that Tucker described as a compromise.

“The trade-off is some development,” Tucker said. “Otherwise we couldn’t build a school. I don’t expect unanimous support, but there is a strong base of support for this compromise plan.”

Under the plan, the district would sell a chunk of land at the north end of the John Muir site, at Lincoln and Ocean Park boulevards, and one of the two parcels on opposite sides of 4th Street at Ashland Avenue. Those two sites are referred to as Washington West, occupied by SMASH, and Washington East, leased to two private day-care operations.

Under the plan, an 88-unit condominium project would be built at the John Muir site, generating an estimated $4.2 million for the district. A smaller condominium project would be built at one of the 4th Street sites.

District officials said the reorganization plan offers solutions to a variety of problems. The school district is operating well below its peak enrollment of the 1970s, and has many facilities that don’t meet its needs.

Also, the aging buildings at the Ocean Park sites would have required extensive renovation to remain in service as school buildings. Classrooms in John Muir and SMASH are too small. The SMASH building “is ancient and should be torn down,” said board member Peggy Lyons.

Last year, UCLA considered moving its prestigious teaching laboratory, the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School, into the district. The school would have served students in the John Muir attendance area. But the proposal was strongly opposed by a group of parents and faculty members at the UCLA school, and was abandoned early this year.

Tucker said the plan he presented to the school board is largely based on what the steering committee produced. A major change that Tucker made is adding the condominium development on one of the 4th Street sites.

The John Muir site will become a long-term home for two district programs--adult education and independent study. The latter program, which started this year, is housed in temporary bungalows at the closed Madison Elementary school.

Under the plan, two child-care programs will have to move. The district’s Child Development Center, with its preschool and administrative offices, and the Girls Club of Santa Monica are at the Los Amigos site. Both would move to the Washington West site. The privately operated Westside Children’s Center, also at Los Amigos, will have to find a new home.

The two privately operated child-care programs that lease space at the Washington East site--Parents and Infants Caring Center Inc. and the Growing Place--probably won’t be required to move, district officials said.

SMASH Principal Betty Glass said she is concerned about her school’s ability to retain its separate character at a new location, but agreed that the move is necessary. The existing building is so old that whole sections of wiring are rotted out, she said, “it will be nice to have plugs that actually work.”

SMASH started in 1972 for children with special educational needs, whether they had learning disabilities, behavioral problems, or were above average, Glass said. The school, which runs from kindergarten through eighth grade, is held to the same standards as the rest of the district but employs an innovative teaching style that tries to model democratic society. Teachers use a non-authoritarian approach and emphasize personality development, social skills and problem solving.

School board members will hold a public workshop Monday to discuss the plan at the board’s office, 1651 16th St., Santa Monica, at 7:30 p.m.

“I think it’s going to work,” said board member Lyons. “This could revitalize the whole school situation in Ocean Park.”