SANTA PAULA : 2 Schools May Get Landmark Status

The Santa Paula Planning Commission will consider proposals tonight to designate Isbell Middle School and Barbara Webster School historical landmarks.

Both of the Spanish colonial-style schools were built in the mid-1920s, Assistant City Planner Jeffrey W. Hamilton said.

If the seven-member Planning Commission approves the schools as city and county historic landmarks, any future renovation would have to be approved by city officials, he said.

“The designation is to make sure the historic character is not damaged,” Hamilton said.

Isbell Middle School, the district’s only school for grades six through eight, and the elementary school, a computer technology and science magnet school, would become the city’s third and fourth schools to be designated historic landmarks.

McKevett School and Santa Paula Union High School are already city and county historic landmarks, Hamilton said. The Little Red Schoolhouse, a one-room school on the outskirts of eastern Santa Paula, is on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, he said.

Commissioners, acting as the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, will vote on the proposals after separate public hearings. The commission will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers.