ANAHEIM : District Opposes 10-Unit Project

The Anaheim City School District is opposing the construction of a 10-unit condominium complex downtown, saying the area’s school is already overcrowded and cannot take the four additional students it expects to live in the complex.

The City Council is scheduled to vote tonight, after a public hearing, on whether to approve the project, which developer Effat Youssef wants to build on Helena Street, just south of Broadway.

Young children who live there would normally be assigned to Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, about a block away, but Supt. Meliton Lopez said they might have to be bused elsewhere.

“We cannot guarantee that we will have any space for these children,” Lopez said. “We might be forced to send them to a school three or four miles away, and that would mean a bus ride.”

Carolyn Johnson, Franklin’s principal, said her school had 620 students four years ago but 800 today.

“We’ve had a significant amount of growth in such a short period of time,” she said. “We have added three temporary classrooms this year and several teachers, but I’d say we are close to being a full school.”

In a December letter to the city opposing the complex, Maria-Elena Romero, the district’s director of strategic planning, said all 21 of the district’s schools are overcrowded, which has caused nine schools, including Franklin, to be placed on year-round schedules.

“While we understand the need for more apartments in Anaheim, we would urge you to consider the fact that if this project is approved, children living there cannot be adequately housed (at Franklin),” Romero wrote. She was out of town Monday and unavailable for comment.

The district estimate that the project will mean four new students for Franklin is based on the Anaheim average of two elementary-age children per five condominium units.

Youssef declined to comment Monday.

Anaheim City School District, as well as the other five districts with schools in the city, have complained to the council in the past about projects, although they have rarely complained about a project this small. In November, Lopez appeared before the council and asked that it not to approve a 108-unit apartment building. But the council unanimously approved the project.

Officials at the Anaheim City School District, which has 14,900 students, say they would need to build five new 700-student schools at a cost of more than $90 million to eliminate overcrowding. The district has applied to the state for funding, but officials expect a wait of at least five years before that money is available.

The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.