SIMI VALLEY : School Board to Ask City for $6 Million

Simi Valley city and school officials will meet today to discuss a school district request for $6 million to build a new stadium at Royal High School and new gyms at three junior high schools.

Mayor Greg Stratton and Councilwoman Judy Mikels will meet with school board members Judy Barry and Ken Ashton at 5:30 p.m. in the City Council conference room to work out preliminary details of the proposal.

The council, acting as the Community Development Agency Board of Directors, will then officially consider the proposal at its June 1 meeting.

The Simi Valley Unified School District hopes to build a $3.1-million stadium at Royal High School, and gyms at Sequoia, Sinaloa and Valley View junior high schools, each of which would cost $2.5 million. Hillside, the city’s other junior high school, would get about $850,000 for a new multipurpose room.

Even with $6 million in city redevelopment funds, the district would still need to come up with about $5 million to complete the projects on its list. Barry said some of the money could possibly come from the district’s surplus property funds and developer fees. But she said the schools would need donations from the community to make up the difference.

“I would like to see it be a community project,” she said. “It helps bring a community together.”

The district now receives about $300,000 a year from the city’s Community Development Agency.

The district turned to the agency after voters defeated an $8-million bond measure for the sports facilities three years ago.