ORANGE : District Postpones Vote on New School

After hearing angry testimony from Anaheim Hills parents, Orange Unified School District trustees agreed this week to postpone setting a special election that would ask voters to approve combining funds originally earmarked to build two schools and construct only one.

Instead, trustees on Thursday voted 4 to 3 to form a committee to work with parents on the matter.

District planning staff had recommended that Orange Unified mingle funds from two special tax districts established in 1989 to fund construction of Canyon Rim and Weir Canyon elementary schools, which were to serve the Summit, Sycamore Canyon and Highlands neighborhoods.

Frank Remkiewicz, district director of planning, said neither of the two Mello-Roos tax districts hold enough money to complete a school, and because the population of school-age children in the area is lower than projected, only one site is necessary now.

The district plan would move $4.3 million from the Canyon Rim fund to cover the $5 million to $6 million needed to build the Weir Canyon school. Construction of Canyon Rim school would have been postponed indefinitely under the plan.

But scores of parents from the Highlands neighborhood turned out Thursday to oppose the plan. They challenged district estimates on population and construction costs and said that they had not been consulted about a change in plans for their local school.

Remkiewicz said that two community meetings had been held, and that while Canyon Rim was to serve Highlands children, taxpayers in that neighborhood had not contributed to the Mello-Roos fund and thus had not been initially consulted about the proposal to combine the funds.

Board President Barry Resnick, citing other recent turbulence within the district, interrupted the parents’ presentation and said he was frustrated that unhappy parents have confronted the board at every recent meeting.

“I think it’s our responsibility to sit down with all of you, even if it takes all seven of us” on the board, Resnick said. “I’m really tired of having this week after week. . . . It’s different issues, but it’s the same anger.”

Highlands parent Sheri Flynn said she was “thrilled” by the board’s decision.

“This is much better than I ever expected,” Flynn said. “I think if (the board members) listen to the facts the staff is presenting, they’ll see they are full of holes.”