YORBA LINDA : Parents Raise Funds for School Facility

When students at Yorba Linda Middle School have a rally or an assembly, they gather outside and sit on the cement. On rainy days, students spend their physical education period packed in the library. And back-to-school nights, plays, musical performances and other evening activities are held in other schools’ facilities or at an oil company’s auditorium in Brea.

Without an auditorium or a gymnasium, Yorba Linda Middle School cannot even honor its top students at the site of their achievement. Instead, that event is held at El Dorado High School in Placentia.

But thanks in part to the efforts of a small group of parents, the school is slowly moving closer to having a facility of its own.

After one year of raising money, the Yorba Linda Middle School Multipurpose/Sports Facility Committee has raised $20,000. According to Judy Kelly, president of the committee, the money has been raised through yard sales, restaurant fund-raisers and donations from area businesses.

More important than the money raised has been the increased awareness of the need for a facility, said Kim Stallings, assistant superintendent for administrative services for the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District.

“The parents have helped raise community awareness and networked with other schools in the district,” Stallings said. “The (Yorba Linda) City Council is aware there is a group of parents (interested in a facility), which is a very positive influence.”

Influencing the council is vital because without its financial support, the facility has little chance of being built anytime soon. The district does not have any funds earmarked for the facility and the parents committee has little hope of raising all the funds for the project--estimated to be at least $2 million.

The best hope for a multipurpose facility is if the city and school district enter into a joint-use agreement. Such an agreement would give the school use of the facility during school hours, with the community having access in the evenings and on weekends.

The city and school district would also share the cost of the project.

“The city’s cooperation is needed because they can (help) bear the cost of construction,” Stallings said. “We don’t see the (parents committee) as being able to bear that whole burden now, and the district isn’t in the position to bear the cost wholly.”

Even if the district did have the money to finance the entire project, Stallings said, he would still prefer a joint-use arrangement. It is an efficient way to meet the needs of the school and the community and is the best use of tax dollars, he said. The school is the only middle or junior high school in the district without a multipurpose facility.

“It makes no sense for us to build a facility and the city to build a facility that would duplicate services,” Stallings said.

The city recently approved a contract for a community center just north of the school, but the new building will not include facilities the school needs most: a gymnasium and auditorium.

According to Steve Rudometkin, parks and recreation director for the city, discussions with the district have not advanced past preliminary discussions of the concept of a joint-use agreement.

The city’s other gymnasium is in the Travis Ranch Activity Center, a joint-use facility at Travis Ranch Elementary School. In that agreement, the school has use of the facility from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on school days and receives exclusive use of the facility on 15 nights, which it schedules at the beginning of the school year. The city has use of the facility from 5 to 10 p.m. and on weekends.