HUNTINGTON BEACH : $25.5-Million Need Seen for New Schools

Huntington Beach City School District officials should look for ways to come up with about $25.5 million for new schools to meet a surge in enrollment expected to continue until the year 2002, according to a consultant’s report.

About 12,000 new homes in the district will add some 3,000 school-aged children over the next decade, according to the report by Community Systems Associates Inc. of Tustin. The report, which school trustees received earlier this month, said the district’s enrollment of 5,656 is expected to climb to 8,636 by 2002.

The report recommended that the district construct three new elementary schools and convert--at a cost of about $3 million--a closed elementary school into a middle school.

One of the new schools, Huntington Seacliff Elementary, is scheduled to open in September, 1994. The developer, Seacliff Partners, will pay up to $15 million in fees for its construction.

Most of the enrollment growth is occurring in new developments west of Beach Boulevard. But most of the district’s eight schools are located in the eastern part of the city, where declining enrollment forced officials to close four schools, beginning in 1979.

Schools Supt. Duane Dishno said that the district should opt for construction of new schools in the area of growth. Renovating and reopening closed schools in the eastern part of the city would require busing children, a costly expense, he said.

Dishno said a new 79-passenger bus costs $100,000, with an additional $44,000 needed to operate it annually.

The Community Systems report said that building three new schools and converting a closed school into a middle school would cost about $56.3 million, while the district would have about $30.8 million at its disposal.

As a top source for funds, the district should urge that developers of new housing projects pay the full cost of school construction, according to the report.

Next, the district should apply for state funding to help finance construction, the report said.

And if that proves insufficient, the district should go to the voters in the district and seek a general obligation bond election, the report said. The final recommendation would be for the district to sell off its four closed school sites.

Board President Brian F. Garland said the district should make a decision on which funding avenues to pursue after the Nov. 3 election.