YORBA LINDA : Council Resurrects High School Issue

The City Council once more raised the issue of building a high school in the city, this time with the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Trustees at a joint meeting earlier this week.

Following up on a campaign theme that helped elect two new council members--Barbara Kiley and Daniel T. Welch--last November, the council claimed there was a need and a demand for a high school in a city of 55,000 residents.

But Superintendent James O. Fleming and members of his staff said there was no evidence of the need for a new high school. They pointed to declining enrollment throughout the district, particularly at several east Yorba Linda elementary schools.

They also claimed that building a high school would increase the district’s operating cost up to $1.5 million a year without increasing its funding. Such a move, Fleming said, would compromise the quality of education districtwide.

The meeting was planned for council members and trustees to discuss common concerns, such as busing and graffiti, but much of the time was dominated by the high school issue.

Most of the high school students living in Yorba Linda attend Esperanza High in Anaheim. Some students also attend Troy High School in Fullerton, but beginning next school year, they will go to El Dorado High School in Placentia.

Several council members said Esperanza High School, with its enrollment of 2,400 students, is too large. They are concerned that as the east side of town continues to grow, enrollment will climb even higher.

Calling Esperanza a “monster high school that is only going to get bigger,” Mayor John M. Gullixson said that residents of the east portion of the city want another, smaller high school.

“A big school caters to the superstar,” Gullixson said. “The problem is, most of our kids aren’t superstars.”

Building another high school would create more opportunities for students to participate in after-school activities such as athletic teams, Gullixson said.

Fleming said the percentage of students who participate in extracurricular activities is about the same at all three of the district’s high schools.

“Esperanza has more diverse club programs because of its size,” Fleming said. “The education is as good and is very effective.”

The district has set Esperanza’s capacity at 2,600 without any major changes in scheduling or additions to the facility. According to Mike Bailey, director of facilities and planning, the schools could accommodate up to 3,000 students by adding portable classrooms.

While he acknowledged that large schools have some inherent problems, such as the difficulty for teachers to know all their students, Fleming said splitting Esperanza’s enrollment in half would raise costs and diminish the quality of education throughout the district.