OXNARD : School District to Sue City Over Tower

The board of the Rio Elementary School District has decided to sue the city of Oxnard over the development of a 15-story office tower that school officials said could add another 200 students to the already crowded district.

The board voted unanimously late Wednesday to take legal action against the city. The district has already hired a San Francisco attorney to handle the suit.

“This is a very serious matter with us,” Supt. Peter D. Rogalsky said before the meeting. “We’re not acting on a whim.”

The superintendent said the $57-million Tower III project, which was approved by the City Council on Feb. 2, would add 200 students to the 2,800-student district. He said some parents who work in the new tower would probably want to enroll children in nearby schools.

Rogalsky said the district, which has an annual operating budget of $10 million, would need about $4.5 million to build eight new classrooms to house the new students and to provide extra library and food services.

City officials said the district does not have sufficient grounds for a lawsuit. Moreover, the district already collects developer fees to pay for capital improvements, city officials said.

Councilman Michael Plisky said the commercial development will not generate more students, but will instead create hundreds of new jobs that will bolster the local economy. “The tower will not generate babies and students,” he said. “The people are already here. We’re just trying to put them to work.”

Construction on the 300,000-square-foot building, which will be built on seven acres south of the Ventura Freeway near Vineyard Avenue, is not expected to begin for about 18 months.