YORBA LINDA : Mayor’s Resolution Urges New Schools

Mayor John M. Gullixson fired the latest round in his battle to compel the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to build more schools in the city.

Earlier this week he released a proposed resolution that criticizes several policies he says the district follows. It also says that the city, by virtue of having the most students in the district, wields significant financial and political clout with the district.

The resolution claims that district policy on busing students from Yorba Linda to “empty schools in Placentia” adversely affects Yorba Linda children. Gullixson also criticizes what he says is a district policy to not build more schools in Yorba Linda.

“The Placentia (Yorba Linda) Unified School District has, in recent history, promoted the concept that it would not build more schools in Yorba Linda and would bus the children of Yorba Linda to empty schools in Placentia when the limited Yorba Linda facilities are full,” the mayor’s resolution reads.

Supt. James O. Fleming said the district does not have a policy against building more schools in Yorba Linda and pointed to a proposed elementary school in the north Fairmont area.

“That is not a district position,” Fleming said. “It is hard to listen to that rhetoric when the district has built two schools (Bryant Ranch and Travis Ranch) in Yorba Linda in the last six years.”

Gullixson’s resolution, which was not discussed or acted upon at Tuesday’s council meeting, follows a meeting last week between the City Council and the district’s Board of Trustees. At that meeting, Gullixson said a high school was needed in Yorba Linda to provide more students an opportunity to participate in after-school activities.

Esperanza High School in Anaheim, which most of Yorba Linda’s high school students attend, has an enrollment of 2,400, the ninth largest in the county. Several council members said the enrollment size was too large to adequately serve the students.

Yorba Linda has about 9,700 students in the five-city, 22,000-student district. The city, through its Redevelopment Agency, also contributes a significant amount of money to the district’s building fund.

Gullixson supports attaching conditions to any further money the city gives to the school district, such as requiring that additional school facilities be built.

“Yorba Linda has 60% of the vote and 60% of the financial impact, but we have less than 40% of the facilities,” the mayor said.

He asked the council to look at his proposed resolution and suggest additions or changes to the contents.