School Officials Might Sell 1,800 Acres in Wood Ranch : Simi Valley: Board will discuss possible sale of land that it gained after developer failed to build campus.

Simi Valley school officials are considering selling rather than developing 1,800 acres in Wood Ranch acquired after the developer of the sprawling community failed to come through with a promised elementary school.

School officials had discussed forming joint agreements with developers to build housing on the 620 vacant lots and split the profit from their sale. But after some large investors expressed interest in buying the land, officials decided to see how much money a sale would bring, Supt. Mary Beth Wolford said.

A committee of residents and public officials has recommended trying to sell the land for no less than $12 million based on an independent developer’s analysis of its current value, Wolford said. The Simi Valley school board is scheduled Tuesday to review the plan.

“We’re just, you might say, testing the waters,” Wolford said. “We would be very pleased to receive that amount for this property and proceed in a timely manner with building of the school.”

Wood Ranch parents are anxious to get the 500-student elementary school they had believed would be built to serve the 3,000-acre community southeast of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, resident Marybeth Jacobsen said.

“The school district is not by nature a property manager, and I can’t fault them for trying to sell the property assuming they can receive enough money to build our school,” Jacobsen said.

If the move is approved by the school board Tuesday, the school district would market the property for 60 days with ads in national publications, Wolford said.

“It does take a really major investor to be interested in something like this,” she said.

Under the committee’s recommendation, the district would accept written bids until 2:30 p.m. June 7. At 3 p.m., the bids would be opened and last-minute oral bids would also be accepted, Wolford said. If no investor bids $12 million or higher, the school district could accept a lower bid, she said.

Don Otto, who served on the 11-member committee that made the recommendation, said the panel agreed that the district would be well-served to receive twice as much from selling the land as it would cost to build the school.

“The original deal was for a $6-million school, but the district got all this land instead,” Otto said. “There’s still a desire for the school to be built.”

Officials had expected to open the long-planned Wood Ranch School in the fall to ease crowding at Madera School, already at capacity with more than 700 children.

But developer Olympia/Roberts could not come up with the money it agreed to pay for the new school. That original deal was part of a complex arrangement with city and school officials that allowed the developer to start building a mini-city.

Olympia/Roberts first encountered problems with Wood Ranch when its parent company, Olympia & York Developments Ltd., filed for court protection under Canadian bankruptcy laws last year.

Once the district comes up with money for a new school, it would take two years to build, officials said.

In the interim, officials plan to use five existing buildings on a slice of land included in the deal for a temporary elementary school. The converted residences and cottages could house 120 students from kindergarten through third grade.