YORBA LINDA : School District Agrees to Deal With Shell Oil
The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District has agreed to include a proposed 2,300-home development in its boundaries in exchange for the developer paying for a new elementary school and expansion of existing middle and high schools.
The Shell Oil development site is just north of Yorba Linda city limits, within the Brea Olinda Unified School District boundaries. Yorba Linda expects to annex the 900-acre site, and city officials want children who live in the new development to attend Placentia-Yorba Linda schools.
Brea Olinda school officials have said they support the transfer because it keeps the district’s boundaries consistent with city boundaries.
Placentia-Yorba Linda school officials estimate that the development, expected to be built over the next 10 to 20 years, will house about 1,000 students. To accommodate them, the district wants a new elementary school built within the project, possibly near a park. The agreement also calls for Shell to pay for improving and expanding Yorba Linda Middle School and El Dorado High School.
The total cost of the new school and improvements is estimated by the district to be $14 million.
The agreement between Shell and the district comes after two years of sometimes tense negotiations. At one point, the school board voted to accept the transfer, only to rescind the agreement after contending that Shell backed down from several provisions in the deal.
The new agreement must now be approved by the county Commission for Reorganization and the state Department of Education.
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