LOS ALAMITOS : Oak Middle School to Reopen in Fall

Oak Middle School will reopen in September, trustees of Los Alamitos Unified School District said this week, despite uncertainty about where to find the $3.1 million necessary to renovate the school.

“We’re excited and terrified at the same time,” school board President Donna Artukovic said Monday. “But we have to take the first steps to make it happen.”

Artukovic said the district is still considering various financing options for the school renovation, but it was necessary to make the announcement Monday to “let the community know about our intentions.”

The school was closed in 1986 because of declining enrollment, but district officials say it must be reopened to relieve congestion at the district’s only other middle school, McAuliffe, which has more than 1,700 students.

Oak Middle School will take in 400 to 600 students, Assistant Supt. David Hatton said. The school board will decide attendance boundaries for the two middle schools Feb. 21, based on the study of a 21-member citizen panel formed last year.

Sixth- and seventh-graders attending McAuliffe and living in the Oak attendance area will be allowed to choose which of the schools to attend, Hatton said.

Last year, the school district decided to sell the 9.1-acre Weaver Elementary School site in Rossmoor, which was closed in 1983, for $8 million to finance Oak’s reopening.

But residents opposed the sale, contending that the school site might be needed in the future. District officials were forced to consider options, including the sale of Laurel Park for $3.1 million to the city of Los Alamitos, which leases the 4.5-acre park for $1 a year.