Wood Ranch Dream Means Nightmare for School : Simi Valley: Bankruptcy ended developer’s plan to build campus in area. And land given to district as part of settlement has no takers.

The students at Madera Elementary School--stuffed into portable trailers and sandwiched into a crowded lunch area--pay every day for a developer’s miscalculation.

A decade ago, when builders pitched the massive Wood Ranch development to Simi Valley officials, they promised a new 500-student elementary school for all the children moving into the new houses. The houses are built, but the school isn’t. And the developer is broke.

The school district managed to get 1,800 acres of land from developer Olympia / Roberts as part of a settlement, and is trying to sell the property and build a school with the proceeds. Officials had hoped to raise about $7.6 million.

But Tuesday, the deadline for bids on the land in the west end of town passed without any offers. The deadline had already been extended from late September, and a foundation formed by the district to sell the property will decide whether to extend it again.

So while the school board and neighbors try to resolve the matter, about 720 students crowd into a school built for about 600.

And residents in surrounding neighborhoods are pitted against each other in a competition for space at the school, which added two new classes and three teachers to accommodate 90 more children this year than last.

The saga began in 1982, when Olympia / Roberts agreed to build a school as part of its development agreement for the Wood Ranch subdivision.

In 1993, the parent company, Olympia & York Developments Ltd., filed for bankruptcy and, as part of a settlement, gave the district 1,800 acres of land to sell or develop in lieu of $6.2 million the developer had planned to put toward the school.

The Simi Valley Unified School District still owns the land and, until it is sold, cannot afford a new school.

Some parents are losing patience.

“My child’s right to an education is being violated,” said Marjorie Napolitano, who has pulled her 6-year-old daughter out of Madera because of the crowding. Napolitano, a former Madera student who grew up in the older neighborhood surrounding the school, now sends her daughter to a private school.

Others, such as Wood Ranch resident Monica Johnson, say such protests are counterproductive. “If you find there’s a problem and your children’s classes are overcrowded, why don’t you come and help instead of complaining about it?” she asked.

Denise Guerrero, who has three children at Madera, does not think that any of her youngsters, including her kindergartner, will ever see the inside of an elementary school in Wood Ranch.

The school was supposed to open last year under the developer’s plans. District officials say the school should open two years after they come up with the money.

“The real question is, could this have been prevented and who didn’t do their job?” Guerrero said. “How is it that so much development has gone on in the west end and somebody hasn’t anticipated a little bit better?”

District officials, in turn, blame the developers and say the district is doing the best it can to sell off the property as quickly as possible.

Assistant Supt. Susan Parks said the student population at Madera would be cut almost in half if Wood Ranch residents had their own school.

“I understand the concerns of those who came to Wood Ranch on the promise of a developer to build a school,” Parks said. “No one anticipated going bankrupt. Other residents, it’s impinged upon them that Madera is ‘their school.’ But Wood Ranch residents are part of the school. Madera is everyone’s school.”

Meanwhile, parents who don’t have the money or desire to send their children to private school have fewer and fewer choices when it comes to an elementary school education in Simi Valley.

Madera, which has one of the best academic records in the district, is obviously too crowded to take any more students. So is Lincoln Elementary School, which is the elementary school closest to Madera.

After pulling her child out of Madera, Napolitano tried in vain to get her into Lincoln. Fed up with that, she pulled her daughter out of the district.

“My daughter is going to have to wait for [a] real estate venture? I don’t think so,” Napolitano said.