Property Sales Will Help Fountain Valley Schools

Fountain Valley School District trustees have given top priority to upgrading school security systems, covering lunch areas and buying new lockers with money from recent sales of surplus property.

“Now there’s the opportunity to implement some of these [projects],” Board of Trustees President Julie Hoxsie said Thursday.

Trustees made a priority list of school needs, recommended by the district’s task force of parents, teachers and administrators.

Other projects that the board set as high priorities include adapting facilities for new technology, installing air conditioning at schools and improving science lab facilities.

Hoxsie said the extra money--totaling more than $11 million--will bring the district “back to the standards we should have never had to fall [from], but in lean years, we’ve had to cut.”

The district recently sold one surplus site, the former John B. Bushard Elementary School, for about $4.5 million. About $1 million of that money has been earmarked to add six classrooms at Samuel E. Talbert Middle School and four classrooms at Harry C. Fulton Middle School to ease overcrowding. Another $1.5 million is proposed for deferred maintenance projects, such as painting schools, making roof repairs and adding air-conditioning systems to classrooms.

“Deferred maintenance needs have been put on hold for so long. You just don’t want your schools to be in disrepair,” Hoxsie said.

The district anticipates receiving about $7 million in November from the sale of the former James O. Harper Elementary School. That money also will be spent on school maintenance projects and capital improvements.

In June, the board is expected to hire a consultant to assist in devising a five-year spending plan for improvements.

“We want to make sure this money is spent responsibly and in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible,” Hoxsie said.