Residents See Hope for a New School

The deal has been a dozen years in the making, but residents and officials were confident enough to celebrate it with a Friday luncheon: The Simi Valley school board has gone on record vowing to build a Wood Ranch elementary school.

With a 5-0 vote earlier in the week, school trustees eased the minds of Wood Ranch homeowners by adopting a resolution that reads, in part, “it is the intent of the Simi Valley Unified School District to construct a new elementary school in Wood Ranch.”

“That’s an important assurance to give to the members of the community,” many of whom feared that a school for the growing subdivision would never come to fruition, said Jacquie Richardson, a board member of the school district’s Foundation for Educational Excellence, a group established to handle Wood Ranch property owned by the school district.

The Wood Ranch saga began in 1982, when developers agreed to build a school for the 4,000 homes planned for the property in Simi Valley’s southwest corner. Eleven years later, Olympia/Roberts, the parent company of the original Wood Ranch developer, filed bankruptcy after building many of the homes but without starting the school.

In lieu of the $6.2 million promised for school construction, Olympia/Roberts gave the undeveloped land to the school district.

Developer New Urban West Inc. picked up the ball in April, expressing interest in purchasing the land from the school district for more than $6 million. If city leaders approve their plans, New Urban West would construct 652 homes on the site. With the revenue from the land sale, the school district would finally build the school, needed to ease crowding at nearby Madera Elementary.

Although the resolution is not legally binding, school board President Judy Barry said it shows a firm commitment to building a school. “This time, it’s really going to happen,” she said.

The school board also signed on to a tentative timeline for the 500-student school’s construction. An architect will be hired next month, and New Urban West is slated to pay the school district $3.1 million in January. The new school could open by September 1998.