Simi Trustees to Evaluate School Property for Possible Sale

Hoping to sell surplus property for profit, Simi Valley school trustees will tour district facilities and talk about what to put on the market at a daylong meeting Friday.

Selling excess land and buildings is a viable way to raise money to fix aging schools, according to a memo written by David M. Kanthak, assistant superintendent for business services. Twenty of Simi Valley’s 26 schools are at least 30 years old.

Among the properties Kanthak, in a March 14 memo, recommended for sale are:

* Santa Susana Elementary School on Apricot Road, adjacent to the city’s redevelopment area. It could be replaced by razing the closed Belwood school and building a new elementary.

* The 10-plus-acre site of the school district headquarters on Cochran Street, which will become prime real estate property once Cochran is extended from 1st Street to Madera Road during the construction of a “big box” shopping center.

* The two-plus-acre transportation yard south of Simi Elementary on School Street, including 120,000 square feet of office and storage space.

* A 36-acre property at Tapo and Alamo streets that could fetch a handsome price because it is in the city’s redevelopment area.

* Two of the district’s four shuttered elementary schools, all of which need repair.

It is not clear how much money could be earned by selling properties, Kanthak said.

Some parents and district employees already are girding to fight the potential sale of Santa Susana and the transportation center.

The Friday workshop will begin at 9 a.m. with a tour of district facilities. After a lunch break, trustees will discuss their options between 1 and 4 p.m.

The tour will leave from, and the workshop will take place at, the Wood Ranch Conference Center, 222 Country Club Drive. The conference center, set on two woodsy acres, may be put up for sale as well.