Simi School District Holds Workshop to Discuss Facilities Needs

A field trip Friday made the problems of aging schools painfully obvious: Atherwood’s paint is chipping, and its computers leave a snarled tangle of electrical cords in the library. Simi Elementary’s bathrooms are prone to stoppages, and administrators must put library books in the hallways for lack of classroom space.

Add to that cracked sidewalks, decrepit heating and cooling systems and bathrooms that aren’t always accessible to disabled students. Both schools are well-kempt, trustees agreed, but their facilities cry out for repair.

“Our schools really need to be modernized,” said Assistant Supt. David M. Kanthak during a facilities workshop held Friday after a field trip for school board members. “Of course none of these things are cheap. They’re very expensive items.”

Even with such a nagging need, solutions are tricky: Should the Simi Valley Unified School District sell off surplus property? Add portable classrooms to existing sites? Set aside more money for maintenance? Or tear down closed schools and build anew?

Those are just some of the possibilities raised during a daylong workshop prompted by the school district’s realities: Twenty of the 26 Simi Valley schools are over 30 years old. Enrollment is swinging upward. And smaller class sizes are creating a space crunch.

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Trustees arrived at few firm conclusions during the meeting held at Wood Ranch Conference Center. But they did tell Kanthak to approach a consultant--possibly developer New Urban West--to assess the marketability of some pieces of district property.

Those sites include 36 acres near the Simi Valley Civic Center, four closed schools, the Wood Ranch conference center and the plot that now houses district headquarters.

The five-member panel voiced lukewarm sentiments about the possibility of selling Santa Susana Elementary and the school bus transportation yard, two options that worried parents and employees.

“Selling Santa Susana would be the last thing I would do,” said Trustee Caesar O. Julian.

His colleagues also doubted the viability of selling the transportation yard behind Simi Elementary--which houses the district’s fleet of about 40 buses--and contracting out busing services.

Wedged between a school and houses, the site might not lure many buyers, Kanthak noted.

And contracting out bus services likely would invite a lawsuit from an employees union, Supt. Tate Parker added.

Trustees gave more consideration to selling or moving district headquarters to a 36-acre property at the intersection of Tapo Canyon and Alamo streets, near City Hall and the library.

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Consultant Eric Taylor, a senior vice president of the Van Nuys-based VTN West Inc., said the Tapo-Alamo property would likely fetch the most money as a housing development. But it could also complement the existing Civic Center if a neighborhood shopping area or school district headquarters were added.

An equestrian parcel in the Long Canyon area of the Wood Ranch subdivision could net $200,000 to $500,000 once the last group of houses are built, Taylor estimated. The conference center site could fetch $400,000 if used for housing, or maybe more if used for a riskier venture, such as a restaurant.

Board President Norm Walker suggested that the conference center could earn the most money if it were leased out to businesses.

As a backdrop to discussions, Kanthak presented an unvarnished picture of the condition of schools.

Just to keep schools at their current working condition, the school district will have to shell out $15.4 million over the next five years to replace roofing, flooring, intercoms, telephones, air conditioning, inside and outside paint, paving, plumbing and bleachers, according to estimates.

Of that about $3.1 million a year, the school district currently budgets $125,000 annually. The state kicks in an equal amount each year, leaving a $2.8-million annual shortfall.

Moreover, if a 2% to 3% growth rate continues, the school district will hit a space crunch within the next seven years, Kanthak said. Classroom space will be tight in the upcoming school year because of class-size reduction pressures. Buying 14 portable classrooms and allowing some sixth-graders to shift voluntarily to middle school will solve next year’s problems. In the 1998-99 school year, the new 600-student Wood Ranch Elementary will open, easing facilities pressures.

But in another year, much of that space will be swallowed up by new enrollment, Kanthak said.

“By September of 1999, we’re going to have to do something,” he said. “But we have plenty of time to decide that now.”

Adding the maximum number of portable or permanent classrooms that school sites can fit--55 portable or permanent rooms districtwide--will stave off a space crunch until the 2003-04 school year. Reopening all closed schools would address facilities needs for the foreseeable future, he added.