2 Leased Sites May Be Reconverted to Schools

In an effort to ease overcrowding, accommodate reduced class sizes and postpone implementation of year-round schools, the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education will consider opening two of its leased school sites when it holds its regular meeting tonight.

Pending board approval, Skylark School, 11250 MacMurray St., will open with 308 students bused from the overcrowded Heritage Elementary School this fall, and Simmons School, 11602 Steele Drive, will reopen in September 1998.

To make way for the conversion back to public schools, a lease with the county Head Start program won’t be renewed at Skylark, and a special-education program at Simmons will be forced to relocate next year.

District spokesman Alan Trudell said continued growth in the district, a commitment to class-size reductions in first through third grades, and parents’ objections to the controversial “triad” program proposed earlier this year have led to the recommendation.

“The purpose is to relieve overcrowding. The recommendation is to move students by bus from the eastern part of the district to these schools in the north-central part,” Trudell said.

Students currently bused to Heritage Elementary are expected to be transferred to the new Skylark school.

It is expected to cost more than $720,000 to switch Skylark, which has accommodated a Head Start program, back to a public school facility.

If the board agrees to opening the schools, it will bring to 45 the number of elementary schools in the district.

The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. in the school district office boardroom, 10331 Stanford Ave.

A parent information night for those affected by the change is planned for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Heritage School Multipurpose Room, 426 S. Andres Place in Santa Ana.