School District Seeks Return of Museum Land

A search to find space for a fifth high school campus has sparked a lease dispute between the Santa Ana Unified School District and the Discovery Museum.

Faced with booming enrollment and a lack of undeveloped parcels big enough for a high school campus, district officials have targeted a corner of district-owned land in Centennial Park. Most of the park, the largest in Santa Ana, is owned by the city. The school district proposes to build the campus on its land and develop some of the adjacent city land into athletic fields.

The park land is about the only large enough for a school, said Mike Vail, district facilities manager. Plus, he said, building on public land would save the district from having to spend millions to buy new property.

But the district’s plan includes taking back about half the 12 acres it leases, for a nominal sum, to the Discovery Museum, built 17 years ago.

Museum directors have said the school district should honor the 99-year lease agreement, said Sally Sherlock, director of development for the museum.

The property in dispute, on the museum’s back end, includes part of a nature sanctuary; museum officials have said every inch of the land is important because it is one of the few remaining places that gives people a glimpse into the county’s past.

Thousands of schoolchildren visit the museum every year to participate in educational programs that use the grounds to teach them about native plants and animals, gardening and Victorian architecture.

Both the city and the school district will have to hold public hearings on the plan. None have yet been scheduled.