Plans to Move School Affirmed Over Complaints

Despite complaints from some residents, school district officials won’t break an 11-year-old lease for Rossier School, saying that legal ramifications could cost the district up to $10 million.

Terry Cantrell, president of the Garden Grove Unified School District, said that while the board is sympathetic to the safety, traffic and security concerns of residents near the school’s leased site, “What they’re asking for is a lawsuit worth millions of dollars.”

Rossier, a private school for special-education students, must move from its Simmons School location because the district needs the space. It plans to move to Garden Park School on Springdale Street and Stanford Avenue, where it has a lease, by June 30, but neighbors of Garden Park have protested.

After more than three hours of contentious debate Tuesday night, board members said federal law requires them to follow the terms of the lease.

“If we broke the lease and it’s proven discriminatory, we can be sued not only by Rossier but by every parent with kids in the school and every school district with kids in the school,” Cantrell said. “I’m an attorney, and while I don’t specialize in this, I know it’s a slam-dunk.”

The school’s students fall under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Cantrell said violations of that law are similar to civil rights violations.

District officials plan to meet with residents, the school operator and city representatives within 10 days in an effort to reach a compromise.