School District Agrees on Price for Calabasas Land

The Las Virgenes Unified School District on Friday agreed to pay $3.25 million for land in Calabasas where the district is building a much-needed middle school.

The action taken in closed session by the LVUSD Board of Education settles a yearlong dispute between the district and the owners of the 31-acre parcel over the value of the land.

The owners placed the parcel’s value at $5.75 million; a district-ordered appraisal set the value at $1.25 million.

“We’re pleased we have reached a settlement and are looking forward to moving full steam ahead to provide this school for our students,” district Supt. John Fitzpatrick said.

The new school, which has not been named, will be the third junior high in the 12,100-student district and the second in Calabasas. Grading of the site at Mulholland Highway and Paul Revere Drive began after the district took the property last spring through eminent domain.

The campus, which is expected to be completed by September 2003, will have 35 classrooms, a library and a gymnasium. Enrollment at opening is expected to be 800 students, but the campus’ capacity is 1,000.

The school is sorely needed, officials said, to ease crowding at A.E. Wright Middle School, where 1,700 students attend classes on a campus built for 1,200.