Santa Ana District Takes 2 Campuses Off Building List

The Santa Ana Unified School District will scale back its plan to build 11 elementary schools because of rising costs, but officials said they can still meet capacity targets by increasing the size of the campuses to be built.

Despite a $145-million construction bond that passed in 1999 and an expected $185 million in state matching funds, the district lacks the money to build all the schools that were planned, district board president John Palacio said Wednesday.

The district expects to cut two elementary schools from the list and will increase the capacity of the nine remaining campuses from 650 to 850.

“What we can do with 11,” Palacio said, “we can still do with nine.”

The announcement came during a board meeting Tuesday at which trustees were updated about the progress of construction projects tied to funds from Measure C.

Santa Ana voters approved the bond initiative three years ago.

The district is expected to break ground on two high schools this fall as planned.

But district officials said they have been hampered by rising construction costs, a scarcity of land in the city and time-consuming state requirements.

It takes months for the state to approve applications for matching funds, Palacio said, and recent changes in environmental guidelines for school sites have made it more difficult to find suitable land.

“The bureaucracy is killing us,” he said.

“In the meantime, the price of property is going up.”

When Measure C was passed, the local real estate market had experienced a downturn, but in recent years a heated real estate market has driven up property prices and construction costs, officials said.

Critics have alleged the board has not acted quickly enough on the projects and is paying too much to consultants, including Los Angeles-based project manager Del Terra Real Estate Services Inc.

The company will receive 2.5% of the estimated $330 million worth of Measure C projects.

The pay, district officials said, is well below prevailing market rates.

Nonetheless, board member Nadia Davis last month called for an independent assessment of the Del Terra contract after some district officials received an anonymous letter alleging political payback.

Schools Supt. Al Mijares said Wednesday he had been aware of the letter before Davis’ request.

He said he took the letter to the Orange County Department of Education’s legal counsel in March and that an outside lawyer has been hired to evaluate the Del Terra contract.

Mijares said other districts that have passed bond measures in recent years also have had to reevaluate their projects because of rising costs.

“We knew from the start that Measure C was not going to meet all of our needs, but we had to start somewhere,” he said.

“The negative, of course, is you are going to put more kids in each school,” Mijares said, “but 850 is a good number, it is not considered excessive,” and is below average for the district.

Palacio predicted all projects will be completed within five years. Earlier this month, the district declared eminent domain on a lot near the Santa Ana Freeway for an elementary school.

The district will get land in the closed Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, but that 22 acres will be enough for one school, grades kindergarten through eight.