Ocean View schools form committee to assess what to do with surplus properties

The Ocean View School District has formed a district advisory group, better known as a 7-11 Committee, which will offer advice to the school board on what to do with property deemed surplus.

The 7-11 Committee is so named because of the number of volunteers chosen to serve. Eleven people were randomly selected from community applicants at Tuesday night’s OVSD board meeting.

Based on the California education code, a 7-11 Committee must be formed before a school district can sell or lease excess real estate property. This committee will look at 26 district-owned schools and sites, mostly in Huntington Beach but also Star View in Midway City, Vista View in Fountain Valley and Westmont in Westminster.

Board of Trustees Vice President Patricia Singer was board president last year when the district was dealing with possible school consolidations.

“The 7-11 is just so that we can really look at different options of how to address the decline in enrollment and budgetary issues,” Singer said Wednesday. “Though we do have a very healthy budget, in the out years it is something that we know that we need to start kind of getting ahead of and addressing it. This is one of the layers that we promised the community that we, as the Board of Trustees, would consider ... for options to potentially create some revenue.”

Volunteer selections were based on seven categories to include groups such as teachers, administrators, parents, land owners or renters and members of the business community, as well as four at-large members. Steve Letcher, Darian Radac, Jason McEwan, Tanysia Sanchez, Carey Harelson, Alana Cooper, Stephanie Green, Keeley Pratt, Scott Chambers, Ellen Riley and Casey Harelson were the names chosen at random.

The Ocean View School District has been seeking ways to combat an ongoing drop in enrollment. Last fall, the Board of Trustees voted against closing Golden View, Circle View and Village View elementary schools. Spring View Middle School was consolidated, and the plan is to relocate those students to the district’s other three middle schools and move the district office to the Spring View site.

Aaralyn Esquivel, a fourth-grade student from Golden View Elementary, hands a plant to Ocean View School District President Patricia Singer during a board meeting last November.

(James Carbone)

However, that decision could also be under review by the 7-11 Committee, Singer said.

“This is kind of putting everything on the table and going from there,” she said.

Board clerk Gina Clayton-Tarvin, a past president who was first elected in 2012, said the district brings in about $2.3 million annually from ground leases. That includes the Rancho View land where Lowe’s is located on Warner Avenue, and the Crest View land where Walmart is located on Beach Boulevard.

She said she’s against selling any district land but would be interested in more possible ground leases.

“Ground leases are leases that can run you from 40 to 60 years, they’re ongoing revenue streams and they keep the ownership of the property within the taxpayers’ hands,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “I think it’s the most effective way to handle having excess or surplus property.”

Green, who served as Ocean View Little League president from 2010 to 2013, also was a member of the district’s last 7-11 Committee that was formed in 2015 following an asbestos crisis.

“I’m hoping to bring that knowledge to the new 7-11 Committee as well and be able to ask the right questions,” she said. “I think a lot of people don’t understand how the schools can leverage the property that they currently have.”

District Supt. Michael Conroy said the 7-11 Committee will hold its first meeting on May 1. After a report is presented, the Board of Trustees will have final approval on any recommendations.