Orange District Board Votes to Shut 4 Schools

Facing a crowd of nearly 1,000 residents, the Orange Unified School District Board voted 4 to 3 Thursday night to close four elementary schools at the end of the school year.

The board voted to close Panorama in Crawford Canyon, Jordan in Orange, Riverdale in Anaheim and Villa Park elementary schools. The decision will require the reassignment of about 1,289 students, and is expected to save the district about $500,000 annually.

The vote to close the schools drew scattered applause from the audience in the Orange High School gym, but most of those attending clearly opposed the action.

The board narrowly endorsed the recommendation of Supt. Kenneth Brummel, who cited declining enrollment, school facilities, potential growth, the reports of advisory committees and--of greatest importance, he said--the financial condition of the school system.

“The choice you have is clear, but admittedly one which will not please everyone,” Brummel told the board.

Moments after he had said he still had not made up his mind, board member Milton D. Jensen cast the final yes vote.

Board member William Steiner voted against closing the schools. He said he had some “very strong reasons for keeping each of the schools open.”

“In a $77-million budget, I can’t imagine that there isn’t room for some sort of compromise,” Steiner said.’

Board member Joe Cherry also voted no. He urged the board to wait “a few extra months” until a master plan on school district growth is completed.

“I don’t feel comfortable that this is the right decision,” Cherry said.

Enrollment in the district peaked in 1976 at 30,774 children and has declined steadily since then, to 25,109 this term.

One committee of parents, the Citizens Steering Committee for Better Schools, which the board last September asked to study data, last week proposed closing the four schools. “With declining enrollment in the Orange Unified School District a reality, it is an unpleasant decision to recommend the closure of schools, but a recommendation that we feel should be made,” the group reported.

District administrators originally had said a combination of declining enrollment and an expected budget deficit would make it necessary to shut three or four elementary schools and a number of junior and senior high schools.

The conclusions of school officials and the steering committee were questioned by another group of parents that included financial experts, accountants and attorneys. That group last week submitted a report recognizing “a definite financial concern, but not a crisis,” and concluding that plans to close schools deserved more study.

Peralta Junior High School already is scheduled to be closed. Its students will be reassigned to Yorba and Cerro Villa junior high schools.

Recently, the economic future of the troubled school district--geographically the largest in the county--has begun to appear a little brighter. Last October, when a new administration discovered an unexpected $4.5-million deficit, emergency spending cuts and other economies were effected immediately.

Surplus Now Projected

As recently as January, preliminary budget predictions for the 1985-86 fiscal year warned of a deficit of at least $2 million.

The report of the parents group, called the Professional Advisory Committee, identified $1.85 million in additional “quantifiable” revenue for the fiscal 1985-86 budget. The committee named additional “non-quantifiable” budget adjustments that it said could generate unspecified savings and revenue.

About $1 million in savings identified by the committee is included in a district budget proposal prepared by Assistant Supt. H. C. Tanner and scheduled for school board consideration next week. Tanner’s budget forecasts a surplus of more than $1 million, however.

Tanner said other revenue-raising measures suggested could be applied only once, in fiscal year 1985-86, and therefore should not be considered for ongoing programs.

The proposed budget also projects establishing a reserve fund of $1.5 million. That would reverse a direction taken in October, when the entire reserve fund was used to balance the budget.

Main Arguments Disputed

David Parker, president of FISER, Financial & Investment Services and a committee member, said Thursday the district no longer has any economic reason to close schools. The committee has disagreed with the district’s projections of continually shrinking enrollment.

“Declining enrollment is at the junior high and senior high school levels,” said Parker, a Villa Park father of six who has four children attending district schools. “It is anticipated (by the committee) that in the next five years, there will be an increase of more than 2,000 new elementary students.”

The committee has projected a net gain of 2,000 students over the next five years, in contrast to Tanner’s expectation of continued overall decline in the number of students.

Members of the parents’ Professional Advisory Committee, together with Harriett Bakenhus, assistant superintendent of elementary education, have visited almost all the elementary schools in recent weeks.

“We agree on virtually every point, with the exception as to whether portable classrooms should be included in capacity (figures),” Bakenhus said. The district’s 21 portable units constitute “a very large investment, and . . . should be considered part of the capacity at the schools where they are located,” she added.

Before the vote Thursday night, Parker said he expected the board to delay making a decision on closing additional schools for one year. “In January (1986) board members should have a comprehensive five-year projection plan, so that when they render a decision, it can be based on reliable data,” he said.