District May Buy Farmland for Intermediate School

Oxnard Elementary School District officials are exploring the purchase of agricultural land on Gonzales Road behind Oxnard High to build a new intermediate school, district officials said Monday.

Building a campus on the property between Patterson Road and Victoria Avenue would end a long-standing controversy of what to do with the land, owned by the Oxnard Union High School District.

But it also might create more conflict. Although school districts are exempt from recently passed Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives, local farmers oppose school construction on farmland.

Nancy Koch, board president for the high school district, said selling the land--which is currently being used to farm row crops--would be a good idea.

“We’re not farmers or growers, and there is no reason that we would expand Oxnard High School over there,” Koch said. “If it can be of use to the elementary district, I would think that would be the best use for it.”

But high school district Supt. Bill Studt said the district is not eager to sell the land, which it bought for about $2.1 million in 1992.

“It depends on the price,” he said. “We’re not going to give it away. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Elementary school district administrators have said they are looking to buy 20 to 24 acres. But Studt said his district would sell only the whole 27-acre parcel. Elementary district officials are also considering a second site nearby, closer to Victoria Avenue.

A fourth intermediate school is desperately needed within five years to house a booming population of students, who are currently crowding Oxnard’s elementary schools, said Sandra Herrera, assistant superintendent for the elementary school district.

Enrollment in the 19-campus elementary school district has soared from 12,775 in 1992-93 to 15,500 this school year, and the district is currently 21% over capacity. Herrera said enrollment could reach 16,000 by the end of the school year.

The district is already planning to build three elementary schools, one that is expected to open in August 2000 and two in August 2001. And the district might have to switch its intermediate schools to a year-round schedule if it cannot build an additional campus, Herrera said.

The biggest challenge will be finding the money to build another intermediate school, said Francisco Dominguez, board president of the Oxnard Elementary School District.

“Where the money would come from is really the issue,” he said. “If somebody can come up with a crazy scheme to finance it, then we can really start talking about building it.”

Although voters passed a $57-million local school bond in June 1997, officials said that all of that money is earmarked for elementary school construction and modernization.

The district, however, is eligible for up to $23 million in state funds from Proposition 1A, the $6.7-billion school facility bond passed last year.

The 27 acres are part of a nearly 80-acre parcel the high school district bought seven years ago. Although the district needed only 53 acres to build Oxnard High School, officials bought the whole property because they couldn’t find a smaller site.

In 1994, the high school district tried to sell the grove back to its original owner, but county supervisors rejected that bid, citing local zoning rules.

Oxnard High School Assistant Supt. Eric Ortega said he would be willing to work with the elementary school district. “It would help us,” he said. “It would mean more money for our district.”