Ocean View School District 7-11 Committee recommends sale of two sites

An Ocean View School District advisory group has recommended that the district sell two of its property holdings, including the shopping center that currently houses Walmart in Huntington Beach.

The district created the group, commonly known as a 7-11 Committee, in April. It met seven times.

Under the California educational code, a 7-11 Committee must be formed before a school district can sell or lease excess real estate property.

The group of teachers, administrators, parents, land owners or renters and members of the business community gave its recommendations at the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees meeting on Aug. 13.

Out of 26 district-owned schools and sites, the committee recommended selling two.

The first is the Crest View site at Beach Boulevard and Talbert Avenue in Huntington Beach, a 13.8-acre site that includes Walmart and other businesses. The 7-11 Committee also recommended the district sell the land at the Pleasant View site, which is 10.9 acres near Warner Avenue and Magnolia Street by the 405 Freeway off-ramp.

The district maintains the former Pleasant View school site as a storage unit, at the cost of $40,000 a year.

Construction workers at Ocean View School District’s Crest View site on Wednesday.

(James Carbone)

Keeley Pratt, a Village View parent who served on the 10-member committee, said nobody wanted to sell property when the 7-11 Committee was first formed. Opinions changed a bit as the meetings progressed.

“We don’t want to close schools, we don’t want to lose the field spaces, the green spaces for teams from AYSO, Little League, etc.,” Pratt said. “How are we going to preserve those things? Then we looked at, what are the property uses now? We looked at the leases, the property uses themselves, then we looked at the needs across the district.”

The two properties that the committee recommends selling account for about 7% of the land the district owns.

At the Crest View site, the lease with Walmart will only generate about $16 million for the district over the next 43 years, Pratt said, a number the committee considered well under market value. All leases at the site will generate about $28 million.

Voters approved the $169-million Measure R bond in 2016, but that money has run out with the completion of the Mesa View Middle School renovation.

“I think the committee quickly came to the same conclusion,” Pratt said. “The choice isn’t between selling and not selling, it’s between having the funds to maintain and improve our schools or allowing them to deteriorate. That’s what it came down to. Either that, or we’re going to have start saying, I guess we need to go out for another bond or get more loans. We already took out loans for the asbestos crisis, we already took out a bond to modernize sites. That’s not going to go over well with the taxpayers of Huntington Beach.”

District officials have had to make some tough choices in the face of continued declining enrollment. Last November, the Board of Trustees voted 3-2 to consolidate Spring View Middle School, while three elementary schools potentially on the chopping block were spared.

The Ocean View School District Board of Trustees listens to comments at a meeting last November.

(James Carbone)

Traditionally, Ocean View School District officials have voted against selling land the district owns.

“I think all of us definitely understand that strong belief in never selling property,” Pratt said. “But when we look at these two properties, [they] aren’t assets that are performing in any capacity that they should. Either they should be schools, or they should be pulling their weight.

“We’re not providing the quality education our kids deserve, and an environment that our staff also deserve, if we continue to almost subsidize these properties just for the sake of patting ourselves on the back and saying we’re not going to sell public land. What if the public land is a drain? We’re supposed to be looking at these properties as a long-term asset that appreciates over time and should be preserved for future generations. What if it’s not, it’s draining the present generation?”

The Board of Trustees would need to agenda an item for a future meeting before any land could be sold. A 7-11 Committee was previously formed in 2015, and in the end the board decided not to sell any land.

In a joint statement Thursday, the Board of Trustees thanked the 7-11 Committee for its dedication and hard work.

“The Board will thoroughly review the information and recommendations presented by the committee during an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting, ensuring careful consideration in a public forum,” the statement read, in part. “This review will guide our decision-making as we determine the appropriate next steps concerning the properties.”