District eyes options for vacant school

Governing Board reviews advisory committee’s recommendation of getting rid of Bouquet Canyon Elementary

The vacant Bouquet Canyon Elementary School site and a small area of land on the James Foster Elementary School site could be sold or leased back to the public, following a recommendation from the Saugus Union School District’s 7-11 Advisory Committee.

The nine-member 7-11 Advisory Committee, also known as Surplus Property 7-11 Advisory Committee, was formed in late2017 to review the district’s surplus property and provide a recommendation to the board about the evaluated areas.

This committee’s appointment, evaluations and recommendations are required under California Education Code, but its report to the Governing Board is nonbinding, meaning the group can make a recommendation by the board can declare some or all of the properties surplus and announce an intent to sell or lease the land.

At a Saugus Governing Board meeting Tuesday, the committee presented its report to the board after it met four times and reviewed project school enrollment and data, established a priority list or spaces and received input from the community..

The committee recommended that the district name the 28.25-acre Bouquet Canyon Elementary site, located at 28110 Wellston Drive, as surplus because of its “lack of educational use to the district.”

In June 2010, the Saugus district closed the school after 30 years of operations because of massive budget cuts. The closure saved the district an estimated $600,000 a year.

Now, the school site includes about 10 acres of vacant school land next to Bouquet Canyon Park and about 20 acres of vacant land surrounded by existing or planned residential areas.

The committee’s second recommendation included a small parcel outside of the current fencing at James Foster Elementary School, located at 22500 Pamplico Drive.

This property is estimated to be about three-quarters of an acre and begins at the southeast corner of the intersection of Pamplico Drive and Denoya Drive, continuing until the perimeter fence of James Foster Elementary.

“Currently, the district clears weeds and brush from the property, but the land has no function for the district's education programs,” minutes from the Oct. 24, 2017 meeting of the advisory committee read.

Because the property is in a residential neighborhood and has no educational use to the district, the committee recommended that it also be named surplus.

If the board decides to follow the advisory committee’s recommendations to declare the properties surplus and to sell or lease the land, funds from the sale of the properties must be used for district facilities, and not added to the district’s general fund.