Cypress district explores selling empty schools

CYPRESS – At the Cypress School District’s board meeting last month, residents filled the room to let the panel know how much they disliked a proposal to sell or lease some of the district’s empty school sites.

It was a different story on Thursday; the voices of the five board members echoed in the nearly empty room when they voted unanimously to explore deals with suitors for several properties.

Some of the sites are schools that the district shuttered because of declining enrollment. The land totals 54 acres in Cypress and Buena Park, with a total appraisal value of nearly $72 million.

The district would use the proceeds from any sales or leases to bolster school programs.

The school board’s action doesn’t mean properties will be going to the auction block next week.

“This declaration is just beginning the process. At this point, this is an opportunity for the board to explore options,” board President Donna Erickson said.

Specifically, the board’s vote declares the sites of Cawthon, Mackay, Dickerson, and Damron elementary schools and the district office as surplus properties, the first step in selling, leasing or exchanging those properties.

Laws require that the district first offer the lands to local governments, schools or universities, which have 60 days to make a proposal.

Buena Park is interested in swapping one of several plots under city ownership for the Dickerson Elementary School site in the southwest corner of town. Buena Park is eyeing it for its potential as open space.

“We’d like to see more active ball fields and recreational opportunities,” Joel Rosen, that city’s planning director, said after the meeting.

As for the school buildings, there is the possibility that Buena Park may rent them out to a private school, or use them as recreational facilities, Rosen said.

The school board voted unanimously to hold off on taking action on the Dickerson site to give Buena Park another 90 days to put together a proposal.

Despite Thursday’s action, the district must await a court decision on Cypress’s Measure D before signing any deals.

Several City Council members have sharply and publicly criticized the district’s proposal, and said that it violates Measure D. That law, a voter-approved initiative, requires a vote of the people for zoning changes to publicly-held lands within the city.

School district officials, however, maintain that state law allows them to circumvent Measure D, and are awaiting a court decision they hope will back them. That decision isn’t likely until late February or March at the earliest.

For information on the district proposal: cypsd.k12.ca.us and click on “property reuse/redevelopment.”

Contact the writer: 714-704-3796 or mmello @ocregister.com

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