Ocean View School District nears decision time on possible school closures

The Ocean View School District Board of Trustees will again weigh difficult decisions on possible school closures after receiving suggestions from a Superintendent's Schools Task Force. The task force, which has been holding meetings since the spring, held its 11th and final meeting on Thursday night at the district office. Twenty-one task force members in attendance took votes on which ideas they would prefer to recommend to the school board, as it has weighed possibly closing Circle View, Village View and Golden View elementary schools and repurposing Spring View Middle School. Nineteen suggestions were presented in the areas of innovation, instruction, financial and property management. At a special board meeting on Oct. 5, at least three members agreed that each suggestion was a viable option in the face of the district's continued declining enrollment. The task force, which consisted of school site, community, union and administration representatives and was facilitated by former Orange County superintendent Joe Farley, agreed on some ideas. Twenty members believed the district should open the farm at Golden View to outside districts, while 16 agreed the district should focus on how to effectively address over-staffing as a cost-saving method. In a related suggestion, 18 were in agreement that Ocean View should entice teachers to retire. Other suggestions were more basic, with 20 agreeing the district should offer instructional programs and options that other districts don't offer and 20 also agreeing the district should develop innovative curriculum. In terms of property management suggestions, 19 task force members agreed the district should lease out "dead" properties, with the majority of those indicating that senior center facilities, employee housing or a sports complex made sense. About half said that Spring View should be utilized as a larger elementary school. The school board's next regularly scheduled meeting is Oct. 24. "In my personal opinion, I feel like you've given us a lot of good options, good recommendations," board President Patricia Singer said at Thursday night's meeting. "I feel like you've done your due diligence and given us what we've needed." Also at the meeting, Supt. Michael Conroy shared detailed data about the district's financial prospects to the task force. Conroy indicated the district is overstaffed by at least 22 teachers, not including 12 transitional kindergarten classes, due to low school enrollment. That cost ranges from about $2.3 to $3.5 million annually. The overall deficit for the district, which serves parts of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster, is nearly $1.7 million for this school year. "We're operating in the red," Conroy said. "How do you manage when you're operating in the red? You go to your savings account. We call that our fund balance." Conroy presented hypothetical budget scenarios for the next five years, each based on the premise that the district reduces three teachers per year while still giving 3% salary schedule increases. The variables for each scenario were that the district does nothing, consolidates one school, two schools or four schools. Even in the most drastic fourth scenario, and even dipping into $4 million that the district has allocated for facilities and technology upgrades, it would have an emergency reserve of just $2.4 million by 2027-28, a number which would be trending downward. The emergency reserve for the current school year is about $11 million. In the other hypothetical scenarios, the emergency reserve by 2027-28 is either less than $1 million or gone completely. Enrollment in the district has steadily declined in recent years, and it most recently closed Sun View Elementary in Huntington Beach in 2018. That site now serves as an alternate site for OVSD campuses that are undergoing renovations — Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach this school year — using Measure R funds. In September, task force members were asked to complete an anonymous survey. Twenty-two members said the district should implement consolidation and repurposing in successive school years, beginning with one or two schools per year. Fourteen members said they thought it should all happen quickly, essentially a "rip off the Band-Aid" approach. Some parents on the superintendent's schools task force said after Thursday's meeting that they are hopeful their children's schools will be spared from closures. Robert Espinoza, whose wife is a teacher in the district, has two sons in the district and one graduate. He represented the district's preschool and Circle View on the task force. "I appreciate the information given and hope that the board takes what we've said into consideration and really looks at the community impact," Espinoza said. Keeley Pratt was on the task force representing Village View, the school two of her children attend. She remained plugged in throughout the process and consistently asked questions but said she didn't necessarily leave the last meeting Thursday night feeling satisfied. Pratt compared the process to a college science course. "This was lecture, and I kept waiting to go to the lab and try, experiment, understand," Pratt said. "That did not happen ... [but] I give great credit. I think Dr. Conroy and President Singer obviously have really collaborated on meaningfully including all stakeholders. We can talk about the composition, the mode of operation, we can talk about the survey. I believe [the task force] was done in good faith. Do I agree with how it was done? Not necessarily. I don't think it solved the problem, but it was a really good effort."

Ocean View School District nears decision time on possible school closures

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