The Huntington Beach City School District unanimously voted on February 19th to sell the LeBard school site and renegotiate the leases for both the Burke and Gisler school sites.
The 10 acre LeBard school site is currently the home of Seaview Little League and the district offices. The City of Huntington Beach now has the opportunity to purchase up to 30% of the property for 1/4th of it’s market value. The remainder would have to be purchased at full market value.
The Burke school site is currently being leased to Huntington Christian School and the Gisler school site is currently being leased to Brethren Christian Junior & Senior High School. The Ketler school site will be decided upon in the near future.
At this time, the School Board of HBCSD is asking for proposals to sell or lease up to four school properties. The buildings on these properties are used by various community organizations (e.g. the Girls Scouts, Boys Scouts, etc.) and the fields are used by community sports organizations like AYSO Soccer (approximately 400 children) Little League, and Girls’ Softball Teams. Two of the campuses are leased by schools, which brings in $750,000 to the district annually, as well as preserving the school campuses for future use by HBCSD. Won’t you join us to save these resources for our community?
The Board brought in a consultant on Sept. 4 to help them decide how to spend the money (yes, the money from the sale of these properties that we don’t want them to sell). Board members agreed on one item: NEW DISTRICT OFFICES. The board’s response to the Huntington Beach taxpayers is that we are misinformed, that they haven’t accepted any bids or sold anything yet. Why then, when residents repeatedly ask the Board to STOP the RFP process, does the board not stop? Instead, they discuss how they will spend the money. WE DO NOT WANT NEW DISTRICT OFFICES. We do not want the Huntington Beach City School District to sell school sites to developers. We want to have them preserved for school and community resources, both now and in the future.
As of Sept. 5, SaveHBCommunity.com has informed the community of two Huntington Beach City School District (HBCSD) School Board meetings (August 28 and Sept. 4). At each meeting, residents spoke out AGAINST the Request for Proposal (RFP) Process. NO ONE spoke in favor of selling to a developer. Residents repeatedly asked the HBCSD to STOP the RFP process at both meetings. (It is legal for the Board to STOP the RFP process, according to State Ed Code 17476). Residents also spoke in support of the current tenants, who have invested in the properties and have been, by all accounts, good neighbors and members of the community.
The City of Huntington Beach is more than houses, streets and businesses, it is a place to live, a community.
The quality of life for any community depends on the resources available to the residents. Over recent years the community of Huntington Beach has seen more and more of these community resources taken away to add more houses.
When resources like these are lost for community use, the result is over crowding and lack of availability for the use of the remaining community resources. We feel that community resources like these need to stay available for community use and not be sold off to developers for the land to be use to build more houses.
We are also concerned about the future needs for schools in our community. What if we have another “Baby Boom”?
The Huntington Beach City School District is considering disposing of the following schools properties (per the School Board’s “Request For Proposals”):
The School Board of the Huntington Beach City School District has put out a Request For Proposals (RFP) on 4 school properties (Burke Elementary, Gisler Intermediate, Kettler Elementary and LeBard Elementary). The buildings on these properties are Used by Various Community Organizations (e.g. the Girls Scouts, Boys Scouts, etc.) and the fields are used by community sports organizations like AYSO Soccer (over 1,600 Children) Little League, and Girls’ Softball Teams.
Did You Know?
The Money from the sale of Any of the Four School Properties can:
- NOT be used for Teacher or Staff Salaries,
- NOT be used for Technology Equipment (e.g. desktop & Laptop computers, etc.)
- NOT be used for ANY kind of School Programs,
- NOT be used for ANY School Supplies or other type of Day-to-Day items.
According to the Request For Proposals, issued by the School Board, the money from the sale of any of these properties, would be used for a new District Office and a New Bus Yard.
Burke School
Currently being leased to Huntington Christian School (HCS – with approximately 500 students). The District receives approximately $330,000 a year in lease income from HCS.
Gisler Middle School
Currently being leased to Brethren Jr. and Senior High School (with approximately 420 students). The District receives approximately $450,000 a year in lease income from Brethren. This site is also used by Girl Scouts, AYSO soccer teams and a Japanese school. AYSO estimates that without this site they will need to cut as many as 400 children from their soccer programs.
LeBard School
Currently being used as the District Offices. This site is also used by Little League teams.
Kettler Elementary School
Currently used for a Girls Softball League. This site could be leased out by the District, but the District has not done this. It is estimated that this site, if leased out, could generate at least $330,000 a year in lease income (comparable to what the District receives from HCS for the Burke site).
