School board to consider selling Burke site next month

Andrew Wainer

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A Huntington Beach City School District committee

examining the use of three unused facilities will recommend at a school

board meeting March 7 that officials sell the closed Burke school site on

Levee Drive.

The Facilities Committee voted 6-5 to sell the site to generate the money

needed for state matching funds. The vote came in spite of community

opposition voiced last month at a public hearing.

“I will listen very carefully to the committee’s point of view,” said

Shirley Carey, a board of trustees member.

Carey, who has opposed the sale of a site, added she has doubts about the

committee’s recommendation of selling off Burke.

“I think the Burke recommendation needs some serious consideration,”

Carey said. “Almost 50% of the committee opposed it.”

In addition to a 16-page report drafted by the committee, the board will

consider taking out a loan and issuing a general obligation bond as other

options for generating the money needed for the matching funds.

The committee made its decision on the Burke recommendation last week,

after about four months of analyzing and discussing the issue.

The committee also voted to use the Gisler site on Strathmoor Lane for a

long-term lease and to maintain the district offices at the LeBard site

on Craimer Lane.

The district must come up with about $4 million to earn almost $20

million in matching funds from the state to repair the district’s

schools.

Although it was formed to help the deadlocked board decide how to best

use its facilities, the committee’s recommendation is nonbinding. With

the committee’s work essentially done, Chairman Bill Wallace said it’s

now up to the district to make a decision.

“It’s pedal to the metal time on these issues,” Wallace said.

The board has been deadlocked on the issue for years, but with the

state’s deadline for matching funds applications approaching, “the

pressure is on” Wallace said.

District officials said their share of the matching funds must be

presented by the spring to qualify for the state funds.

QUESTION

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closed Burke school site? And what do you think the district should do

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