No Takers For Aliso Elementary Lease

Schools interested in leasing the Aliso Elementary School campus apparently got cold feet when it came to plunking down the cash.

By Tuesday evening, when the school board met to select from bids, no interested parties had placed a bid for either the school or a Mission Viejo warehouse that the school is also hoping to lease.

The 8.15-acre school site on Loumont Drive in Lake Forest was  as part of the district's attempt to shrink its deficit. Its closure will save the district $400,000 annually, officials estimated at the time.

Hoping to save additional money, the district wants to lease Aliso to a K-8 school that would pay monthly rent of at least $17,000.

Had any sealed bids been received, they would have been opened at the meeting. The district would have leased the site to the highest bidder.

Although possible candidates had previously shown interest—some touring the school—no bids came though in time.

"I don't want to say I was disappointed, but I was really hoping we'd have somebody," said Jeff Starr, district business director.

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District officials said then that the plan was to lease the campus as soon as possible, preferably to a private K-8 school.

A K-8 school is still the hoped-for tenant, Starr said.

At least one of schools that had previously shown interest cited the slow economy as their reason for ultimately choosing not to place a bid, Starr said.

Since the bid process—required by state law for so-called surplus school property, has been followed without success—the district can now proceed to negotiate with any interested parties.

However, "we don't have anyone interested in it as this time," Starr said Wednesday.

If an interested party and the district negotiate a deal for Aliso, the school board will still have the final say on who leases the site.