Schools

SVUSD: Aliso Shutdown Is Final

The school district responds to the City Council's plea to delay the Aliso Elementary School closure for a year.

is closing in June and nothing the Lake Forest City Council says will change that, according to the Saddleback Valley Unified School District.

A , passed out to council members at the conclusion of Tuesday night's City Council meeting, emphasized the agencies' respective autonomy. (The Lake Forest City Council has no jurisdiction over SVUSD.)

"We ... appreciate your concern for the school district and the impacts on the community," SVUSD board President Suzie Swartz and Superintendent Clint Harwick wrote. "We also appreciate the ability of our two agencies to work collaboratively on joint ventures while respecting the difficult decisions we must make for our respective organizations."

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As the district has done previously, Swartz and Harwick spelled out the how the $400,000 in savings from the school's closure makes the decision a necessary one.

More unexpected, however, was a reference to Aliso Elementary as a "potential revenue stream for years to come."

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SVUSD could lease the facility to "another educational agency," which would keep its sports fields open for recreation, according to the letter.

The missive also hints at the possibility that the school could reopen if the local housing market picks up.

That is good news for Lake Forest, according to Mayor Peter Herzog, who said the inclusion of that possibility in the letter took him by surprise.

"I wasn't really sure what they might say," he said.

The potential of Aliso one day reopening provides "flexibility" in the event the housing developments planned in Lake Forest attract families with more children than there are spots for in local schools, Herzog said.

A concern that was not addressed in the letter is the safety of students who used to attend Aliso Elementary who will now have to walk to elementary schools further from their homes—sometimes across busy thoroughfares.

Since the city funds the crossing guards at Lake Forest schools, it has a direct interest in the routes the children from Aliso will take to school, Herzog said Wednesday by phone.

Lt. Patrick Higa, chief of Lake Forest Police Services, has said his department plans to analyze the situation for safety concerns.

"That's something we'll be following," Herzog said.


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