Charter school group withdraws petition seeking recognition in Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District before a public hearing scheduled

A petition seeking to establish a charter school within the boundaries of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District was withdrawn by the organizers before trustees could schedule a required public hearing on the matter and vote to either approve or deny the charter school.

The online K-12 school, named South Coast Academy II, proposed to enroll 500 students during its initial year, with classes commencing Aug. 20. The petition was withdrawn without explanation, according to Alyssa Griffiths, the district's public and media relations specialist.

The 181-page document was submitted to the district June 18 by lead petitioners Jennifer

Lorge and Erika Vanderspek and signed by 10 credentialed teachers. Receipt of the petition was acknowledged at a July 9 trustee meeting, but petitioners withdrew it about a week later.

The petition can be resubmitted at any time, under provisions of the Charter Schools Act of 1992, the detailed state law governing the charter school petitioning process, though minor revisions would be needed in the school calendar and budgetary time lines sections.

A similar petition for a South Coast Academy I was submitted to the Irvine Unified School District to serve 2,500 students the first year. Lorge outlined the proposal at a July 9 trustee meeting, after which Irvine board members scheduled a public hearing and vote for Aug. 20.

Lorge is principal of Inspire Charter School South, which enrolls 4,466 K-12 students, under the auspices of the Dehesa Elementary School District, an 11,706-student K-8 public school district in El Cajon that also sponsors six other charter schools.

Since the Inspire charter is in San Diego County, the school is allowed to draw students from any public school district in Orange County, as well as students from other adjacent counties. Lorge told Irvine trustees a local charter would serve mainly Orange County students.

The petition to the Placentia-Yorba Linda district outlined independent study and online instruction for 500 students supervised by 20 teachers, with a first-year budget of $4.6 million, rising to 734 students, 29 teachers and a $7.1 million budget in five years.

The only other charter school petition submitted to the district came in 2009 from Charter School Development Systems. Trustees dutifully set a public hearing on the petition, but nobody spoke either for or against the charter – even the petitioners didn't show up.

Organizers had submitted identical petitions to 91 California school districts, hoping for acceptance in 14 counties sharing borders with the state's other 44 counties, but none won approval. Placentia-Yorba Linda trustees denied the charter 5-0.

Among the Placentia-Yorba Linda district's 34 campuses is La Entrada High School, providing independent study opportunities for grades 9-12, and Parkview School, offering independent and online study, popular with K-12 home school students.

Expenditures outpace income in new Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District budget

Close to $288 million will be spent educating some 25,000 students at the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District's 34 campuses during the upcoming school year, according to the 2019-20 publication budget approved by the district's five elected trustees recently.

Again this year the district anticipates spending more than income received from state, local and federal sources, with about $12.2 million coming from reserve funds saved in past years.

Still, school officials expect to finish the fiscal year on June 30, 2020, with a black-ink balance that includes $11.3 million as a “reserve for future deficits” and $14.5 million more “designated for economic uncertainties.”

The 40-square-mile district includes all of Yorba Linda and Placentia, with 43,198 and 27,546 registered voters, respectively, and portions of Fullerton, Brea, Anaheim and the East Placentia, Fairlynn and Country Club county islands, totaling 20,585 registered voters.

Enrollment for the upcoming year is expected to total 24,935, down from last year's 25,229 and a high of 26,243 in the 2007-08 school year. But much of the state funding is based on average daily attendance, estimated to be 23,980 this year, down from 24,243 last year.

About 84 percent of general fund expenditures will pay salaries and benefits for some 2,700 employees. The breakdown: 43 percent for certificated teachers, counselors and administrators; 15 percent for classified support staff; and 26 percent for benefits.

Interestingly, the 205-page budget document takes a close look at programs underfunded by the state that are “drawing away funds that could be used for other needed purposes,” with a total $34.6 million hit to the general fund.

A significant area of underfunding is special education, for which services are mandated by the federal and state governments and provided to students with identified disabilities.

While “both governmental agencies provide some funding, historically the funding has been significantly less than the cost of the required services.” For example, in the upcoming year, the district expects a $28 million shortfall in state funding.

The expected shortfall is $9,342 for each of the district's 3,007 special education students, 7 percent higher than last year's $8,692. Total special education expenses are expected to be $47.8 million.

Since special education services are located at various school sites, busing is needed, with higher costs due to longer distances and individual routing. Adding to costs is a “significant rise in the number of students identified with autism.”

Other costs include regular home-to-school and special education busing, with expenses expected at $8.1 million, underfunded by $6.5 million. The district's home-to-school fee is $2.20 per day or $396 for the year.

Also interesting: Expected state lottery income is a bit over $5 million, about 1.7 percent of the year's expenditures.

Taxes, fees to bring more income to Yorba Linda

Nearly all of the various types of taxes and fees Yorba Linda anticipates collecting during the current and next fiscal years to keep city services humming will bring in more funding than in past years, according to the new two-year budget approved by the City Council recently.

And the city expects to add more cash to an already large reserve fund for both the fiscal year that began July 1 and the following fiscal year ending on June 30, 2021, as outlined in the lengthy budget document presented to council members by Finance Director Scott Catlett.

Property tax revenue, the city's largest income source, is expected to jump 4.4 per cent in each of the next two years, to $20.7 million for fiscal 2020 and $21.6 million for fiscal 2021. (All of the figures reported in this column are rounded.)

The city's second largest revenue source, sales taxes, is expected to increase 1.6 and 1.4 percent, respectively, for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, to nearly $7.7 million and $7.8 million.

Other revenue sources expected to increase over the two-year period: franchise taxes (3.8 percent), property transfer taxes (10 percent), transient occupancy taxes (6.8 percent) and business license taxes (1.4 percent) for total revenues of about $3.5 million in fiscal 2021.

The only revenue drop is expected to be for building permit fees, which totaled a bit more than $1.7 million last year and is expected to drop to some less than $1.3 million for fiscal 2021, a 27 percent decline over a two-year period.

Park and recreation income is expected to increase 15.6 percent over two years to a bit more than $2 million in 2021. Income from motor vehicle taxes and engineering, planning and other fees is expected to remain about the same, bringing in some $443,000 in 2021.

In all, the city expects an operating surplus of $552,699 in fiscal 2020 and another $318,521 in fiscal 2021, bringing the total operating reserve fund to $23 million, representing some 60 percent of 2021 operating expenses of close to $38 million.

The single largest expense category is for public safety, which will increase from last year's $12.6 million to an estimated $13.3 million by 2021, with the actual police services contract increasing from $11.9 million to an estimated $12.6 million during the same time period.

Other public safety expenses will include close to $300,000 each year for school crossing guard services and $180,000 each year for estimated workers compensation payments to Brea, remaining from the time Brea held the city's law enforcement contract.

The city-owned Black Gold Golf Club anticipates nearly $6.5 million in revenue by the end of the current fiscal year, with 47 percent from course play, 37 percent from food and beverage sales, 11 percent from pro shop sales and 4 percent from the driving range.

All golf course income categories are expected to increase again in the next fiscal year, with revenue totaling $6.7 million.

One of Yorba Linda's most detailed documents sets property owner assessments for landscaping, street lighting and traffic signal maintenance

One of the more detailed documents commissioned by Yorba Linda's City Council is an annual report on calculating the fees that are assessed property owners to maintain one of the city's most identifying features, the lush landscaping along roadways, especially on the east side.

This year's version runs 258 pages, though some content is boilerplate from past years. A public hearing on the proposed assessments is scheduled at a July 16 council meeting, to begin about 7 p.m.

The council will consider oral comments and written protests by residents about the fees for landscape maintenance, street lights and traffic signals for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Here are highlights from this year's report on the now-named Street Lighting and Landscape Maintenance District that began levying fees 40 years ago:

--Currently, the city has nine arterial (major street) landscaping zones, 33 local landscaping zones, a single citywide arterial lighting zone, a non-contiguous local street lighting zone and three traffic signal zones.

In all, assessments for the current fiscal year to pay for landscape maintenance, lights and signals are estimated at just under $7 million, with the city paying a bit less than $1 million, since some costs represent a “general benefit” to all residents.

The remainder will come from property owners as “special assessments” on annual property tax bills, listed after the “Lndscp & Ltg” heading.

--All of the city's 21,765 single-family residences, 1,152 multi-family units and 288 mobile homes are in one of nine arterial landscape zones, with owners assessed up to $58 this year.

Multi-family and mobile units pay 80 and 50 percent of fees, respectively, for all services.

--Some 56 percent of single-family and 51 percent of multi-family units are in one of the 33 local landscaping zones, with fees from $45 to $1,046 ($326 average and $294 median).

Five of the local landscaping zones, with 1,983 single-family homes, will require $120,144 in subsidies from the city's general fund to meet expenses, with individual zone subsidies ranging from $4,526 to $56,487.

At the July 16 session, the council could choose to cut services in the zones or call for a mail ballot of owners to raise revenues, as per policy set last year.

--All residences are in the arterial street lighting zone (1,079 lights) and one of three traffic signal zones (69 intersections), with owners paying $1.53 for lighting and $2.96, $5.23 or $6.13 for signals. The 82 percent of single-family, 57 percent of multi-family and all mobile units in the local lighting zone (4,954 lights) will pay up to $19.84.

--The report notes: “While city staff will ultimately determine which services and activities shall be eliminated or reduced to keep actual costs and expenditures for the fiscal year within the current available revenues, the revenue shortfalls are expected to increase over the years as a result of inflation.”