A joint meeting of the Saugus Union School District governing board and the asset management advisory committee is scheduled for Wednesday to provide the community with background on what the committee’s purpose is and what it will be doing.
Attendees can also partake in an exercise that will provide the committee with a direction that the community wants to move forward with concerning what to do with the former Santa Clarita Elementary site.
The school site was closed as an educational institution earlier this year, with the governing board citing high costs to upgrade buildings to be up to 1976 earthquake standards, as outlined in Assembly Bill 300. An advisory committee — also known as a 7-11 committee due to it being made up of between seven to 11 members — was formally adopted by the board and subsequently filled.
District officials are set to explain the role that the committee holds and the different tasks it will be taking up, as well as a timeline for the committee to use as a guide throughout the process. Each of the committee members will also be introduced.
“The purpose of this meeting is for everyone to come and participate,” Superintendent Colleen Hawkins previously told The Signal, adding that it’s the type of town hall that the committee had been asking for.
This is the fourth committee meeting, though the third was short-lived after a large crowd showed up to voice displeasure over what those people thought was a set-in-stone idea to turn the site into low-income housing. That meeting, also meant to be an educational one for the committee, including a tour of the Santa Clarita Elementary campus, was called after about 15 minutes. District officials had been set to present on the potential for teacher housing to be an option for the property, but no decision has been made on that.
A meeting had originally been slated for Oct. 9, but that was postponed to allow for the district to restructure the process.
Community members in attendance at the third meeting said they had heard about the low-income housing proposal through social media posts. Hawkins previously said that there has never been an option for that to happen. Reopening the school is also no longer feasible, she added.
The committee will continue to meet to discuss how to move forward with the property, and there will be another community meeting prior to the final recommendation being given to the governing board so that it can be reviewed.
Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. inside the Bridgeport Elementary multi-purpose room, located at 23670 Newhall Ranch Road.
