Keep La Veta Ours!

We are a group of residents near La Veta Elementary School who want OUSD to keep the school property as is for the benefit of the students, the neighborhood and the community.

Get Email Updates

Join our email list to get updates on what is happening with OUSD selling La Veta Elementary School

Why are we here?

OUSD decided that they would like to sell or lease the field part of La Veta Elementary School. They have begun the process to label it as "surplus" property. They have created a 7-11 committee (a committee of 7 to 11 people) to recommend what the school district should do with this area.

If you want to be notified when there is an upcoming meeting or additional information, subscribe to the mailing list.

OUSD's Plan

The district would like to sell or lease the area shown below. The 7-11 committee will recommend options to the school board and will get input from the community on their recommendations. That will then be presented to the school board. The school board will decide the next step regardless of what the 7-11 committee recommends.

The district staff's plan is that the boxed area below be designated as surplus so that it can be sold. The district has met with architects and have a rough idea how much the property could be sold for.

What's at risk?

Here are the biggest down sides of OUSD selling this land:

Students will have limited outside places to play and get exercise
High Density Housing reduces existing property values (this is the most likely result from selling the land)
Permanent loss of school property to gain a one time boost in funds
Increased regular traffic
Increased noise and light pollution at all hours.
Loss of public recreational areas

What's next?

August 5, 2025

"7-11 Advisory Committee" Meeting

They will meet again to discuss the plan for La Veta Elementary. Agenda

Where:

1401 N. Handy St., Orange, CA, 92867 Panther Lab (Building P)

(this is the building near the lunch tables in the east parking lot)

When: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Tips:

You must get there BEFORE the meeting starts to fill out a card if you want to make a public comment at the end. Your silent support and presence is greatly appreciated. Your presence will send a very clear message! If too many people sign up to comment, they can limit everyone to 1 minute or postpone comments altogether if there's not enough time for everyone.

What has happened so far?

November 14, 2024

The OUSD board approved the bylaws for the 7-11 advisory committee. See Agenda Item

April 16, 2025

The OUSD board selected the members of the 7-11 advisory committee. This selection also limits the committee to only look at La Veta elementary when it said "to evaluate and determine the best use of those portions of unused and/or underutilized real property as part of the La Veta Elementary School Property". See Agenda Item

May 13, 2025

The "District 7-11 Advisory Committee" met for the first time to begin the process of determining what to do with the property. They discussed the portion of the property that will be included. Slides from the meeting

May 20, 2025

The "District 7-11 Advisory Committee" met for the second time. They answered questions the committee had in the first meeting. We had about 45 people from the community and made good arguments in our public comments time. Slides from the meeting.

May 21, 2025

The Orange Unified School Board met for their scheduled May meeting. There was nothing on the agenda specific to selling La Veta, but we were able to speak at the end, discussing our dissapointment in the 7-11 committee process and the lack of communication with the community.

May 27, 2025

The 7-11 Committee met and decided to postpone any further actions until after the consolidation committee meetings are known. They scheduled the next meeting for August 5th. During this meeting the school district outlined a plan to sell the field and redevelop the remaining portion of play area. The total cost of the proposed renovations would be $6.8 million, but as the district employees pointed out, it may not be a priority to make these renovations, depending on other priorities and needs.

June 18, 2025

The OUSD Board reviewed the consolidation committee's recommendations to close & combine schools. There were recommendations for each of 4 high school feeder patterns. One or more schools in each feeder pattern were recommended for consolidation.

In the El Modena feeder pattern, two recommendations were made.

Close Prospect Elementary combining it with Esplanade Elementary.
Change Jordan Elementary to be a magnet school, and expanding the La Veta Elementary boundary to include all of the current Jordan boundary.

At the end of the meeting, the school board decided to take some time to consider the proposals before making a decision. We hope to hear more about this in the next two months.

Click Here to view the "El Modena" school consolidation presentation by OUSD.