Experience in Santa Rosa shows some of the issues, options for WCCUSD’s unused school sites

Photo: Former site of Portola Middle School

The recommendations of a committee in another Bay Area school district may provide some insight into the options available to the West Contra Costa Unified School District as it looks into what to do with the former site of Portola Middle School in El Cerrito and three other properties.

Although the details of the properties in the two districts differ, both will have to follow the same complex state regulations.

In its presentation to the Santa Rosa City Schools board on May 27, that district’s 7-11 committee recommended the district pursue 99-year leases with housing developers for four sites.

For two other sites, the committee recommended delaying action for 3 to 5 years, in part to provide time to possibly work out some kind of deal for the properties with the city of Santa Rosa.

Leasing rather than selling the land would provide the school district with ongoing income and more flexibility in how it spends those funds. If the land is sold, the money can only be used for capital improvement. The Santa Rosa committee recommends that 80% of the income go into the general fund and 20% be set aside for reserves and needs such as facility repairs and modernization.

According to discussion at the meeting, districts have to pay a fee to the state every year a site sits unused.

The Santa Rosa board accepted the report and referred some issues to its financial advisory committee, but the vote does not approve the specific recommendations. Board president Nick Caston said there are still many decisions for the board to make.

Caston said one advantage to building housing on the properties is it would provide housing for families to move into the district, which like West Contra Costa Unified, has declining enrollment.

According to discussion at the meeting, including housing for district employees could potentially be included in the terms of a lease negotiated with a housing developer.

It was also pointed out at the meeting that leasing out the land would mean added responsibility for district staff.

The Santa Rosa 7-11 committee report offers this description of the process (line breaks added):

“Before District property can be marketed for private use or development, the Board must first determine that the property is surplus to the needs of the District based on the recommendation of a community advisory committee, in this case the 7-11 Committee.

“After the Board determines that the property is surplus, the District may offer it to other public agencies for use as open space, recreational or park purposes, development of low- and moderate-income housing, or other public uses. These offerings are required before the property can be made available for sale, lease, or lease with an option to purchase through a public bidding process, unless the property is conveyed to a public entity or nonprofit corporation in response to the public offerings.

“Because no statutory deadlines govern the completion of each step, the disposition process can be lengthy.”

According to one of the committee members, while the district is required to seek offers from other public agencies before making the property available for sale or lease, it is not required to accept such an offer.

The WCCUSD 7-11 Committee was convened by the school district to come up with recommendations for possible uses of four closed school sites. The properties are the former Portola Middle School site below Navellier between Portola and Moeser in El Cerrito, Adams Middle School at 5000 Patterson Circle in East Richmond Heights, the Harmon Knolls site in Richmond, and the Seaview site in Tara Hills. The Portola property does not include the lower pad, which was the middle school’s playfield and currently houses Invictus Charter School.

The WCCUSD board first formed a 7-11 committee in 2022, but the group struggled to get a quorum for its meetings and has twice been reconfigured. The current seven-member committee has been meeting since 2024.

The committees get their name from the fact that they must have 7 to 11 members.

Recording of May 27, 2026, 7-11 Committee report to the Santa Rosa City Schools board (cued to the 7-11 presentation)

Santa Rosa City Schools May 27 school board packet. The 7-11 Committee presentation and report are item H1b.

WCCUSD webpage on its 7-11 committee 

Earlier El Cerrito Wire article on the WCCUSD committee