This week there was chatter on Nextdoor.com about various hypothetical ideas for permanent facilities solutions for Bullis Charter School. This article just focuses on the three questions that came up. 1) Did the City take its offer of Rosita Park off the table? 2) What did the Measure N ballot that passed with 57% YES actually say about parks, open space and Rosita Park? 3) How large is the Covington/Rosita campus and what part is “City-owned?”
Photo Google Earth: 897 student Hillview Middle School (grades 6-8) in Menlo Park artfully arranged on just ~9 acres. Green track is ~2.5 acres; green blacktop is 1 acre. Notice the access road around the perimeter.
City of Los Altos 2014 offer of Rosita Park…
Pablo Luther, Doug Smith of the School District, Megan Satterlee, Jeannie Bruins of the Los Altos City Council, discuss two City-owned Los Altos sites – Rosita Park and MacKenzie Park – for school district use. June 26, 2014
You can read in exquisite detail about the preliminary hypothetical outlines of the City of Los Altos offer of Rosita in this June 2014 post which includes a transcript. The upshot is
1) the City offered to lease Rosita Park for school hours use
2) would consider moving the park elsewhere at the campus IF the park were still visible from a road and looked open and inviting to the public
3) IF the arrangement actually would result in solving the Bullis Charter part of “enrollment growth.” It could do so indirectly — perhaps the 2nd school would be for North of El Camino students, or be a magnet school, or for grades TK-3, whatever
The City’s June 2014 exploratory offer of Rosita Park (or MacKensie) was never taken off the table. To the contrary, it is the District trustees that failed to schedule continuing meetings at that time.
Talks about hypothetical city-school sharing of public land resumed in 2015. The City was willing to consider adding the the north end of Civic Center to the discussion. At the Jan. 7, 2016 meeting of the Public Lands subcommittee, LASD Trustees Vladamir Ivanovich and Tamara Logan showed 3 site plans devised by LASD in November 2015. The site plans were apparently shared for the first time with the City a very short time before the Jan. 7 meeting. At the meeting, LASD trustees and staff ASSERTED that the cons of their Covington site plan were “unacceptable to the community” while the cons of a TBD Hillview site plan might not be so bad. See the post about the Jan. 7 meeting and those 3 site sketches.
Lalahpolitico: We often hear cries of “don’t close a neighborhood school” and “don’t redraw my school attendance area” from some LASD parents and neighbors. Get ready to hear cries of “don’t close my neighborhood community center” from some City residents and neighbors.
LASD Superintendent Baier, Trustees Mark Goines and Pablo Luther
LASD Measure N Ballot nixed only new buildings at Rosita
Back in 2014, during the August 4, 2014 LASD board meeting, the trustees amended the draft ballot to add a “Whereas clause” crafted by Trustee Mark Goines about Rosita Park and MacKenzie Park. Granicus Video of LASD meeting. See Minute 58:38.
Resolution #14/15-01, Ordering a School Bond Election and Authorizing Necessary Actions in Connection Therewith Follows an excerpt from the Final Ballot
…Whereas, it is the intent of the board to maintain or expand park and open space to support the needs of students and the community and to design the bond program to maximize recreational space and opportunities for public use;
Whereas, the district shall not build new school buildings on City owned lands at Rosita and MacKenzie parks.
Now, therefore, be it resolved, determined and ordered by the Board of Trustees of the Los Altos School District as follows …
City of Los Altos owned land is this 5.7 acre rectangle.
City Owned Land is a 5.7 acre rectangle at Covington
The parcel map shows the City owned land as a 5.7 acre rectangle. However, Rosita Park is not entirely rectangle shaped and is often described as being ~5.5 acres. Lalahpolitico has heard the discrepancy explained two ways — several little bits of land were either “swapped” or “leased” so that a City built snack shack and tennis courts could fit.
Disclaimer: The ads below these screen shots of Google Earth maps are not live. I wish I were getting paid for those ads, but I’m not. Lalahpolitico was too lazy to photoshop them out tonight.
City Owned Land next to LASD owned Land at Covington as shown on Google Earth. The Daftlogic acreage estimator comes up with 5.4 acres a little short of the County Parcel Map’s 5.7 acres.
Thus the conclusion seems to be that the LASD owned part of the campus is ~16.0 acres, 15.5 of which is for Covington School and School District Offices, and more recently some private pre-schools. Half an acre or so of LASD owned land apparently is used as part of Rosita Park to accommodate tennis courts.
Lalahpolitico has seen the size of the Covington-Rosita “campus/site” described as 19.5 acres to 20.5 acres. It appears to be 20.5 acres (15.5 plus 6.0, if one uses Rosita Park lands during the school day). Whatever the exact amount–19.5 or 20 or 20.5 acres — it is the largest campus that LASD could use to co-locate a second school.
[Footnote Definition: The Academic Performance Index (API) is a measurement of academic performance and progress of individual schools in California. 999 is perfect? Obviously LASD, with its many affluent children, is one of the highest scoring districts in California.]
MAP 1: Using that Daftlogic google map acreage calculator, the combined Covington/Rosita site is about 20 acres.
Touching the Covington Site – A hypothetical example
The LASD trustees can keep the Measure N promise of “not building school building” on Rosita and still fit the buildings for a second school on the area shown in the clear area of MAP 2 below, for example. The Covington k-5 or k-6 could remain in the bright green area of 8.23 acres which is about the size of LASD’s Gardner Bullis and many elementaries in Palo Alto. [Where the true legal surveyed ownership boundaries are could be a bit different than shown, but the below will give you an idea.
MAP 2: The Covington Elementary could remain in the bright green 8.25 acre area.
Looking at Map 3, buildings for a 900 student Bullis Charter School could be located in the bright green area, for example, because that is not City-owned land.
MAP3: Bullis Charter School buildings and staff parking could be placed somewhere on this bright green 6.0 acres of school-owned land. An acre of blacktop would leave 5 acres to place two story buildings and staff parking. Greenspace would be available to BCS students by using Rosita land during the day. Bussing has been mentioned as one traffic solution. There are several others.
Lalahpolitico: Continuing to run with this hypothetical example… in Map 3 above , private pre-schools and some of the District administration would have to go. Instead of the District Board Room, the trustees could use City of Los Altos Council Chambers. It has much better audio and video services for recording meetings. That would be a benefit to us all. The City has said in the past it could move the 3 tennis courts to another site. Perhaps offer Egan or Blach? District offices and offices for roaming teachers could use some of the vacated portables at Egan or Blach. The Covington PTA just spent 50 to 80 thousand dollars to build a second track on the worn, pitted-looking, second baseball field at Covington. That would likely be impacted as shown in Map 3. At the board meeting where the PTA project was approved, the trustees warned the PTA that the land there might be “part of a solution for enrollment growth.” Yup, could be.
Lalahpolitco: No, I don’t know what BCS thinks of any of my hypothetical discourse above. Obviously, in the last Prop 39 requests before the 5-year truce, BCS did request Covington because it is big enough. If you don’t know, some BCS board members have repeatedly said they don’t want “a shiny new school.” That’s just the LASD Trustees idea, not theirs. Therefore, I suppose the BCS community would be just as happy with the old part of the Covington campus. The Covington parent community could have the new school if they prefer. This is all just an example of a co-location at Covington. “Think outside the box.”
