GILROY
– The search for a suitable comprehensive high school site ended
Thursday night when trustees authorized Superintendent Edwin Diaz
to start negotiations for purchasing a 50-acre parcel on Day
Road.
GILROY – The search for a suitable comprehensive high school site ended Thursday night when trustees authorized Superintendent Edwin Diaz to start negotiations for purchasing a 50-acre parcel on Day Road.
The 6-1 vote begins an environmental review process that will be watchdogged by Day Road area residents who do not want the site in their backyards, and their lawyer who says trustees were “baffled and bullied into submission” by school board President Jim Rogers and fellow Trustee Bob Kraemer.
Rogers and Kraemer were part of a special subcommittee that researched and ultimately recommended the Day Road parcel as Gilroy’s second comprehensive public high school site.
“I felt my decision was my own decision to make,” Trustee David McRae in response to Tichinin’s characterization. “(My decision) was not made because of pressure from other trustees.”
Attorney Bruce Tichinin said his clients were not preparing to litigate against the board’s decision at this time.
The Day Road residents, who again turned out en masse at Thursday’s session, believe trustees still do not have enough information to select a top site. Neighbors for Responsible Development – the grassroots group of Day Road residents and other community interests – has been lobbying the school district to conduct the most stringent environmental review (called an Environmental Impact Report) on more than the Day Road property.
School district officials believe the EIR on the Day Road parcel, which will consider but not focus study on alternative sites, is sufficient.
The school board’s lone dissenter, Trustee John Gurich, agreed with Day Road residents Thursday night.
“I’m just getting the feeling of being rushed here. I feel we need to research this further,” Gurich said. “If we delay this by one month, it won’t change our 2008 opening.”
Further research on alternative sites was advocated by Gilroy Mayor Tom Springer in recent weeks. Springer, who was not available for comment before press time, wanted the district to use city planners and engineers to devise a matrix evaluating each site based on state criteria.
Springer inserted himself into the fray by advocating for a site on Vickery Avenue between Wren and Kern avenues closer to town. This site ranked third on a matrix the school district put together for Thursday’s session.
The matrix weighted the value of key criteria for selecting a high school site, such as traffic impacts, mitigation costs, location and land cost. The Day Road property outscored two other top choices by roughly 60 to 80 points.
“Wait for what?” McRae asked rhetorically Thursday in response to Gurich’s concerns. “I mean if someone is sitting on some information that they’re not bringing forward after we’ve asked for input and alternative sites, then what are they waiting to bring to us?”
Opponents of the Day Road site had criticized the district at the June 5 school board meeting for not listing any negative impacts the development would cause. Four alternative high school sites included both positive and negative impacts associated with development of a high school.
Negative impacts, focusing mainly on traffic concerns, were added to the Day Road site evaluation this time around.
“Traffic is going to be a problem wherever you put a school site,” said Charlie van Meter, the district’s facilities director.
District estimates on roadwork costs show that the Day Road site would be least expensive to improve at $1.4 million. Improvements at a property on Buena Vista Avenue and Monterey Road would cost $2.3 million. The Wren/Kern site would run a road improvement tab of $2.8 million, district estimates state.
The overall price tag for building the new high school is $39 million, funded by money raised by passage of a $69 million school bond in November. The district has been tight-lipped about how much of the total will be used to purchase the land, but estimates by local Realtors have been under $200,000 an acre at the Day Road site.
Traffic concerns, which were the focus of many residents living in the rural Day Road area, were countered by residents of the Wren-Kern area who brought up similar safety issues.
“Your editorials (letters to the editor in The Dispatch) say there are going to be 10,000 more trips,” Kern Avenue resident Diane Petro said to the Day Road opponents. “Those are trips down my street in front of my house (if the Wren/Kern site is selected). Santa Teresa (which commuters would use to get to Day Road) is a big street, Kern Avenue in some spots can’t be widened.”
Tichinin says his clients will now put the school district under a microscope during the EIR process, making sure it establishes that locating a high school on Day Road is less of an impact to the community than placing the site elsewhere.
Tichinin sent a letter to the district in April telling trustees they would be “legally premature” if they authorized negotiations to purchase the Day Road site before conducting an EIR.
“The problem I see is that trustees did not know (last night) if they were legally required to select a site before doing an EIR,” Tichinin said. “It appears they had no interest in keeping an open mind. I’m fearful that no matter how bad a site Day Road may turn out to be, they will not change their mind.”
On Monday, trustees district officials will hold a joint meeting with City Council and city staff. The district is asking the city to annex the Day Road site into Gilroy proper, making it easier to bring services such as power, water, sewer and emergency services to the site.
The session will be held at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School at 7 p.m. It is open to the public.
