Gilroy
– The school district is looking into 10 acres of donated land
as the future home of Las Animas Elementary School.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – The school district is looking into 10 acres of donated land as the future home of Las Animas Elementary School.
The Christopher site at Santa Teresa Boulevard and Miller Avenue – which includes 6 acres Don Christopher donated to Gilroy Unified School District – will undergo environmental testing required by the state to determine whether it’s an acceptable site for the school.
Trustees Thursday night approved spending $85,000 from Measure I bond funds on the study required by the California Environmental Quality Act. The decision was 6-0, with John Gurich absent.
The district already has completed the work on a different site a quarter-mile away, where it originally planned to re-build Las Animas, currently located at 8450 Wren Ave. Negotiations for that site deadlocked shortly before GUSD acquired the Christopher site.
“That phase is the only thing we’re going to have to replicate,” said Steve Brinkman, GUSD’s assistant superintendent of administrative services.
Even after April’s donation-and-purchase deal through which GUSD got the Christopher site, the district negotiated to swap it for the nearby land already state-approved.
“Because of that, we elected not to do it to save that money,” Brinkman said. “But when it became apparent that that land trade agreement was not going to be reached, we now have to go ahead and with the work.”
Trustee Dave McRae said nothing is final, yet.
“We do have to do (the environmental work) on the Christopher site, if we’re going to build there, and I wouldn’t say any option is off the table at this time, but at the same time, we’ve got to move forward with this option,” he said. “This is the next step that leads us in a different direction than originally planned.”
Both the sites are within the Glen Loma Ranch development. The city’s approval of the development included a school among the more than 1,400 homes planned there.
The Environmental Impact Report already completed determined that the area would be appropriate for a school, with some necessary actions to prevent negative impact.
Because of the Christopher site’s proximity, it’s possible some of the same issues could arise in the new EIR, which included surveying for native animal life – such as bats, burrowing owls, and other birds – controlling dust during construction, and managing storm water drainage.
According to its 25-year Facilities Master Plan, GUSD will re-build the aging Las Animas by 2006.
The South Gilroy area was chosen, and Glen Loma Ranch in particular, because of the amount of growth planned in the area. GUSD currently has two other elementary schools less than a mile away from Las Animas.
