Architecture firm building new high school staged town hall
meeting
Gilroy – Gilroy’s new high school site plan showed buildings encircling a central quad, surrounded by playing fields, according to architects who staged a town hall meeting in the district board room on Thursday.
A small group of citizens and district officials showed to the meeting to voice their concerns and ask questions about the new high school set to open in 2009.
Paul Bunton, president of Bunton Clifford Associates, the Fremont-based architecture firm hired to build Christopher High School, kicked off the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation detailing the design and cost of the new school.
Bunton explained that security is the number one concern in the design of schools these days and they must ensure that the area can be completely closed off.
“We have to design a campus that’s secure for the students but is open to the public,” he said.
During the presentation the firm president explained that the flow of traffic to and from Christopher High School, which will be located on a 40-acre plot of land off Santa Teresa Boulevard and Day Road, is a concern and the firms’ engineers are still researching a sound plan.
Traffic is an issue at Gilroy High School because there’s only one way in and out of the main parking lot.
Bunton also addressed the Christopher High project shortfall. When the district placed a $69 million bond on the ballot in 2002 district officials promised community members the bond would fund the first phase, or a 900-student capacity, high school.
But in early May, Gilroy Unified School District officials announced that they will be $29 million short, unless a list of options pan out.
The jump in cost is mainly attributed to a rise in land value – the estimated price tag on the parcel rose from $6 million to $19 million – and an increase in materials.
When Bunton turned the floor over to the audience, the first question fired off addressed the controversial budget gap.
“I’m just wondering if that doesn’t seem a bit extravagant to anyone else in the room,” said Debbie Ruiz, referring to the new price tag on the land.
Ruiz, who lives near Day Road and belonged to a coalition of locals who formed an organization tagged “Save Day Road” when the district was still eyeing the site, added it seems “ludicrous” that all of a sudden the district is staring at $450,000 an acre.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz pointed out that the school district is not exempt from the rising price of land in South County.
“You’re not going to escape the escalation of land values in this community,” he said.
Another member of the audience asked why the district doesn’t search for another site, since the price of the Day Road plot is so expensive. Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman explained that school districts are at a “tremendous disadvantage” when it comes to selecting a site for a new school.
School districts have to receive the go-ahead from a bevy of organizations from the California Department of Education to toxic control department.
“Everybody’s got to put their thumb print on it,” Brinkman said.
Once they find a suitable site that passes through all the hoops, the district is basically at the mercy of the seller, Brinkman said.
The district has yet to purchase the Day Road site since eminent domain was invoked in order to secure it. The elderly couple who own the plot of land may request a life estate and remain on the land once the school is built.
