Gilroy
– In a spat that has dragged on for more than a year, the school
district is offering to enter into a binding arbitration agreement
with the Glen Loma Group to purchase land that it’s long targeted
for an elementary school.
One thing is clear: The lengthy negotiations mean the district
can no longer build the school by fall 2006, throwing a monkey
wrench into its plans to avoid overcrowding in fast-filling
elementary schools and smoothly transition to new attendance
areas.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – In a spat that has dragged on for more than a year, the school district is offering to enter into a binding arbitration agreement with the Glen Loma Group to purchase land that it’s long targeted for an elementary school.
One thing is clear: The lengthy negotiations mean the district can no longer build the school by fall 2006, throwing a monkey wrench into its plans to avoid overcrowding in fast-filling elementary schools and smoothly transition to new attendance areas.
Gilroy Unified School District and the Glen Loma Group remain at loggerheads over the value of a 10-acre site in the Glen Loma Ranch, the planned home of a new Las Animas Elementary School.
The so-called “Greenfield” site – which Glen Loma actually bought from the district for $3.6 million in 2000 – is worth $10.8 million according to Glen Loma’s appraisal in May 2003, and half that, according to the district’s most recent appraisal in July.
Some of the appreciation can be attributed to housing permits that are now allocated to the property, although Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman said it was to “too high a degree” in Glen Loma’s figure.
In a board study session last week, trustees agreed that binding arbitration may be the district’s best option for getting a fair price for the land. In binding arbitration, a judge will look at the four appraisals already made – and possibly additional quotes, depending on how the agreement is written – and set a final value for the land near Santa Teresa Boulevard and Luchessa Avenue. The process would likely take about two months.
At that point – again, depending on how the arbitration agreement is set – the district could buy the Greenfield site and swap Glen Loma for land it owns nearby, or not buy the site.
According to Brinkman, Glen Loma Group has verbally agreed to binding arbitration. Representatives of the group did not return calls from The Dispatch by press time.
“I think it’s a significant movement if (Glen Loma Group) has agreed to binding arbitration,” Trustee Jim Rogers said.
Brinkman said he hopes to get an outline of what Glen Loma would agree to before the end of the week.
If both groups agree that the district would buy Greenfield at the price set by the judge, work on the new Las Animas – starting with modifying rough plans to the exact site – could begin even before the arbitration is completed, Brinkman said.
When negotiations for Greenfield came to a standstill this spring, Don Christopher of Christopher Ranch donated to the district most of a 15-acre site that’s also in the Glen Loma Ranch. The idea was that GUSD would swap that land, at Santa Teresa Boulevard and Miller Avenue, for Greenfield, plus the difference in value. By the district’s account, its land has been placed at a higher value than Greenfield.
The district must pursue building Las Animas on Greenfield, rather than its nearby site, for several reasons. One, the district and Glen Loma Group planned to put the school there, so the zoning is correct, infrastructure is in place, and preliminary environmental work is already complete. Two, the ranch development also calls for a park, which must be adjacent to the school, and the city says it can’t be moved from its planned location because, among other things, people buying homes in the area are expecting it will go there. Three, GUSD prefers Greenfield to the other site, which is bordered on two sides by busy streets that will only get busier.
“I think we all want the Greenfield site: It’s a better location … it’s surrounded by neighborhoods, which is always good for a school …,” Rogers said.
The district is under pressure to start building the replacement Las Animas, but has already lost its goal of opening the entire new school in 2006.
“This has put us back approximately four to five months on our construction window,” said Charlie Van Meter, GUSD’s director of facilities and construction, “which would put us back between the fall and spring semesters.”
Regardless of how land negotiations play out, the school could be built on either ranch site in roughly the same amount of time, he said.
By phasing the school and building kindergarten through second grade classrooms first, where enrollment growth is fastest, the district could get at least that portion done by the start of the 2006-07 school year, though, Van Meter said.
That still leaves the district with too many students in third through fifth grades. Now officials must decide what to do with the students who were targeted for the new Las Animas when attendance area boundaries were structured three years ago. They’re currently split between crowded El Roble, Luigi Aprea and Rod Kelley schools.
“Whether the site is ready by ’06, we’re going to have to do something with our boundaries by ’06,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said. “The question is, if we wait until ’07 before we do anything, ’06 is going to be a mess.”
One of several options would be to move the new Las Animas students to the old Las Animas for one year, while the South Gilroy campus is completed.
“I can tell you, no matter how well you plan, you’re going to move some kids two years in a row, and that’s going to tick some people off,” said Tom Williams, a consultant who has helped GUSD develop its attendance boundaries.
