Gilroy
– On paper, it seems Gilroy students will have plenty of elbow
room in their classrooms for the next decade, but school district
officials say the reality could be far different.
Gilroy – On paper, it seems Gilroy students will have plenty of elbow room in their classrooms for the next decade, but school district officials say the reality could be far different.
The annual update of Gilroy Unified School District’s facilities master plan, completed in mid-December, projects that the district will have room to spare for 490 students in 2016 – after the expected completion of Glen Loma Ranch in southwest Gilroy, the largest housing project in the city’s history. By that date, the district’s enrollment will have grown from 10,138 students to 12,318.
But the extra space predicted in the report will be little comfort for children packed into the majority of Gilroy’s elementary schools, according to GUSD Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman. He and other school officials worry that changes in the way the city accommodates development, combined with restrictive state laws on how much money can be raised to build new schools, could hamstring the district and force kids into overcrowded classrooms.
District-wide there might be a cushion, Brinkman said, but schools in high-growth areas of the city, such as the northern and southwestern quadrants, will be bursting at the seams.
“The 490 number is very misleading, as between five or six of our eight elementary schools will be at or over capacity,” Brinkman said, adding that the calculations “do not reflect issues in specific attendance areas (the area from which a school draws it’s population). To say we have 490 excess is to say we have almost no excess and will likely be in deficit in certain attendance areas.”
City Leaders Embrace Loopholes
Forces often outside the district’s control are collaborating to create the school crunch in a matter of years, officials warn. Skyrocketing construction costs have contributed to a projected $12.86 million budget deficit, while state laws severely limit the district’s ability to extract fees from developers to build new schools.
At the same time, city leaders are grafting new loopholes onto growth-control laws to allow the construction of hundreds of homes that were never planned for. By 2013, Gilroy officials expect to have exceeded their 10-year growth cap of 3,450 homes by more than 1,000 units.
North and southwest Gilroy pose the biggest challenges. Antonio Del Buono Elementary School in north Gilroy is already 25 students shy of its maximum capacity of 750, and city leaders early last year created a loophole that allowed a 260-unit affordable housing complex for the area.
The affordable project, which the district expects to be complete by 2009, will bring more than 100 additional children to the school, Brinkman predicted.
Some of the new students will have to be bussed to Rucker Elementary School, which would require millions of dollars in fire safety and other improvements to accommodate the additional burden, Brinkman said.
Such costs are not contemplated in the $252 million budgeted for district-wide improvements – a budget already $12.9 million in deficit, according to the district’s so-called facilities master plan.
The shortfall strains the school district as it grapples with a new phase in the city’s growth. Gilroy officials have embarked on an era of pre-planning for vast swaths of land, rather than allowing small-scale projects to haphazardly crop up around the city. The development style has been lauded as the path to well-planned neighborhoods and smart growth, but it is proving a nightmare for the school district.
The district last month agreed to pay the developers of Glen Loma Ranch, a 1,693-home project slated for southwest Gilroy, $10.8 million for a new elementary school site. The district seized the land using eminent domain and has already constructed half the school, but it has yet to see a single home rise around the site, expected to open in fall 2007. More importantly, it has yet to collect a single dollar in so-called “impact fees” from the Glen Loma developers, who have relied on provisions in a development agreement with the city to delay construction beyond the anticipated start date.
For developers, the ability to shift each phase of construction three years ahead or behind is crucial for tapping into peak market conditions, and such provisions are becoming a staple of voluntary agreements that accompany large, pre-planned developments.
But greater flexibility for developers leaves school officials wondering if they’ll be flooded with children earlier than expected or, as in the case with Glen Loma, saddled with budget deficits due to construction delays.
A State Straight-Jacket
Closing the funding gap has turned into the most nagging problem. State law only allows school officials to charge developers $2.63 per square foot of new development to finance new facilities, but officials say they need more than $9 per square foot to keep pace with growth.
District officials are proposing that city council follow the lead of other California cites and use incentives to get developers to give back more to the community. The San Ramon School District worked with local cities to get developers to voluntarily double the fees they normally pay to build new schools. Livermore officials resorted to more extreme measures and declared a construction moratorium to convince developers to provide more funding for schools.
Gilroy schools Superintendent Edwin Diaz recently said he would back a moratorium if all else fails. He departs in a few months for a new position in Southern California, and some officials worry about losing momentum in an effort that promises to be contentious. With Diaz gone, the initiative likely will fall to GUSD attorneys and school board members.
“Something needs to be done,” said school board President Tom Bundros. “Moratorium is the hydrogen bomb kind of thing. I’m not sure we need to go there, but if we do, it’s nice that it’s there. The city is in the process of evaluating these models and we’ll agree on something to help meet the needs of Gilroy’s growth.
“Unless we have some tools or methodology to mitigate the impacts of future growth, we’ll be broken,” Bundros added. “We won’t have classroom space for kids. We need that methodology, that process, in place now.”
Builders Wince at Prospects
Local developer James Suner said “there is a potential solution out there,” but he questioned the more extreme solutions offered up by the district.
“It needs to be negotiated,” Suner said. “It can’t be at the end of the gun.”
In the past, city leaders have refused to pressure developers to do more for the school district. A state law passed in the late ’90s at the urging of the construction lobby not only capped the fees school districts could charge developers, but prevented city and county governments from imposing fees for school facilities. Until recent weeks, city officials insisted the law banned them from raising the issue of school facilities even in negotiations of voluntary contracts – such as the development agreement that gave Glen Loma Ranch flexibility in its construction schedule.
School officials argue the city has far too conservative an interpretation of the law, and school attorneys have submitted a list of case examples showing how districts around California have worked with local governments to increase developer support for schools.
But the most effective way to prevent school overcrowding does not involve development agreements or construction moratoriums, said City Administrator Jay Baksa.
“It’s obvious the school district and city must collaborate, and they are collaborating,” he said. “But until we get the body politic of this state – every one of us as California citizens – to rethink this law, there won’t be any change. That’s where the power is. It’s not anything we’re creating locally. This is happening at the state level. Anybody who has children should be upset about this statewide. I don’t know how the school district does it. They’re in an incredibly difficult situation and the state legislature has made it much more difficult than it should be.”
