Could shared gym be laying foundation for future
partnerships?
GILROY – A combination of excess school district property and the city’s need for more facilities to meet growing population demands could make for a perfect marriage between the two garlic town agencies.
In recent days, Gilroy Unified School District and City of Gilroy officials have discussed options to ensure such unions, which have a history dating back to the 1950s, can stick around for a while. Proposed land swaps and joint-use facility projects could, anywhere from five to 25 years from now, bring an aquatics center, additional ball fields and maybe a new post office to town.
The school district owns nearly 25 acres of unused property it can sell or swap as it progresses on its 25-year, $150 million master plan that will, in addition to renovating many campuses, relocate an elementary school and build a new high school and elementary school in the north end of town.
“The beauty of this is we’re early enough in the process where the city could build (on existing or new district property) an aquatics center, a dance hall, a library annex, whatever makes sense … ,” school board Trustee Bob Kraemer said.
The district’s nearly completed Ascencion Solorsano Middle School serves as a prime example of city and school district cooperation. Construction of the campus’ $2 million multipurpose gymnasium was funded by the city. The gym will serve students during school days and the rest of the community at night and on weekends.
The deal saved GUSD the construction costs and spared the city the expense of purchasing pricey land.
On Thursday, GUSD trustees approved an agreement spelling out the usage rights and maintenance responsibilities of each agency. City Council is expected to approve the contract at its next session Monday, City Manager Jay Baksa said.
“There is a long history of joint-use facilities here,” Baksa said. “It’s an excellent thing and it’s unique, too. This happens very rarely between school districts and cities.”
It may be rare in other parts, but since the city funded construction of South Valley Middle School’s pool back in the 1950s (when the campus housed Gilroy’s high school), the practice is common here.
Baksa said future campuses would be natural settings for more than one kind of city/school facility. Potential projects include: putting an aquatics center with more than one pool and capacity for diving and water polo at the new high school; and building a cultural center to put on plays and other events.
“We can always use more of everything,” Baksa said. “Right now facilities at Gilroy High and Gavilan are in use all the time.”
This summer, GUSD will conduct a study to formally determine which of its properties it can sell. Potential lots include the existing Las Animas school site at 8450 Wren Ave., the former San Ysidro school site at 2220 Pacheco Pass Highway and more than 2 acres behind the district office at 7810 Arroyo Circle.
If it were up to Mayor Tom Springer, a new post office would land on the Las Animas site.
“It’s a fairly central location. It’s next to major arterials (Mantelli Drive and Wren Avenue). It’s available land. Those are good reasons in my book,” Springer said.
In exchange for the school district’s land, someone who owns but is not permitted to develop land in the unincorporated areas surrounding Gilroy could give GUSD their property so a new elementary school could be built in 10 to 15 years. The developer benefits by gaining the Eigleberry post office property which could be turned into, for instance, a multi-use commercial and limited-income residential site.
“These are the types of possibilities people need to be thinking about,” Springer said.
Another Springer-generated idea is to do a three-way land swap with the city, GUSD and the county.
Currently, the county-owned Ochoa Migrant Center houses farm workers in a southeast section of Gilroy that will be surrounded by industrial lots in the future. Springer said the camp might be more appropriately suited at the GUSD’s San Ysidro site.
If GUSD gives San Ysidro to the county and the county in turn gives the Ochoa site to the city, Gilroy could allow a developer to build an industrial complex at the Ochoa camp. In a final quid pro quo, the developer would give a separate property to the school district to use at its discretion.
