Font ResizeSHUSD Board president Dennis O’Sullivan
The trustees of the Southern Humboldt Unified School District met in a special study session at Redway School on Tuesday, March 2. Dave Taylor and Tom Semingson of Semingson Architects and John Isom of Isom Advisors were at the meeting to provide information and help the trustees navigate the possibilities of the bond measure the trustees will vote on at their March 11 meeting.
Board president Dennis O’Sullivan said the board needed the opportunity to have a “candid discussion” of the issues, the main one being whether to use the bond money to purchase property in the Garberville area and build a new high school/junior high school facility or allocating the money to rebuilding and replacing the current high school in Miranda and upgrading and rebuilding the district’s facilities in Redway, Casterlin, Weott, Whitethorn and Ettersburg.
Several board members had received phone calls from people advocating for using the bond money to build a new, state-of-the-art high school in the Garberville area. O’Sullivan said also that he had heard from people who thought the district was moving too quickly and needed to slow down.
”We’ve been doing this a long time,” O’Sullivan said. He said the discussion of what to do about the district’s deteriorating buildings went back at least a generation. He said the most recent push to buy property and build a new high school on it began with former board member Jeff Haas. At that time they looked at a 25-acre site and were very excited about the beauty of the location. They had two surplus sites for sale at that time -- Alderpoint and the old Garberville School -- and it looked as if those properties might fetch enough money to make such a plan possible. But then the downturn hit and they didn’t get as much for the Garberville property as they had hoped when the boom was on and the Alderpoint property is still unsold.
”It’s time to make a decision,” he said. “I don’t believe we have much time left with our facilities.”
School board member Scotty McClure echoed that sentiment.
”We don’t have time to waste,” he said. “South Fork is falling down.”
Taylor and Semingson did an analysis of the costs of purchasing property and rebuilding in the Garberville area. Taylor said that developing a new piece of property as a school site will require a CEQA review as well as reviews by the California Department of Education and the California Department of Forestry, as well as water and soil analysis, and transportation and circulation reviews. The lack of adequate ingress and egress to the proposed property site will be a problem, Taylor said and solving that problem will add to the costs. Leaving out the cost of the land, Taylor and Semingson estimated that construction of a new high school would cost about $26 million dollars. This would mean that all the bond money would have to be spent on relocating the high school and no money would be available for the district’s other facilities.
The time frame for a new high school at a new location was estimated to be about five years before the district would be ready to begin construction. And during that time frame, students would still be housed at Miranda on the campus as it is.
The proposal as it stands is for a bond measure that would provide $25 million to the district through the sale of municipal bonds over a period of years. The money would not come all at once. The district could borrow against future bond sales for a “bridge loan” but Isom said he didn’t recommend the district go for such a loan until it needed to.
The survey Isom conducted showed that the majority of voters contacted supported rebuilding the high school where it is now. Trustee Susan Thompson had questions about what that meant. She asked if it meant repairing what’s broken and leaving the “footprint” of the high school and junior high as it is.
Taylor said that what would happen is a combination of new construction and rehabilitation of existing structures. All the buildings will be analyzed as to condition and location and decisions made about whether buildings should be torn down and replaced or rehabilitated. He said the end result will be a facility that is up to modern standards, including technological standards that will enhance the education the district offers.
”Modernization done right means you won’t recognize the place,” he said. “It will be a new facility that meets all the requirements and allows a higher quality education. When the environment is improved, the education will improve.”
Among the ideas being considered already, he said, is to erect a new building in the area where the tennis courts are. The construction will also involve new sports fields, he said and include the auxiliary buildings, such as the shops. He said that the idea is to combine the junior high and the high school on one campus that will allow them to share facilities such as the cafeteria.
Taylor said that the new trend in education is for high schools and junior highs to share a campus.
The construction is expected to take about three to five years. The initial phase will be done in stages and the first stage will take about 12 to 16 months. During that period students will still be housed on the campus. One possibility, Taylor said, is to do a quick rehab of the junior high and house students there while demolition and construction takes place on the high school campus.
There was also discussion of the possibility of getting some reimbursement from the state on the rebuilding project. All three of the advisors felt that in the current economic climate in the state, reimbursement would not be available until the district had expended its bond money. The district doesn’t qualify for new school construction assistance.
The wording of the bond measure was also thoroughly discussed. Some people at the public meeting at South Fork complained about the lack of specificity. Taylor and Semingson said it was wiser to not be too specific because surprises may be encountered in the demolition and construction and the district needs the flexibility to be able to adjust to possible changes of plan.
”Some districts spend $50,000 on a detailed plan and when the bond measure fails, people yell at them for spending that money,” Semingson said.
As it was a study session, the trustees did not take any action on the bond language, but in an informal poll of the board members’ sentiments, it became clear that they favor keeping the high school in Miranda.
”It’s the right thing to do,” said Trustee Tom Mulder.
O’Sullivan said that he was reminded of South Fork graduate Don Ristow’s senior project which was a detailed plan for building a new high school on the existing South Fork campus. Everyone had been impressed with Ristow’s proposal at the time, and the trustees favored getting that project out again and sharing it with the architects.
The trustees also said they felt comfortable with the time line of getting the resolution passed at their March 11 meeting.
”When the iron is hot, you strike,” said O’Sullivan.
The school board will meet at Redway School on Thursday, March 11.
