The effort to address overcrowding in the Hermosa Beach schools has entered its next phase, as district officials spread the word about a facilities bond facing voters on the June ballot.
Measure S would allow for major renovations at View and Valley, the city’s two existing schools, and the reopening of a third site, North School, on 25th Street. Hermosa Beach City School District officials say there is insufficient space for the student population.
The district previously attempted to remedy crowding with Measure Q, a facilities bond on the November 2014 ballot. That measure fell 32 votes short of the 55 percent margin state law requires for school construction levies.
Since then, the space crunch has had all kinds of unexpected effects, said Superintendent Patricia Escalante. A teachers’ lounge has been converted into classroom. The district has deployed so many portable classrooms that students are short on blacktop space. During annual school testing, now done on computers, classrooms lack the Internet bandwidth to stream music.
“We have currently a pretty severe case of overcrowded schools,” said School Board President Mary Campbell at a recent informational meeting about the bond measure. “We also have aging school facilities.”
Total costs for the three projects are estimated at between $58 million and $67 million. Because funding has not yet been secured, plans for the three sites remain tentative. Among the aspects to be resolved are whether the North School site will feature surface or underground parking.
“We haven’t gotten into the design phase yet,” Escalante said. “On private projects, you have the ability to be flexible any way you want. When you’re public, changes have to go through the state.”
Funding would come from a bond that would add $29.50 in property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value, raising the city’s current assessment level to $45.25.
Measure S backers are quick to note that, even with the new assessment, Hermosa taxpayers would still have far lower rates than their neighbors in other districts. The rate in Manhattan Beach is $70.05 per $100,000 of assessed value, while the El Segundo Unified School district pays $72.97, and Redondo Beach pays $92.42.
That disparity, however, failed to convince voters during the campaign for Measure Q. District officials speculate that resistance to bond measures may be rooted in the city’s history.
Hermosa once had several more schools than it now does. In addition to the current View and Valley schools and the planned North School, there was: Pier Avenue Junior High, in the current Hermosa Beach Community Center; South Elementary School, located behind present day South Park; and Prospect Heights Elementary, where the city park Fort Lots-o-Fun now stands. As enrollment declined, past boards sold off these locations to the city, boosting district revenues.
But enrollment has returned to previous levels. View, designed at a time when it was one of five schools in the district, was built for between 250-300 kids; enrollment for the 2015-2016 year is 540 students.
“It’s possible that our community isn’t quite as accustomed to supporting our needs through bonds,” Campbell said.
The largest expense in the construction bond would be the reopening of North School. Sitting just east of Valley Park, the facility is currently home to preschool programs Children’s Journey and Mommy and Me. Under the district’s plan, the campus would be home to third and fourth graders. Third graders currently attend View, while fourth graders are at Valley.
North’s reopening is also the most controversial part of the bond measure. Neighbors in the area have questioned the impact of reopening the school on neighborhood traffic. Many of the surrounding streets are narrow and winding, and have limited access to main arteries.
In advance, district officials are exploring a variety of traffic-mitigating measures. Among those under consideration are the use of the Kiwanis Club site on Valley Drive as a drop off location, the use of a “walking school bus” leading kids to the school, and a staggered bell schedule.
District officials also say that the school’s neighbors would see little change in traffic volume. According to Escalante, approximately 300 students attended North in 1987, its last year of operation in the district; about 300 students now attend the preschool programs there; and about 300 students are projected to attend the school under the district’s plan, which would reopen the school in three years.
Indeed, district officials hope that traffic in the area would be lighter than it is now. By selecting third and fourth graders for the school’s population, the district hopes that a portion of the students would be able to ride bikes or walk to school.
“Right now, every single child who interacts with that school is under five and needs a ride,” Campbell said.
The district has commissioned a traffic impact study for the area, which will examine 10 intersections and at least 12 streets. Escalante said that the study is being handled by outside consultants, and could not say when the results would be released.
Proponents say that the traffic issue is fraught with misinformation. Michael Collins, co-chair of the campaign committee for Measure S, said that he has encountered several people who incorrectly believe that the renovation will convert several thoroughfares in the area to one-way streets.
“It’s nowhere in district plans to one-way a street,” Collins said. “And in fact, they don’t have that power anyway.”
Collins said that the campaign is reaching out to residents, including those without children in the district. District officials, meanwhile, hope that the presence of Donald Trump on the primary ballot will draw voters to the polls in June.
“What we were really concerned about is low voter turnout,” Campbell said. “But this could get interesting, in a good way.”
