Site Selection Criteria - We Clearly Need a Better Alternative!
When selecting a school site, whether permanent or temporary, the California Department of Education requires Districts to consider, among other things, the following criteria:
Safety - “These factors MUST be avoided”
Sites with contaminants/toxics in the soil or groundwater, such as from landfills and dumps.
Sites that are close to high decibel noise sources.
Sites that are close to high-pressure lines, including sewer lines.
Environment - Sites should be free from:
Sources of noise that may impede the instructional process.
Air, water, and soil pollution.
Dust and odors.
Soils
Sites shouldn’t have danger of liquefaction.
Size and Shape
Net acreage should be consisted with standards from California Department of Education.
Public Acceptance of the Proposed Site is also a factor
The proposed temporary site FAILS on every single measure listed here. Why is this still the plan?! We clearly need to explore the alternatives, so let’s do that.
Alternatives
Temporary Campus Option: Repurpose Terra Marin for the Temporary Campus
Currently, Terra Marin School occupies space owned by MVSD. That building previously housed a Pre-K through 8th Grade program, but starting in academic year 2024-25, the entire K-8 program uprooted and moved to San Francisco. Terra Marin has now defaulted on its lease, so the District terminated it, which was the right thing to do. Terra Marin has now agreed to vacate the site by November 30, 2024.
This property will thus be available again for District use. The District is, in fact, exploring the site for their own offices and spending ~$56k to study that option (see the June 12, 2024 Board Meeting and further mentioned the District’s FAQ about this).
The current proposal for the temporary campus at the MVMS site calls for 35,040 sq ft of space. By comparison, Terra Marin’s rentable area is 54,944 sq ft, including a school building and a parking lot and playing field that could accommodate portables. The entire planned temporary campus could thus fit at Terra Marin in some form.
The Terra Marin option for the temporary site would not displace any Edna students. Ingress and egress would be a challenge, but it is a challenge at the current site too (with its single access road prone to flooding that will be shared between the construction crew and families trying to get to school). Start times could be staggered and it would only be temporary. This sounds far more manageable (and cost effective) than dealing with the landfill gasses, elevated lead, stench, and distracting noise at the current temporary site.
This option would give the permanent site construction team more flexibility too. They wouldn't have to work around school hours and daily school traffic. The project could perhaps be completed faster. Mitigation measures (restoring the soil cap and installing methane monitors) at the permanent site could be done safely without kids next door, which reduces the District's risk profile on this project.
This option seems to have enough promise to merit a good hard look.
Other Ideas and Options
The Mayor and other Mill Valley city officials opposed the Friends Field plan, thus limiting the School Board’s options, which led to the proposed temporary site. The City is responsible for ensuring that Mill Valley remains a vibrant community able to offer excellent schools, which our property values depend upon to a significant degree. Moreover, the issues of sea level rise and climate change impact the entire community, and planning to address these things requires a collective and coordinated effort, not just isolated decisions. So, given all of that, would the City consider working creatively with MVSD to identify an alternative site for the temporary campus? Is there City land available that could be temporarily allocated for this civic purpose to avoid exposing hundreds of our young people to these awful hazards?
Would the Marin County Office of Education consider helping MVSD with alternate student placements, on a temporary basis, at other schools throughout the County? If not for all students, how about for those that wish to opt-out of the temporary housing next to the construction site? What about for those with special needs who will be particularly impacted by the construction distraction? At the June 10, 2024 Community Forum, Superintendent Kaufman floated the idea of an online school option for families who remain concerned over the health impacts at the current site. This is not a workable solution for these kids, who already suffered through years of COVID-related Zoom school. Hard pass. We need better solutions.
The District has not Disclosed any Rigorous Study of the Alternative Sites, for either the Temporary or Permanent Campus
The CA Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) and the California Department of Education site selection criteria require rigorous review of sites that present these types of risks. The District made these decisions and expended these funds before completing the full environmental review under the CEQA process. Indeed, they made these decisions before taking a single soil sample, despite knowing that the soil has a history of contamination.
An alternative site could save taxpayers significant money during construction and over time, lower the permitting risk, and keep our children safer. The only detail provided on alternative sites to the public was during the September 13, 2023 Board Meeting. This meeting looks at alternative sites with simple bullets on “Pros” and “Cons” but it did not seriously look at the health, permitting, and budget considerations that should be considered for an investment of this size that should last for 50+ years. You can read more about that presented Pro and Con List HERE.
The Board also was fully supportive of moving to a different location when it was considering Friends Field as recently as the February 2024 Board meeting since it could provide the following benefits:
“Coherence of Instructional Program & Mill Valley Middle School Student, Experience Student & Staff Safety, Locates student and staff further away from roadways and vehicular access points, Greater distance between existing buildings and construction site, Fiscal Stewardship - Fiduciary Responsibility: Anticipated savings of $6-8M by removing need for temporary student classrooms, Environmental Stewardship: Reduces construction waste and resources by eliminating temporary classroom campus, reduces smell distraction by locating students further away from sewage agency.”