Disregards Climate Science

“I would not want to have a kid going to school, on a dump, while that waste is being inundated by water from below. Now that’s a good reason not to be on a contaminated site.”

—Professor Kristina Hill, Program Director, UC Berkeley Institute of Urban & Regional Development, speaking about Mill Valley Middle School on KQED, Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change, Aug 5, 2024. Listen to the full episode!

“But even if the district raises the school above the area that will likely flood in the coming decades, climate scientists said it won’t take much more sea-level rise to turn the school periodically into an “island.” The school’s sea-level rise solution might protect the property, but the district’s choice to raise the school doesn’t fix the parents’ woes of getting kids to class on flooded streets.”

—KQED’s Ezra David Romero, describing Mill Valley Middle School in Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse, Aug 7, 2024. Checkout the full article.

The proposed temporary site is on the portion of MVMS’s campus most subject to flooding, as evidenced by the flood warning signs posted there. There is only one access road. Even if the District raises the portables, it would, at best, create an inaccessible island for multiple days per year. There is no plan to address this clear climate change concern. The concern is magnified by the toxic waste below the site, which could seep upwards with rising groundwater and flooding.