Category Archives: Schools

Joint City Council / School Board Meeting (May 2)

By Development, Schools

fusd

In addition to watching a couple of performances by Fremont’s talented school children, there were a couple of routine items on the agenda. We heard a presentation on how both the City and the School District are implementing clean energy strategies. We also received a presentation on how AC Transit has dedicated a few bus lines primarily to get kids to and from school.

The FUSD Attorney presented a talk on Level III fees. I had requested in our last joint meeting to hear more about this. The bottom line is this is something controlled at the State level so there’s not much the City nor FUSD can do about this except send people to Sacramento to lobby for these fees to be implemented. This week local school advocates are indeed filling buses and taking them to Sacramento for just this purpose. (See my prior post on the State bond measure for more info on this.) (more…)

School Board Statement on New Development

By Schools

On 2/10 the School Board adopted the following position statement on development and schools.

I agree that the developers need to be ‘ethically responsible’ and provide adequate funding to accommodate the students that their developments will create.

In 2012, I pledged not to approve new developments if we don’t know where we don’t know where those students would go to school. I have lived up to that pledge and will make the same pledge for my 2016 re-election campaign.

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“Additional new housing in Fremont is contributing to the overcrowding of Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) schools. We are pleased with the work being done between FUSD, Fremont City Council, and the developers of the Warm Springs development to build a new school and provide funding for the feeder junior high and senior high schools. We believe that the developers of other approved housing developments should work with the Fremont City Council and FUSD to provide neighborhood classrooms. Any future proposed developments should do the same. Fremont is a desirable City for so many because of our schools, which only adds to the overcrowding problem in FUSD. The developers need to be ethically responsible by contributing sufficient funds to prevent any overcrowding problems that their development creates.”

Joint Fremont City Council / School Board Meeting

By Schools

This was an interesting meeting largely because of the people who spoke from the community during the open comment period. The resounding theme from the comments was that our schools are very overcrowded and something needs to be done to resolve this.

One of the suggestions that the School Board has been considering is asking the City to donate surplus land to the School District in order to build a new elementary school. The main parcel mentioned is behind Washington High School at Eggers and Hastings. This is a City-owned parcel that was scheduled to be a community park back in 2002. According to one speaker, the City has not created a park there because we can’t afford to maintain it. So, since nothing is happening with the land, the thought is that the City could donate it to the School District.

My concern with this is that it could potentially allow a future developer to use a new school on this site without having to pay their fair share. In other words, the City donates the land, the School District struggles to come up with the money for a new school, and then a new development uses this school without having to pay anything beyond the standard fees (which cover only about a third of the required infrastructure costs).

This is a very real scenario as there is a 670 unit development planned at Walnut / Guardino. Currently, there is no nearby school that could accommodate students from this development. At the study session on this project there was no mention of paying additional fees to deal with this issue.
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Patterson Ranch Developers Lose Their Case Against the School District.

By Schools

Fremont Unified School District

I’m very happy that this happened. I remember when Patterson Ranch was being discussed Dr. Morris said point blank that there was no room in the nearby schools for those students and they would have to be in an ‘unassigned’ school district.

Simply put, if there’s no room in the nearby schools then there’s no room in the nearby schools. Trying to paint it any differently is dishonest.

Read more from the School District’s site.