Category Archives: Schools

School Board to Assign Grades to New Developments

By Schools

At the School Board meeting earlier this week the Board approved a policy of assigning grades (yes A through F) to new residential developments based on how much they help fund schools in Fremont.

• Approved proposed Residential Development grading scale – With residential development outpacing its ability to sufficiently accommodate new students moving to the area, FUSD has proposed a grading system to bring attention to the disparity between current developer fees and the actual cost of school construction.

You can read more here:

http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=5545&ModuleInstanceID=4613&ViewID=047E6BE3-6D87-4130-8424-D8E4E9ED6C2A&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=51398&PageID=28509

Joint City Council / School Board Meeting – 10/5

By Development, Schools

The Fremont City Council and Fremont Unified School Board held a joint meeting earlier this week. Sorry for the lengthy post but there was a lot discussed.

First, there were comments noting that the amount of money coming from the State has decreased over the past few years which has hurt local school funding. Also, Senate Bill 50 prevents the City Council from rejecting residential developmentbased on school issues alone. I raised the point that while this is true for property that is designated as residential under the General Plan, it does not mean that a General Plan amendment must be made to allow for more residential units to be built. For example, a General Plan amendment was required for the 500 unit Patterson Ranch development.

Superintendent Morris noted that the District now has 10 open classrooms. These 10 will be filled next school year in order to reduce class sizes. The expected growth next year will result in another 20 classrooms being required. These classrooms simply don’t exist. And this does not consider the students from the Patterson Ranch development nor the proposed Walnut / Guardino development. It’s unclear at this time how the School District will deal with this additional demand. (more…)

Joint City Council / School Board Meeting

By 1 commentDevelopment, Schools

On Monday, February 2nd the Fremont Unified School District Board and the Fremont City Council held a joint meeting to discuss issues relevant to both organizations. Of course, the main issue of concern is what developments the City is approving and how these are affecting the ability of the School District to accommodate all of the resulting students.

On the bright side, the major developments planned near the future Warm Springs BART station, which include nearly 4,000 homes, should be able to be accommodated by the new school that is planned as a part of the development. I asked the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Morris, about the student generation rates they expect from the development. The District’s demographer believes that a 750 student elementary school would suffice. The District is asking that the main facilities at the school (cafeteria, gymnasium, etc.) all be designed for 1,100 students in case the school does have to expand its capacity.

New Position Paper on Schools

By Schools

I just posted a position paper entitled “What Can the City Council Do For Our Schools?” The conclusion is below. The full text can be found here.

Council often has the attitude that they don’t administer the schools and it’s something outside of their purview. On the contrary, Council does make decisions that have profound impacts on our schools. By approving large developments without the appropriate schools in place, Council creates the overcrowding situation that we see at many of Fremont’s schools.