The Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) made its decision to move and expand the Alma Pre-School to the lower Marshall baseball field without adequate prior notice to Alma or Marshall School parents, or to the impacted community around the Marshall campus.

Given the impact to the schools and surrounding community, this project should have been opened to more robust community discussions. In fact, California Education Code Section 17211 as well as CVUSD Board Policy recognize the importance of community input in determining school sites. CVUSD Board Policy No. 7150 specifically states that the “Board recognizes the importance of community input in the site selection process. To this end, the Board will solicit community input whenever a school site is to be selected and shall provide public notice and hold public hearings in accordance with law.” The CVUSD Board of Education did not follow its own policy.
Marshall parents received a letter sent home on May 7, 2014, and Alma parents and local community received no notification, about a meeting that was held on May 9, 2014 to inform them about the move.

At the May 9 meeting, the district said it had evaluated eight other elementary sites throughout the district. Of those, at least two other campuses (Stanton and Vannoy) were functionally feasible sites for the new preschool.

• Marshall was chosen primarily for the cost savings realized from utilizing existing blacktop and tapping into the existing sewer and utility connections located at Marshall’s lower fields.
• The evaluation process failed to take into account the current and projected enrollment at the sites in question. Marshall currently has over 460 students, in a facility originally designed for 250. Enrollment has increased 20% since the 2009/10 school year.
• CVUSD says that the upper parking lot at Marshall will be expanded to accommodate the additional staff parking generated by the preschool, but those costs and the impacts eliminating green space at Marshall are not included in the final estimates.

Neither of the other two potentially viable sites have the sheer amount of community usage outside of school hours. A parking/traffic analysis would surely prove this out. Much of this data has already been recently compiled by the County Public Works Department as a part of the recent sidewalk upgrades nearby. Traffic, pedestrian safety, and emergency vehicle access also need to be considered. The liability aspects being assumed by CVUSD could easily offset any cost savings from sewer and utility construction.

Marshall’s fields have their existing blacktop, sewer and utilities because of a decades long partnership with the Castro Valley Independent Sports League (CVI), who paid for the sewer and utility connections to be installed, as well as many improvements to the blacktop area. The lower lot at Marshall is used for parking as well as drop off and pickup for players. Eliminating parking would add around 20 extra cars to the parking load on surrounding streets, as well as extra congestion from drop off and pickup activities. CVI was also never consulted or notified of any of these plans.

If a private school, or other organization were proposing this move, the County would require a parking and traffic demand study for the project conducted by a qualified transportation engineer. The Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) would probably also be involved. CVUSD, however, is able to exempt itself from this, and it plans exempt itself from all County Zoning requirements, as well as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for all aspects of this project.
CVUSD needs to put this project on hold and reevaluate it.

Imagine if the Alma Pre-School has permanent home at the old Castro Valley Library on Redwood. While the building itself is unfit, the parking lot could now hold temporary portables while the main building is replaced with a new building. The lot could be acquired outright, or leased from the County to the benefit of CVUSD, Alameda County, the community, and most importantly the students.

CVUSD decision-making process was imperious and without adequate consultation or regard for the community. It violated California Education Code and CVUSD policy. It fails to take in the long-term needs of Alma students by moving them from one temporary solution to another, and it fails to take into account the future needs for expansion at the over-utilized Marshall site.

See Castro Valley Matter’s background on the relocation of Alma Pre-School