An Open Letter to the San Diego Unified School District and the Board of Education
Stadium Lights Clairemont High School
By Jim Zumbiel
We in the El Cerrito Community, along with other neighborhoods all around the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), have been under siege by SDUSD for the last few years and would like to respectfully pose some questions to SDUSD and Board of Education.
The proposed plan from SDUSD is to build an 18 million dollar sports complex at Crawford High School which will include a 2250 seat stadium in the residential El Cerrito neighborhood of San Diego. This school has not received any improvements, besides a new library and an internet upgrade, since its inception in 1957. It’s the last school in the district to receive upgrades of a substantial nature. We have the following questions:
Why are you spending $18M on a new Sports Complex which will benefit a relatively few number of students as opposed to upgrading the school which will benefit all? The school, as everyone knows, is in desperate need of repair. It is, quite frankly, an eyesore or many levels. The students, parents and the community have waited long enough for a new school, don’t you think?
You tell us that the school upgrades will begin sometime around 2020. Where will that money come from? Are you planning to put forth another bond measure at that time?
This is how Propositions “S” and “Z” were posed to the taxpayers of San Diego in 2008:
Proposition “S” – “To improve every neighborhood school by; repairing outdated student restrooms, deteriorated plumbing and roofs; upgrading career/vocational classrooms and labs; providing up-to-date classroom technology; improving school safety/security; replacing dilapidated portable classrooms; upgrading fire alarms; and removing hazardous substances; shall San Diego Unified School District issue $2,100,000,000 in bonds at legal interest rates, requiring independent citizen oversight, annual audits, NO money for administrators, and bonds issued only if NO estimated tax rate increase?”
Proposition “Z” – San Diego Neighborhood Schools Classroom Safety and Repair Measure. To repair neighborhood schools and charter schools with funding the state cannot take away by: Repairing deteriorating 60-year-old classrooms, libraries, wiring, plumbing, bathrooms and leaky roofs; Removing hazardous mold, asbestos, and lead; Upgrading fire safety systems/doors; Upgrading classroom instructional technology, labs and vocational education classrooms; Shall San Diego Unified School District issue $2.8 billion in bonds at legal interest rates with citizen’s oversight, independent financial audits, no money for administrators’ salaries and all funds spent locally?
Where, in these descriptions, does it describe anything like demolishing a standing, 1000 seat stadium and building, in a different location, an $18M, 2250 seat stadium and surrounding ball fields which will include a PA system and six 90 foot light poles?
Why did you feel the necessity to compose a Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), dated December 5th, 2014, which included the following language:
“Pursuant to District policy and the Civic Center Act, the new athletic stadium and other athletic facilities proposed at Crawford High School and Mann Middle School could possibly be used by third parties for events. This was clarified in July 2014, when the District revised Administrative Procedure 9229 regarding use of District athletic fields and lighted stadiums in accordance with the Civic Center Act. There are currently no plans or proposals for third party use of the proposed stadium; however, it is possible that third party uses may occur in the future in accordance with District policy. The Draft EIR has been revised to reflect the possibility that athletic fields could be used for third party uses and changes to the site plans for the Crawford and Mann campuses developed by the District subsequent to submittal of the original EIR for public review.”
Could it be that you wanted to make sure that if and when you started renting out the stadium or shall we say, commercializing the stadium by renting it to businesses like VAVi, the west coasts’ largest adult sports and social club which is what’s happening at Clairemont High School where they hold over 200 events, that you want to make this permanent in the Crawford EIR to avoid issues down the road?
Speaking of The Civic Center Act, here’s what it says:
“The Civic Center Act establishes a civic center at each school site to provide space for the community to engage in recreational, educational, political, economic, artistic and moral discussions and activities. School districts must make school facilities and grounds available to nonprofit organizations and clubs or associations organized to promote youth and school activities, such as the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire USA, YMCA, parent-teacher associations and school-community advisory councils and may charge an amount not to exceed the direct costs of the District for such use”.
I don’t think that when Governor Jerry Brown signed this amendment to the Civic Center Act in 2012, he or anyone else envisioned a California School District interpreting this amendment to include a high school stadium rental to a $14M business.
Jim Zumbiel is an El Cerrito Resident
Editor Note: Mr. Zumbiel’s submission has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
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I am glad Jim wrote this letter to show there are very valid concerns of the residents. I drive by the school every day on my short ride home for lunch and I see the kids that don’t see strong graduation rates, strong college acceptance rates, nor have much faith in their schools ability to get the up the Socioeconomic ladder. While a stadium gives them something pretty to be proud of, the education they receive should come first. Upgrade the field but lets not act like this is a Friday Night Lights top tier school that has students attending en mass. The existing 1000 seats are already too many for the few that come. Help foster the community, not a football field.
What these folks describe is terrible. Even I’ve heard lately from people around San Diego Unified School District who are worrying about proposed “improvements” to their local football fields and stadiums that may permanently harm the quality of their neighborhood life.
Public school libraries — many renovated or built under a previous bond measure 15 years ago when there were no librarians and few books — are not open to the public Monday through Saturday evenings. But school stadiums are? For money-making events?
Where are the School Board Democrats? Where are community planning groups on these drastic changes? People need to band together and get an experienced public interest/land-use lawyer to protect their rights to peace and quiet.
Sadly i have only seen 150 or less people at games including players. I have also been told Crawford has the highest athletic game cancelation percentage in SDUSD for all sports. Not a sports school, so why force the issue, make an amphitheater!
I am a Crawford alum. That’s my school, and my siblings’. We grew up in that area in the mid-60s to mid-70s or so; which meant, amongst other things, that we could walk to our schools (Crawford, Mann JHS – now Middle – and still-there-then Jackson Elementary) on our own. I liked that neighborhood very much – wonderful location. Had a chance to drive out that way a year or so back, and was pleasantly surprised at how little its “skyline,” so to speak, had changed.
We did not have a real honest-to-God football field of our own. I’ve heard various stories re why one wasn’t built back at the start, along with the rest of the school; including that the surrounding neighborhood wasn’t keen on the idea of game-night lights, noise et al.
Sound familiar, does it?
Instead, our de facto “home field” was the late-and-still-lamented Aztec Bowl; and, sometimes, the field over at our then-Eastern League arch-rivals, Hoover High.
So, at the very least, building a proper on-campus football field will complete the basic physical plant, and – at last – make right on something that should’ve been done nearly 60 years ago (would’ve been a lot cheaper back then, too)…
Much beyond that, I think I can hear more than a little NIMBYism in some of the comments in the main article. No two school sites are precisely the same (compare Crawford and Hoover to, say, Patrick Henry, whose football field takes advantage of a natural canyon), so solutions must of necessity be tailored to the specific limitations of each. The “civic center” idea is an interesting one – but doing it well, will require wisdom on all sides. Alas, San Diego at large hasn’t always been any too good at that…
Go Colts!!
I live couple blocks from Crawford and I agree that the football, baseball and tennis courts should all be upgraded for the students. I don’t think any of the neighbors disagree with that. What we disagree is the renting out the fields for outside school use. They are tripling the capacity of the facility without adding any infrastructure. No new parking space, no new streets, etc. They will be parking cars in our backyard!
Is this NIMBYism? No, I do not want this in my backyard or anyone else’s backyard. The school facilities should be mainly for the school and students, not as a revenue source for the district.
Denny
Appreciate reading your observations, Denny – thanks! :-)
SDUSD: Ignorance is Bli$$
Mission Bay High School was the rushed recipient this year of a $million dollar athletic field upgrade which is soon to be inaugurated, a top of the line, crumb rubber artificial turf field and track, installed feet away from the mission bay marsh and the mouth of the Rose Creek watershed. Crumb rubber is a growing controversial health and environmental issue. This recent experimental product made with recycled tires, with no health or environmental controls, being shoved down our kids throats in multi-use ,mall-weather fields, is known to contain carcinogenic compounds, and to leach zinc into the waterways and ground, to “acute aquatic levels of toxicity” for organisms, as well as having an extremely high carbon footprint. Made of rubber and plastic, in the sun, the surface temperatures reach 150 degrees, all while off-gassing toxic VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) that smell of old tires, and decomposing toxic crumb rubber dust in the faces of our kids. “In-house” school district prepared EIR’ s are not mentioning the potential and worrisome effects of crumb rubber product on the health of our children or the environment. This is odd as the controversy is not new… The Los Angeles Unified school district banned crumb rubber products in their schools in 2009, the state of New York too, the American women soccer team is suing the world soccer federation over having to play on this surface in competition, which they consider dangerous, the Sonoma County School District, just last month , decided to stop using crumb rubber products in their schools…the list goes on… But here, in San Diego, our school board sees not, hears not, speaks not… Too busy counting up the revenues for renting out to event organizers? The world of beer and balls of the sports industry?
“I hear it is only the goalies getting cancer”, said one school board member… Our children should have natural,organic fields to play on; teen cancers are on the rise. Comprehensive economic studies show that natural turf fields are less expensive globally. My impression of our school board, and the sudden sprouting of these toxic fields and their future projects and designs for sharing our public schools and our childrens’ future with sports clubs’ bottom lines is not an admirable one if their choice is to use toxic materials…
Parents, people, players, read up on the toxic effects of crumb rubber , (and hot plastics) you too, school board. http://www.ehhi.org (environment and human health institute).
I am very impressed with the amount and quality of the work Jim Zumbiel is doing. I was instrumental in defeating a cell phone tower which was going to be placed 20 feet from our bedroom window. I know how much work, and how stressful this is…..Anyway, the thing that surprises me the most is the school board does not seem accountable to anyone. The City Council and Mayor’s office do not have a say. Who does monitor the school board in respect to what they do with the DISTRICTS (PUBLIC) money and property? This whole thing with the stadiums and the degradation of the quality of life for surrounding neighbors is a perfect example of abuse of power. I sincerely hope someone in government (our elected officials) do something about this because it is obvious the school board (our elected officials) have no regard for the citizens of the city. In fact, they are making things worse! They seem to be trying to put a “spin” on the info they give out to get what they want. (just read some of jim’s posts)
Thank you Jim for doing all this. We all appreciate your efforts even if some of us cannot get to the meetings.
steph lynch
While I can appreciate the need for Physical Education, and with current conditions of the Outdoor Facilities, the need for improvements, it is clear that the SDUSD School Board is not doing this for the benefit of their students. A quick walk around the campus will show the entire campus is in a similar state of repair as its fields, however SDUSD has no plans to address the rest of the campus until 2020, if money is available. Had the school board come forward with a reasonable proposal to renovate the outdoor fields in their current locations (and not demolish existing classrooms in the process to make room for facilities for 3rd party use), as well as improving the actual campus, the community would be in support. We want to see our Bond S & Bond Z money spent on improving a school that has been neglected, and no one is arguing this campus does not need improvement, except for SDUSD. Sadly the School Board has no interest in listening to the community: a single meeting over a year ago and now they are inviting construction bids, without the latest EIR even being accepted.
I applaud San Diego Free Press for taking up the issue, hopefully more of San Diego can see what really happens when we approve Bond Funds for SDUSD.