Letter to Editor: Dublin Resident Has Idea to Build a New High School

Written by Dublin Resident Gabrielle Blackman (sent to this group's inbox)

20 years from now we will look back and wonder...

When opportunities arose that would have enabled us to more effectively address the unmitigated population growth affecting our schools, & our children, did we exhaust every option?

Did we do everything humanly possible….

If you’ve lived in Dublin more than 10 years, you’ve watched our city grow at unprecedented rate. If you’ve just moved here, welcome to our thriving city… where housing options are plentiful, the hills glow a vibrant spring green, and our school district has made great academic strides.

All of us have or know of children who are attending/have attended our schools. We take great pride in their hard work,tenacity, and academic accomplishments, deservedly bringing both state-wide & national recognition.However, all this achievement and praise has brought with it rampant development, realized at a pace that has taxed- and in some cases- surpassed the capacity of our city’s resources.

Student growth has exceeded projections. At almost every Dublin School student numbers have eclipsed intended capacity. Only through packing classrooms to their limit and renting ($$) an abundance of portables, has the district been able to hide the crises in plain sight. But we know it, and our children live with it every day. To date, the strategies embraced to mitigate growth, have merely established new campus capacities, ones that are surpassed the very next school year (ex:Fallon MiddleSchool).

Growth is outpacing accommodations, and the district is quickly running out of tactics to deploy. Funding for new solutions has been exhausted- or assigned to other projects. A grim future awaits our children… unless something is done & done now.

This is precisely why another bond is needed….but only if it charts a better course than the one we are on. Dublin’s children deserve an innovative solution that timely addresses critical needs in an efficient and thoughtful manner. A well- planned 2nd Comprehensive High School (CHS2) could very well address more than just our High School growth issue, it could also solve other lower-grade capacity crunch.

Consider this: The district is in hot pursuit of building a new elementary-designed K-5 school at Jordan Ranch. And rather than directly addressing the maxed-out capacity at Fallon Middle School with a new MiddleSchool (MS), the district is looking to toss in excess capacity in eastern-Dublin grades 6, 7, & 8 with theJordan Ranch school, newly referred to as K-8.

Mind you, the Jordan Ranch plan is a copy of the Amador Elementary school…a campus designed for K-5 students & curriculum. So…ask yourself, why would we bring MS students to a campus without providing them with necessary en-par curriculum spaces(gymnasium & track) found at our other Middle Schools? Did we think that some MS children can do without? & who decides which of these children attend an abridged MS site?

Clearly we need a 3rd MS in Dublin…right sized, right programed, right planned for MS curriculum & student use. Either JordanRanch can be a K-5, as its planning indicates, or the district needs to reconsider the site for 6-8 use.Such consideration would more effectively serve the interests of our young students. Temporarily housing K-5 students at an MS campus is quite achievable (Fallon MS opened as a hybrid K-8). But let us come back to this topic …

The District-provided demographer’s numbers, allude to our high school population doubling in perhaps10 years. That’s 5000 students. Growth will occur over time, we need to acknowledge that space needs will readily eclipse Dublin High School’s (DHS) intended capacity of 2500 next year: 2016-2017. What does the district do then? Use funding for temporary space (aka more portables)?Thankfully the district and board acknowledged the need for a 2nd Comprehensive High School (CHS2) in eastern Dublin. But… acknowledging the need is a far cry from actively pursuing a project of such enormity. Facilities Master Plan (FMP) consultant firm of LPA placed the cost of CHS2 in the area of$400,000,000 (now that’s a lot of zeros). $400M spread across 16,849 households (2010 Census projection for 2015) equates to roughly $23,700 each….& that’s without interest, …& without land acquisition costs (did I mention, there is no site designated for a new CHS2? Nothing in our city planning documents acknowledges it, even though with our city population has doubled in size). FMP (Facilities Master Plan) approximates the need for 40acres for new CHS2 campus, perhaps one can squeeze it on 20acres. Alas, at the going rate of $3Million - $5Million per acre, a new site would add $60,000,000 to $200,000,000 to the cost of building a new CHS2.

All of these costs presumes moving forward quickly…if we wait,inflation will only balloon costs further. Maybe there is an option to shave area off of Camp Parks… on the cheap. Tax payers would still have to cover that cost and the time to rectify any environmental impact/issues (CEQA)…would again add inflationary costs to CHS2.

Moving on –It isn’t all gloom & doom. We have a choice. As a city we can rethink our approach. We can reach across “turf” and constituencies to find a solution for the greater good. It might look something like this:In 2016 Dublin’s City Council authorizes the Planning Commission to rezone Fallon Sports Park (FSPk) for dual-use park & school. The City Council also directs the Parks Commission to work with the DublinUnified School District, and their consultants, to create a plan for a Comprehensive High School on the useable, undeveloped acreage (20-30) at Fallon Sports Park (FSPk). The intention would be to integrate the additional park facilities with the CHS2 project. The dual-use rationale is supported by a precedent the city and district have already embarked upon (see: Jordan Ranch K-8 GLAgreement). Why not apply the same approach here?

But why FSPk you ask? We love this park & its vision, why would we want to change it? Well …, many many years ago at a Planning Commission meeting, yours truly spoke out against the city changing zoning along Dublin Blvd at Grafton Plaza site from mixed-use commercial to packed-in residential. To press upon me their desire to ignore citizens protests and to proceed with rezoning, the Commission’s response to my objection was: “times change”. Why FSPk?... to quote our Planning Commission,because “times change”, and our vision of our community needs to change with it if we are to grow in a healthy manner.

FSPk offers several solutions uniquely suited to a CHS2, only offered by this site:

1) FSPk provides existing sports fields & venues that complement a High School program.Currently FSPk facilities are severely underutilized during school hours. Given that much of aCHS2’s acreage is dedicated to sport fields & facilities, sharing the existing FSPk fields would greatly reduce the overall construction footprint for CHS2. And that saves money (remember$3M-$5M an acre? ) In addition, CHS2 facilities at the park would enhance the park with additional community-use amenities: Gymnasium, Multi-purpose Room, andAuditorium/Performing Arts Hall.

2) FSPk has a wonderful large grade change from Gleason to Central Pkwy. A multi-story series of academic facilities could easily terrace down with this grade change, enabling the CHS2 campus to meld into the park. Add sustainable practice of green roofs, and it is quite possible that one might not realize the school is entirely there.

3) FSPk site offers greater accessibility than even DHS. FSPk is ringed with roadway access on all 4sides: 1 major roadway (Fallon), 2 secondary roadways (Gleason & Central), & Lockhart. In addition FSPk’s location, proximate to some of the densest housing in Dublin, would generate higher levels of pedestrian flow on/off campus than if a more remote site were selected. This reduces cars & carbon footprint. Dublin likes sustainable initiatives, let's embark on this one.

4) The city owns the park. & if we are the City, then ….FSPk acreage belongs to the citizens ofDublin. Why ask tax-payers for millions when we already own enough acres to realize a CHS2?

5) Lastly, rather than wait for High School numbers to reach 5,000….or even 3,000 before placing one shovel in the ground, a CHS2 at Fallon Sports Park could help to offset crowding at the Middle School level.

2 birds, one financial investment: The program and facility needs between aMS and a HS are more synonymous than a MS and a K-8. Eastern-Dublin middle school programs, already in growth crisis, would be eased by absorbing MS students at the new CHS2. MS students would have same access to facilities and similar programs at CHS2 as those at Fallon. This co-sharing of the campus would exist until such time as the HS student population begins to reach its target capacity. By then, the new Dublin Crossing development would be underway…. the Middle School population would then be equitably spread across 3 MS locations in Dublin.

In summary, bringing a CHS2 online at FSPk would create a great dual-use amenity for the community. In addition the city offering a Ground-Lease-Agreement at FSPk would drastically reduce site purchase cost for all Dubliners. Furthermore, the dual-use of pre-existing fields & sports amenities would reduce tax-payer burden by shrinking the construction program for CHS2, reducing the need for many more Bond initiatives. The slope of the site would readily accommodate multi-story academic facilities & enhance on-grade pedestrian and vehicular access. Oh & let’s not forget the benefit of having an on-site fire station: safety.Try to find a better site, a better proposal, a better long term & more cost effective plan. There will be nay-sayers, ones who dismiss this comprehensive out-of-the-box long-term visioning plan, but ask yourself: why object? Why can’t nay-sayers embrace this idea? Why can’t they think outside the proverbial box to see the opportunity for all Dubliners this solution brings? What motivates them to consider that the only alternative is follow the district’s current path: site acquisition costs in the millions, escalating projected campus build-out costs due to delayed buildout for 5-10years, wasted tax payer funds allocated to building a portable ghetto at DHS, & lack of viable interim housing solution for our Middle School kids.

If only you… understand why the proposed FSPk-CHS2 vision benefits everyone, then maybe we should consider finding leadership that sees things from their constituent’s perspective.We are one Dublin, and we are facing a growth crisis. We have the ability to think differently about who we are and what kind of a city we want to be. We can change the path we are on…we can ask our city to allocate a site and we can ask our District to prioritize CHS2 in our bond language. Let us work together to get this done.

Citizen Gabrielle Blackman