Environmental Impacts Of New Dublin Schools: Public Weighing In

DUBLIN, CA — Massive rebuilds at Frederiksen and Murray elementary school campuses have been approved, but concerns over environmental issues must be addressed first.

As currently proposed, the Dublin Unified School District has found that neither project will have a significant impact on the environment. With both rebuilds, initial studies found potentially significant environmental impacts, but project revisions and/or mitigation measures have been/would be taken to reduce all issues, according to the DUSD. The district has made its case via a "Mitigated Negative Declaration" for each project.

Per California law, the public must be given the opportunity to weigh in. Public informational meetings will be held in January as part of the environmental review process. For the Frederiksen project, the meeting will be held at the Frederiksen campus (7243 Tamarack Dr.) Jan. 7, 6:30 p.m. The Murray meeting will be held Jan. 8, 6:30 p.m., on the Murray campus (8435 Davona Dr.). Officials will be on hand at both venues to answer questions.

Comments on the environmental documents can be submitted at the respective meetings or in writing to the district by 5 p.m. Jan. 20, 2020.

The DUSD Board of Trustees will consider adopting both Mitigated Negative Declarations at its Feb. 11 meeting. Presentations to the board will be made at approximately 5:30 p.m., and then trustees will vote on whether to approve each. The DUSD board room is located at 7471 Larkdale Ave.

The Frederiksen and Murray rebuilds have been made possible thanks to $105 million in bond measure funding. The new campuses, which will be built on existing campus fields, are expected to be completed in August 2021.

Frederiksen and Murray Elementary Schools were built in 1967 and 1966, respectively. The district said it determined that rebuilding was cheaper than upgrading the existing buildings.

Plans for the new Frederiksen Elementary campus will include 32 classrooms and a multipurpose room on the eastern and southeastern part of the property. An administration building, a library, a fine art room, a STEM room and two special education classrooms will be built where existing administration and classrooms are located.

Groundbreaking is estimated to begin in the first few months of 2020 and the district aims to begin demolition in the fall of 2020, said DUSD spokesperson Chip Dehnert.
View artist renderings of the proposed $50 million campus here.

Plans for the Murray Elementary campus include a four-room kindergarten wing, and four classroom buildings of 28 classrooms, with space for speech therapy, counseling and more. The classroom buildings are scheduled to be built from June 2020 to January 2021 and six of those classrooms are scheduled to be occupied as soon as August 2020, according to the district.

Murray Elementary's administration building, multipurpose room, kitchen, science building, library, and amphitheater and quad area are scheduled to be built from January 2021 to June 2022.
Demolition of existing Murray Elementary buildings is expected to begin in the spring of 2022, according to the district.

Groundbreaking is estimated to begin in the spring of 2020. View artist renderings of the proposed $55 million campus here.

The new campuses would be large enough to accommodate the 900 students expected to enroll in each school by 2025, according to the district. The district does not expect any significant disruptions to normal school operations, Dehnert said.

Both projects are funded by Measure H, which Dublin voters passed in 2016. The $283 million bond measure sought to expand schools to prevent overcrowding, upgrade aging classrooms, provide additional modern technologies, ensure classrooms meet fire and safety codes, and more.