Christian School Wins Knob Hill Lease in Split Decision

The Redondo Unified School Board on Tuesday surprised many of the hundred or so residents who showed up to lobby against a proposed Knob Hill Avenue housing project by agreeing with them. In a 3-2 vote, the board set aside a plan to turn the community center property, formerly Patterson Elementary School, into apartments and instead awarded the lease to a startup Christian high school.

The prospect of the board approving the new Christian campus, called Ambassador High School, looked bleak for most of the evening. Ambassador High School was the lower of two bids for the property, coming in with an offer to lease the building and land for $500,000 a year. The highest bidder, Mar Ventures, which bid $502,027, wanted to put in a hundred apartments on the site, which residents firmly opposed.

Ambassador High School became the highest bidder after raising its offer to $528,000 because the developer chose not to counter with an even higher offer. Even so, a majority of the school board members seemed unwilling to consider the Christian school financially sound enough to be granted the lease.

"In your bank account you have a thousand dollars," said board member Arlene Staich. "You're not a financially responsible bidder."

However, several residents approached the lectern and told the board they planned to make contributions to the Christian school, and believed others in the community would too.

After the vote that awarded Ambassador the lease, Michael Barker, the founder of the school, said he was optimistic about raising the $528,000.

"We have $20,000 already. We're on our way," Barker said.

School board members hope so. There's no deadline for Barker to come up with the amount he bid, but Redondo school officials said they are in need of an infusion of money and Barker must come up with the money in a reasonable time period and demonstrate that Ambassador High School is a financially sound school, and not just a vision of Barker's.

Because of the state's money problems, the Redondo Unified School District has seen its general fund budget slashed by $8.8 million within the last 18 months.

Many residents have been following the Knob Hill saga closely during this economic downturn. The city's parks and recreation department is renting the building month-to-month but is moving out soon because the school district recently raised the rent. Residents were hoping the school board would find a tenant that could allow the former RBUSD elementary school to someday return to a public school use.

Ambassador now represents that hope. And if not, a small, private high school is better than a dense apartment complex, residents said.

"As a neighbor who lives just a half block away from the proposed site, I'm really excited about this decision," said Richard Barde, adding that he was "shocked" the school board backed Ambassador.

"I'm more than thrilled," said Kelly Martin, who leads a group of residents called the Knob Hill Community Group. "This is the right thing for the community and for the students and for the future of Redondo. But we need to maintain our due diligence here. We need to keep this in the public eye and in the attention of the people, so that we are able to support for the long haul Ambassador High School financially."

Barker said the first day of school at Ambassador High School would be in September 2011. Barker estimates the school would have 50 students its first year.

"Our goal would be to remodel four classrooms at a time," Barker said.

Barker, a former school principal, said he and the Ambassador board of directors are all volunteers who meet after work in the evenings.

"We are not wealthy," Barker told the Redondo Unified board.

Barker said he floated the idea of a Christian school at the Knob Hill site by going door-to-door on Avenue A one Saturday, which is how he ended up meeting Martin.

Residents were pleased the school board passed on the development proposal by Torrance-based Mar Ventures, which called for studio and one-bedroom apartments with lofts. For much of the evening, residents took turns criticizing the development proposal, which included an affordable housing component, for the number of additional people and vehicles they said it would bring to the neighborhood.

Board members Staich, Jane Diehl and Todd Loewenstein voted to award the lease to Ambassador. Carl Clark and Drew Gamet voted against it.