HBCSD Corruption

The Misleading Information:

HBCSD SPUN information and omitted relevant information regarding the Interim School Housing Measures the district took from 2014 to 2016 in Chapter 7, page 7-4 of the Environmental Impact Report for the reconstruction of North School:

(1)      7.3, page 7-4: Alternatives Considered and Rejected during the Project Planning Process:

“The District considered numerous alternatives during its planning process to address the overcrowding conditions.  A chronology of events establishing the need for proposed project, alternative sites and option considered by the District, and reasons why the alternatives are infeasible or eliminated and therefore not selected for detail analysis in the EIR, are provided below:

(2)      7.3.1, page 7-4: Interim School Housing Measures:

“Student population in the District expanded rapidly over the last decade, and the District sought a long-term solution to provide adequate school housing.  In an effort to swiftly address overcrowding, the District implemented the following temporary solutions:

§  Placed temporary, portable classroom buildings at both Hermosa Valley School and Hermosa View School.

§  Reduced the District’s full-day kindergarten program to a half-day program to create classrooms space.

§  Shifted grade levels between Hermosa Valley School and Hermosa View School. 

§  Converted the multipurpose rooms at Hermosa Valley School and Hermosa View School into classrooms.

§  Relocated the District administration office from Valley School to South Park to create new classrooms.

"These interim efforts have not eliminated the District's long-term need for permanent housing for its students and restoration of its service level to a standard acceptable to the Hermosa Beach community and the District."

CORRECT INFORMATION:

1.         In 2011, HBCSD school board members decided to introduce full-day kindergarten into an already overcrowded View School campus.  Prior to 2011, HBCSD ONLY offered half-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. The full-day kindergarten was ostensibly to attract additional students to the district to increase revenue.  At the time neighboring school districts were not offering full-day kindergarten.  Normally half-day kindergarten allows a school district to use one classroom for up to 48 students because half-day kindergarten has a morning (AM class) class and an afternoon (PM class) in the same classroom.  Offering full-day kindergarten reduces the number of available classrooms.

2.         In 2015, only months after the district lost the November 2014 Measure Q bond vote and one year before the district’s upcoming Measure S bond vote, school board members voted to move 160 3rd grade students from Valley School to View School completely overwhelming the already overcrowded campus.  The move was not warranted by the facts. 

3.         Using the Community Center or North School for HBCSD students would have immediately relieved existing overcrowding at Hermosa Valley School and Hermosa View School.

NOTE:  July 19, 2014 – Email from HB Mayor Michael DiVirgilio re district usage of the Community Center.  

“The city is not aware of any prohibition that would prevent us [the city] from entertaining requests about the Community Center from the District, or from any entity for that matter.  However, as you saw during our most recent joint meeting, neither the City nor the District are interested in considering the Community Center [as a lower cost alternative for taxpayers AND immediate relief for HBCSD students and staff].”

4.         HBCSD has had valid contractual provisions to use the Community Center since 2010.  School board members chose to ignore their lease agreement for the Community Center. 

5.         North School is a grandfathered in campus, like View School and Valley School, and therefore is considered code compliant as is. 

6.     A small bond could have been easily passed by HBCSD to renovate either the Community Center or North School for students.

(3)      7.3.1, page 7-4: Interim School Housing Measures:

"These interim efforts have not eliminated the District's long-term need for permanent housing for its students and restoration of its service level to a standard acceptable to the Hermosa Beach community and the District."

CORRECT INFORMATION:

The District's interim efforts DID INDEED eliminate the District's long-term need for permanent housing for its students. After the 2016 Measure S $59M bond was passed, the District's enrollment consultants projections changed from that of future increasing enrollment to future DECREASING enrollment.

See:

Lie #27: Less than six months after the District won it's $59M Measure S bond vote, HBCSD enrollment consultants changed their enrollment projections from future large increases in enrollment to one of markedly lower overall enrollment at HBCSD.

Lie #25: The District's demographic projections supplied by Decision Insite for HBCSD seemingly ignored evidence of declining K-12 enrollment from the California Department of Finance Demographics Unit and the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

Lie #26: Enrollment consultants for HBCSD inflated Transitional Kindergarten (TK) and Kindergarten (K) enrollment and seemingly did not take into account the full-time to half-time change in TK and K classes even as their May 2015 report was titled "Conservative 5-Year Projections, Assuming Return to Half Day Kindergarten".