Fact 19

Fact #19:

In 2014, HBCSD had made plans to rebuild North School and put the parking lot in the Northwest corner of Valley Park. The rebuilt North School (aka Vista School) campus would require approximately 40 to 50 parking spaces, van accessiblie, disabled parking and student drop off and pickup lanes. The District's architects had drawn a diagram of a proposed North School campus labled Option C1 in the 2014 Facilities Master Plan. The parking lot dipicted in Option C1 showed a parking lot of 53 parking spaces and two entrances/exits. Many residents were upset with the idea of using a portion of Valley Park to build a 53 car parking lot. After HBCSD lost the Measure Q bond election in part due to the District's dipiction of a parking lot in Valley Park, School Board members later denied the District's plan to build a large parking lot in Valley Park.

Prior to the District's Measure Q bond election in November 2014, there had been rumors circulating about the District's use of Valley Park for the North School campus.

HBCSD owns a large portion of Valley Park from the bottom of the sand dune to almost the basketball courts. In effect, HBCSD owns the soccer field in Valley Park. The area of Valley Park that HBCSD owns used to be used as the playfields for North School.

At any time in the future, HBCSD can decide to use the area they own in Valley Park for the North School (aka Vista School) playfields. As it is, the new campus at North School is only 27% of the CDE recommended site size of 8.7 acres for a 510 student campus. It does not matter what promises are made to residents to pass a bond, HBCSD School Board members can decide to use Valley Park for the playfields for North School at any time.

Deciptive information given to Hermosa Beach residents:

Prior to the November 2014 election, an email exchange took place between HBCSD Superintendent Pat Escalante and a member of the community. In the email exchange Superintendent Escalante denied the district's plans to build a 50 car parking lot in the Northwest corner of Valley Park. Superintendent Escalante describes the:

"...exchange of ideas regarding how to balance the traffic around the school and the park to benefit the community, but also to allow the district to use the property that it owns."

Superintendent Escalante continues:

"It comes down to a balance and when Measure Q passes, extensive traffic studies will be conducted and the options as how to address the parking issues will surface."

NOTE: The "extensive traffic studies" were later accomplished in Richard Garland's 2016 Traffic Assessment of North School. Richard Garland's traffic evaluation methods and results were found to be highly suspect, yet HBCSD used them in the official Environmental Impact Report for North School along with many deceptive and incorrect findings and statements.