Fact #22:

HBCSD failed to report current district-wide declines in enrollment and projections of significant future declining enrollment in the Environmental Impact Report for North School campus.

NOTE:  Building a brand-new campus at North School is believed to have been part of the quid pro quo hatched by members of a cabal in return for the district not exercising their contractual rights to use classrooms at the Community Center for students. A brand new campus for 510 students was NOT necessary considering the current and future enrollment trends.

(1) Shortly after HBCSD finished building a brand-new $29M North School campus in April 2021, Hermosa student enrollment had dropped back down to 1,200 students.  As of September 2022, HBCSD had overbuilt by approximately 700 seats or 22+ underused on unused classrooms.   

(2) HBCSD ignored obvious increasing enrollment from 2002 to 2012.

a. The 2002 Facilities Master Plan had recommended that the district provide 14 additional classrooms by 2012.  Those classrooms were not supplied by the district with the $13.9M bond passed in 2002.  Instead school board members spent $11M to build a low priority gymnasium at Valley School and two science classrooms that replaced three classrooms torn down to make way for the gymnasium.

b. Instead of performing a superintendent search for a full-time affordable superintendent in 2008, School Board members (Lance Widman, Greg Breen, Lisa Claypoole and Linda Beck) hired formally retired 74-year old Dr. Bruce Newlin.

c. Since at least 2010, when district enrollment surpassed 1,300 students, school board members and then Superintendent Dr. Bruce Newlin must have recognized that Valley and View schools were severely overcrowded.

d. Formally retired, 74-year-old HBCSD Superintendent Dr. Bruce Newlin (2008-2012) had extensive 30-year experience as a superintendent at six different school districts with up to 20 schools and 14,000 students.  School board members failed to use his expertise in solving HBCSD’s overcrowding before overcrowding became a crisis for the district. 

e. In 2012, while district schools were already severely overcrowded, School Board members promoted Pat Escalante to the position of Superintendent of HBCSD. 

Pat Escalante had NO EXPERIENCE as a superintendent nor did she have a Doctor of Education degree when she was made superintendent of HBCSD in Spring 2012.  All other HBCSD superintendents in recent memory have had a Doctor of Education degree.   As HBCSD Superintendent the unqualified Pat Escalante would direct HBCSD’s facility process.

Please see Lie #17: Misinforming the public regarding HBCSD use of North School for students AS IS.

f. At any time since 2002, school board members could have taken immediate steps to reopen the grandfathered-in, seismically safe North School or exercise the district’s contractual provisions (specified in Article 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding) to use classrooms, office and storage space at the seismically safe Community Center to relieve overcrowding. 

Please see:

Lie #5: Misinforming the public that the CC can only be used for recreational purposes.

Lie #6: Misleading the public as to the conditions and safety of the Community Center and grandfathered in North School for students.

Lie #7: Claiming that the Community Center AND North School are NOT ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible.

Lie #8: Claiming that renovating historical schools such as the Pier Avenue Community Center and North School is very expensive and cost prohibitive.

Lie #14: Misleading information and misinformation in the City's and School District's Recommendations for the May 2014 Joint Meeting of the HBCSD and HB City Council.

g. Instead of taking care of the overcrowding quickly and cheaply using available resources before overcrowding became a crisis, school board members hired enrollment consultants.  The district’s enrollment consultants were Decision Insite.  Decision Insite’s 2013 enrollment projections were highly suspect and later proved to be substantially wrong.  Decision Insite changed their 2015 Enrollment Projections of increasing enrollment to that of future declining enrollment only six months after the district’s $59M bond passed.

Please see

Lie #24: The District's demographic report given to the Facility Planning and Advisory Committee members in January 2013 made no sense and was later proved to be substantially wrong.

NOTE: Information projecting major future declines in K-12 enrollment were reported by MANY published articles and by the California Department of Finance demographic and population data.

NOTE: Despite new information that did NOT support building another campus, HBCSD school board members continued with their plan to rebuild North School and significantly expand View School.

(3) It seemed as if HBCSD school board members actually took steps to exacerbate overcrowding at Hermosa schools instead of looking for ways to mitigate overcrowding.

a. Instead of taking immediate steps to reopen North School or exercise their contractual rights to use classrooms at the Pier Avenue Community Center, HBCSD school board members hired enrollment consultants Decision Insite in 2013 whose projections were later found to be very suspect.

b. All-day TK and K was introduced in the 2011/2012 school year to increase enrollment and therefore district revenue. 

NOTE: At the time full-day TK and K was added to district offerings, HBCSD campuses were already overcrowded.

At the time full-day TK and K classes were offered, other school districts in the area, including Manhattan Beach Unified School district, were NOT offering full-day TK and K, therefore HBCSD was able to attract those parents who needed/wanted the full-day TK and K option for their children.

c. HBCSD School Board members also hired the unqualified Pat Escalante in spring 2012 to be superintendent.

Please see:

Lie #21: Misleading the public that Pat Escalante was well qualified to be a superintendent.

d. In November 2014, school board members lost their $54M bond Measure Q. In February 2015, Superintendent Pat Escalante and school board members acted to exacerbate district overcrowding at View School by unnecessarily moving 149 students from Valley School to View School. The move severely overcrowded an already impacted View School. It is assumed that parents at View School (grade K - 2nd) would be more motivated to advocate for a new bond to rebuild North School since they would likely receive the benefit, whereas Valley School students would soon leave the district.

Please see:

Lie #28: Needlessly moving all 3rd grade students from Valley School to View School starting in the 2015-2016 school year - severely overcrowding View School 10 months before the district's next $59M dollar facilities bond vote.

Lie #29: Misinformation and misleading information provided by Superintendent Pat Escalante to justify moving 3rd grade from Valley School to View School in September 2015.

Lie #30: The enrollment facts at the February 11, 2015 school board meeting did NOT justify overcrowding View School with an additional 149 students.

Lie #31: Was the school board's February 2015 decision to egregiously overcrowd View School actually a response to losing the November 2014 $54M Measure Q bond vote and NOT about class size reduction funding?

e. HBCSD enrollment consultants released new enrollment projections in May 2015 three months after school board members had voted to move 160 3rd grade students from Valley School to View School before the district's June 2016 $59M bond vote.

f. Decision Insite's May 2015 enrollment projections predicted imminent increases in enrollment while also heading their reports with "Conservative Five-Year Projections Assuming Return to Half-day Kindergarten". Six months after the district won their $59M bond vote, Decision Insite would release new enrollment projections that reversed their previous May 2015 projections.

(4) HBCSD ignored projections of decreasing enrollment from 2016 to 2022 in order to continue to build a brand-new campus at North School and greatly expand View School.

a. Only Six months after the district’s $59M facilities bond passed in June 2016, Decision Insite’s changed their May 2015 Enrollment Projections from 1,543 students in 2019 to that of only 1,234 students in 2019. DI changed their enrollment prediction to a 309 student DECLINE in HBCSD by September 2019 from the May 2015 enrollment projections. 

b. DI’s pre-pandemic November 2018 enrollment projections predicted 98 less students at HBCSD by 2023 on top of already declining enrollment since the district’s $59M dollar facilities bond passed in June 2016.

c. DI’s November 2018 5-Year Projections were labeled “Conservative 5 Year Projection” alluding to even lower enrollment totals in the future.  The pre-pandemic November 2018 District-wide Projection showed enrollment at approximately 1,200 students by 2028. 

(5)         HBCSD actual enrollment in 2021 and 2022 was 1,200 Hermosa students (not including interdistrict permitted students).   The drop in enrollment occurred seven years earlier than had been predicted by DI in November 2018.   The 2021 and 2022 enrollment was a decrease of 272 students from the district’s high enrollment in September 2014 of 1,472 students, even as HBCSD had spent $29M of taxpayer funds to add at least 510 more student capacity by rebuilding North School.

(6) Despite DI’s, LAUSD and the CA Dept of Finance predictions of future significant decreases in K-12 population, school board members continued with their plans to build a brand new, and now unneeded 510 student campus at North School (aka Vista School).

a. The cost to tear down and build new at North School was estimated to be $29M.

b. The estimated cost to renovate North School and add an administration/classroom building was $6.2M, one-third the cost of rebuilding a brand-new campus. 

See Lie #17: Misinforming the public regarding HBCSD use of NS for students AS IS.

(7)     SAMPLE OF RECENT ARTICLES WARNING OF DECLINING POPULATION:

1. 5 ways Los Angeles County’s population is changing, by Brenda Gazzar, Daily News, published March 30, 2015, updated August 28, 2017. 

2. The Number of Children in L.A. is Shrinking – Which Could Be a Disaster, by Hillel Aron, LA Weekly, published March 2, 2017. 

3. US Population growth hits 80-year low, capping off a year of demographic stagnation, by William H. Frey, Brookings.edu, February 21, 2018. 

4. A bigger problem for schools, editorial, The Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2019. 

5. The U.S. Birth Rate Dropped Last Year, But Don’t Blame It All on the Pandemic, by Emily Barone, Time Inc., May 5, 2021. 

6. Projected K-12 drops in enrollment pose immediate upheaval and decade long challenge; State forecasts 11.4% fewer students by 2031; LA and Bay Area to be hit hardest, by John Fensterwald, Ed Source.org, October 18, 2021. 

(8)     Subsequently, Decision Insite enrollment projections continued to predict annual declining district enrollment after the district’s $59M facilities bond Measure S was passed.   For example, DI’s November 2018 enrollment report projected an additional decline of 308 students by September 2023 than was projected for September 2019 on the May 2015 Enrollment Projections prior to the Measure S bond passage. 

(9)     Despite the new projections of substantial future decreases in HBCSD enrollment, school board members continued with their plans to build a brand-new 510 student campus at North School and increase the student capacity of View School.  HBCSD would increase it’s capacity to accommodate approximately 1,968 students.  HBCSD high enrollment in 2014 had been 1,472 students.  By 2022, enrollment at HBCSD would be 1,200 Hermosa students and 80 students brought in from other school districts for a total of 1,280 students.

(10)     By 2022 and 2023 school years, after North School and View School had been rebuilt/renovated, HBCSD would have approximately 688 unused student capacity within the district.  There are approximately 22 unused or underused classrooms. Taxpayers had paid $59 million dollars to create 688 empty seats at HBCSD.  The CA Department of Finance population data projects continuing K-12 enrollment declines in Los Angeles County and all coastal counties in Southern California through 2060.