San Mateo-Foster City School District trustees OK funding for new North Central school

For years now, district officials have discussed opening a community school in North Central San Mateo that would provide wraparound services to the families in an area home to a large Latino population. The area has been without a neighborhood school since Turnbull Learning Academy was shut down in the early 2000s and reenvisioned as a magnet school. Since then, North Central students have been assigned to other district schools.

To bring its vision to life, district officials have decided to swap the Mandarin immersion program at College Park Elementary School on East Poplar Avenue with the Spanish immersion program at the Fiesta Gardens site on Bermuda Drive. Following the swap, College Park would become the new North Central community school by August of 2025.

The district will use $23 million from Measure X, a facilities bond measure approved by voters in 2015, as the primary funding mechanism for upgrading the North Central campus, equipping the site with enough space to serve middle school classes. But another $13 million will be needed to complete the work, including adding six new classrooms for sixth, seventh and eighth grade classes, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics lab and other campus improvements.

While supportive of the overall objective, Trustee Ken Chin shared concerns the board hadn’t fully discussed site planning before the Wednesday meeting. The “elephant in the room,” he said, was the district’s plan to move its bus depot from the College Park site to Bayside Academy on the east side of Highway 101.

About 1,000 students are bused out of North Central every day and while that number may fall as more students are enrolled in the community school, Chin said he wasn’t confident the numbers would fall that much and that he’d prefer for buses to be located in the neighborhood.

Chin said he’d also like to see a more holistic discussion about the school design, a concern parents also shared during public comment. Thus far, discussions have largely centered on programming with officials mentioning that they’d like to use vacant space for new buildings.

“I know there’s been a lot of work put into it and I know there’s a timeline but I would say I’d rather get it right and spend our money sort of wisely than sort of rush and say ‘hey, we’re trying to open these buildings by the time we open the school.’ That doesn’t sit well with me,” Chin said. “I completely agree with you guys that we’ll get there and I don’t have a problem with us getting there. I’m just not there yet and I just need more background.”

Patrick Gaffney, the district’s deputy superintendent and chief business official, explained that the district has a contracting team that’s “primed and ready to go” with the work expected to take up to 2 1/2 years to complete, starting with design work and ending with construction.

Historically, Gaffney said, the district has not played a major role in design discussions. But Gaffney said he’s been “pushing it” by holding the work back as the district facilitated community and board input.

“I’m encouraging, from a timing perspective for discussion, let’s have it sooner rather than later,” Gaffney said.

Ochoa noted Gaffney and Amy Ruffo, the director of facilities and construction, have not been pressuring officials to push forward with the work. Instead, he said they are “highly capable professionals” trying to “help us arrive at the right place.”

In addition to numerous meetings, the district also distributed two surveys that have helped influence what they plan to offer through the community school. Still, Ochoa said he feels comfortable holding a few more meetings on design to ensure the process is a positive one.

Following the meeting, the district put out a flyer announcing three new community meetings on April 4, April 11 and April 18 — all of which being held at 6 p.m. on the College Park Elementary campus with food, child care and translation available.

“I think we want to celebrate when we have that happen and I think, to me, the goal is to say ‘yes, look at this process and let’s move forward,’” said Ochoa, noting his priority is upholding the views of the community who will be served by the school.

Other trustees agreed with Chin’s assertion that the board and community needs to have more conversations about design and the community perspectives that have influenced it while also sharing an eagerness to move the project forward.

“We’re almost there,” Proctor said. “I think we’re just looking for some input from the community that firms up — yes, this is what we really really want in our school.”