Prospective Catholic high students will have to look elsewhere
for the time being: the Diocese of San Jose
’s proposed high school just north of Morgan Hill is on hold
indefinitely.
Prospective Catholic high students will have to look elsewhere for the time being: the Diocese of San Jose’s proposed high school just north of Morgan Hill is on hold indefinitely.
“Our position now is that we will have to wait until the economy turns around,” said Msr. Michael Mitchell of the Diocese of San Jose. “You have to have a population to sustain it (the school) … And at this time, capital improvement costs are such that we cannot afford it.”
The estimated $84 million co-ed high school for grades 9-12 was planned for a parcel between Monterey and Hale, south of Tilton and straddling the new Madrone Parkway with athletic fields to the south and all academic facilities to the north.
The property is currently owned by , and the diocese has been in negotiations for months. Mitchell said last summer the property is in escrow and a tentative closing date was set for sometime in August.
In June 2002, the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a land- use commission, voted to include the parcel in Morgan Hill’s Urban Service Area. This was a key step in the development of the high school plan, as this would allow Morgan Hill to provide urban services including sewer, water and storm drainage to the school.
Mitchell said last summer that the earliest the high school could open to serve its proposed 1,200 students and a staff of 120 is 2007. But now even that date is unlikely.
“We began looking at this idea years ago, when the population could support the school, not only with students but also the fundraising,” he said. “When the economy went sour, circumstances changed. Unfortunately, you can’t build the school in pieces.”
Mitchell said the plan for the school has not been totally scrapped; the diocese has spent money on development of the plans but is not confident in the current fundraising climate.
“We have put a good deal of money into this,” he said, although he declined to give exact amounts, “and we would like to get something out of it. We are working with the owner (of the property) now.”
Morgan Hill city officials were not aware the diocese had put the school on an indefinite hold.
“It comes as a bit of a surprise,” said Director of Planning David Bischoff, referring to Mitchell’s comment about the potential population for the school. “I was aware they were facing a challenge in raising the money.”
Carl Bjorke, city deputy director of public works, engineering division, said one of the issues the city and diocense were dealing with involved extending Madrone Parkway.
“Where I am involved with it is that we looked at a project to extend Madrone Parkway over railroad tracks,” he said. “We knew the diocese had this project proposed (the high school), but I was more concerned with trying to get an at-grade crossing at Madrone.”
The city’s General Plan update includes an at-grade crossing at the intersection of Madrone and Monterey Road, Bischoff said.
An at-grade crossing is an extension of the road over the tracks, with signal lights and crossing guards, as opposed to a bridge over the tracks or a road below raised tracks.
“We needed to submit an application for the at-grade crossing with the California Public Utilities Commission,” Bjorke said. “We filed that, and it was protested by Union Pacific. Typically, they are opposed to any new crossings statewide. So, we offered to close the crossing at Tilton once the Madrone Parkway was completed, but they didn’t feel that went far enough. It was rejected for safety reasons.”
Bjorke said that although the city withdrew its application, further traffic studies are planned, likely this summer, to look at alternatives to crossing the tracks at that location.
The decision by the diocese to put the high school on hold indefinitely will not affect the studies, Bjorke said.
