School district leaders will move forward with a $1.6 million plan to clean up a contaminated 9-acre site to make way for a brand new elementary school after the board of education’s split vote gave the go-ahead at a June 27 special meeting.
Board President Donna Ruebusch, Vice President Tom Arnett and Trustees Ron Woolf and Mary Patterson supported Morgan Hill Unified School District staff’s recommendation to “excavate and dispose” of 19,593 cubic yards of toxic soil from the Peet Road property.
The Removal Action Workplan was reviewed by the state’s Department of Toxic Substances, which will oversee the estimated 45-day remediation work planned by the district to clear out the soil that contains high levels of farming pesticides, including dieldrin.
“I trust government and I trust the DTSC,” said Patterson before casting her vote in favor of moving forward with the RAW.
The 9-acre parcel of land located on Peet Road and Mission Avenida in the affluent and expanding northeast portion of Morgan Hill was donated to the district by the Borello family in 2003 for the sole purpose of building an elementary school.
“Everyone involved here is taking this very seriously. Dieldrin is a nasty substance and there are clear risks,” said Arnett, who chimed in to Tuesday’s discussion via teleconference. “No one here is suggesting that the district build on a dirty or contaminated school site.”
Trustees David Gerard, Gino Borgioli and Teresa Murillo were skeptical of how effective the off-haul remediation method would be in completely ridding the land of the dangerous pesticides and making it safe for future students and staff. Gerard and Borgioli were most vocal in their stark opposition to the RAW.
“The dieldrin isn’t going anywhere….The plan that I see here doesn’t give me great confidence in terms of execution,” said Gerard, who also challenged the district’s school capacity numbers and student enrollment growth projections over the next few years. “We are rushing into this at a time where we don’t need a new school.”
Borgioli stressed his main concern was with disturbing the soil, which is contaminated up to 5 feet deep in some areas, and the possibility of it being kicked up into the air surrounding the neighborhood as the trucks are loaded and the dirt transported.
Sordid history of proposed school site
Resident Melissa Hartley, who has argued against building a school on the Peet Road site on several occasions, was one of 10 residents who addressed the board Tuesday.
“This land is toxic,” she said. “We can’t clean it up without putting the community in harm’s way.”
However, after a nearly three-hour study session at district headquarters that drew a packed house audience, the board’s 4-3 vote approved a “delegation of authority to award the remediation contract for the S.G. Borello Elementary School.” The estimated cost of the cleanup is $1,675,635, according to district staff. The district will bid out the remediation work in the coming days.
Superintendent Steve Betando tried to assure audience members that the off-haul method would not endanger neighboring residents.
As part of the cleanup, the contaminated soil will be wetted down before being loaded onto trucks so it won’t create dust. In addition, dust monitors will be set up along the perimeter of the property and an alarm will go off with any visible dust detected in the air. The truck beds will be covered when transporting the soil to the Kirby Canyon Landfill Management Facility (910 Coyote Creek Golf Drive) for disposal.
At the study session, Betando reviewed the history of the property that included a bioremediation method used in the early 2000s in an attempt to shock the existing soil. However, that only temporarily worked, although the property was given the green light by state officials for residential use. The dieldrin later rebounded and was detected in subsequent soil testing ordered by the district.
“We decided, although it wasn’t a legal requirement, to test the soil again because so much time had gone by,” Betando said. “I want the community to know that the interest in testing the soil was something that we took seriously.”
Instead of trying to treat the soil, the district, along with input from environmental consultants and state officials, decided to remove it from the site, Betando said. The soil remediation will need about 2,100 truckloads over the 45-day period.
School needed in growing area?
Construction of the new $20 million school is estimated to take 490 days immediately following the off-hauling, through February 2019. The new school, which would serve up to 606 students, will be funded through the $198 million Measure G capital improvements bond along with developer fees. The design plans include 29 classrooms, an administration building, media center, multipurpose room and portables for pre/after school care. The campus will also have blacktop hardcourts and play structures, grass fields for soccer and baseball, staff and volunteer parking lots, separates parent and bus drop-off areas and lunch/shade structures.
The land, which was gifted to the district, is valued at $9 million. Along with newer communities already sprouted up in the northeast part of town, developers have more than 600 housing units in the works, according to district staff.
Perez presented an estimate for a 40 percent city population increase through 2035 that would bring the total number of Morgan Hill residents up to 60,340, and total households to 19,460. According to those statistics, the district would have to accommodate 1,367 additional elementary school students, which amounts to three new schools needed.
Gerard, however, challenged those conclusions since newly approved Measure S limits Morgan Hill’s growth to 58,200 by 2035. He further claimed that district student enrollment declined between 2010-2016 despite a 16.2 percent population growth over that same time frame.
The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Aug. 1.
