Trustees push for more representation on SJ task force studying
development
School Board trustees are being urged by the public to ensure the district’s interests are looked after as the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force continues its work on the proposed community of 80,000 residents, 25,000 homes and 50,000 jobs perched on Morgan Hill’s northern border.
“If you don’t jettison Coyote Valley, we will go down,” longtime board watcher Harlan Warthen told trustees. “There’s no conceivable way for our district to handle the impact of Coyote Valley.”
Schools to support the population of the new development – a projection is 8-10 elementary schools, two middle schools and at least one high school – would fall within the boundaries of the Morgan Hill School District. The district’s boundaries extend up to Bernal Road in south San Jose.
Warthen and others are urging the district to consider requesting the formation of a new, Coyote Valley School District, or requesting another district, such as Evergreen or Oak Grove to the north, absorb the Coyote Valley development.
The board did not address the issue of changes in district boundaries. The subject was not on the board’s published agenda.
Trustees discussed the development during their regular board meeting April 26. They agreed to send a letter to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales requesting formal representation on the task force which is charged by the San Jose City Council with created a plan to recommend to the council.
Board President George Panos, in a letter to Gonzales dated May 4, requested representation on the task force.
“Although we have enjoyed a history of collaborative efforts on projects with San Jose, the Morgan Hill Unified School District (MHUSD) Board of Trustees now believes that a current representative of the Board be named to the CVSP Task Force (sic). On behalf of my fellow board members and the Morgan Hill Unified School District community, I respectfully request that a new representative join the Task Force,” Panos wrote.
One of the concerns he addresses in his letter is the density of the planned development as compared to Morgan Hill.
“Initial discussions that we have had with individuals from the City of San Jose have given us the impression that Coyote Valley planners are looking at allocating much smaller acreage’s for Coyote Valley schools than recommended by the State,” Panos wrote. “The appearance of this urban setting differs greatly from the suburban and agricultural environment of the rest of our school district in Morgan Hill and San Martin.”
Currently, Russ Danielson, former School Board trustee and owner of Jody’s Junction Stationers in Morgan Hill serves on the task force. A San Jose resident, he was appointed by Gonzales while he was serving an appointed term on the board when the task force was formed. He was not re-elected in November 2002.
“I’m not in the position of wanting to remove Russ Danielson from his position,” Trustee Jan Masuda said. “I would support a letter asking for a second seat.”
Trustees are concerned that the district does not have enough say in the decisions being made by the task force, considering that the schools will be the responsibility of the district.
One of the difficulties trustees face is that meetings are typically on Monday evenings, the same time as board meetings. Superintendent Carolyn McKennan announced earlier this week that the May 10 and June 14 School Board meetings had been canceled so trustees and district officials could attend the next regularly scheduled Coyote Valley Task Force meeting scheduled for those days.
“The development of Coyote Valley will have a significant impact on the Morgan Hill Unified School District,” McKennan said, on canceling the meetings. “Thus, we are interested in being an active participant in the process that will influence how teaching and learning take place in our district.”
McKennan told trustees there will also be a Saturday workshop (open to the public) of the task force on May 15.
“These Saturday workshops are not redundant meetings,” she said. “I would like to encourage people to attend.”
However, the May 10 task force meeting was moved to May 17 in order to include information from the Saturday workshop. McKennan’s administrative assistant said Wednesday afternoon that trustees would likely not move the May 17 School Board meeting back to May 10 because of the required preparation and notification time.
The district is involved in other ways with the process. McKennan serves on the technical advisory committee (TAC) for the task force, but has been unable to attend many of its Tuesday meetings because she is at district meetings for principals.
The TAC will meet again May 18 and June 22. The task force met April 26; a scheduled May 10 TAC meeting has been canceled.
McKennan missed two TAC meetings and said she will likely reschedule principal meetings so she can attend both.
On April 22 McKennan was invited to attend a subgroup of TAC’s – a “working group” meeting with representatives from area agencies like the library, parks and recreation, during which they looked at how the population was projected from the model, or “topology.”
Warthen said he has observed, in the task force meetings he has attended, that the “audience can ask just as many questions” as those on the task force. The task force, he pointed out, does not have voting rights; the San Jose City Council will vote on the recommendation made by the task force.
“The key issue is that not enough questions (about the schools and the development) are being asked,” he said.
Realtor Rebecca Van Dahlen said she and other area Realtors would be closely monitoring the situation.
“I’m going to be going to all the meetings,” she said. “The South County Board of Realtors is trying to get someone on that committee as well.”
Trustee Del Foster suggested that perhaps the district needs to look into some type of paid liaison between the task force and the district.
Trustee Shellé Thomas said another alternative the district can consider for the short term is changing the dates of board meetings so that one or more trustees can attend the task force meetings, even if only to sit in the audience.
“I suggest we move off of their meeting date, at least for the next six months,” she said. “They are on the fast track, they plan to make a decision by October … As much as I value Mr. Danielson’s position, we represent the community.”
“Either way, somehow the district needs to be split,” said Morgan Hill resident Bob Benich. “Whether a new district is formed, and now would be the time to do it, or whether it is merged with another. Forming a new district would make more sense: you would have a nicely concentrated population of approximately 80,000 at full build out, and one district to serve that particular group of people and that population.”
Benich, like several of the trustees, expressed concern about the nature of the Coyote Valley development.
“One of the things that really concerns me is that San Martin and Morgan Hill are semi-rural, and we don’t have the concentrated population that the Coyote Valley will have with its higher density living,” he said. “It will have more people than San Mart and Morgan Hill combined.”
The district needs to get moving on this now, he said, because forming a new district or changing boundaries are not fast processes.
“It may take two or three years,” he said. “But that’s just about right. It looks like the building will begin in Coyote Valley in ’07 or ’08.”
Whatever happens, Benich said, the district needs representation in the decision-making process.
“Basically, I think they have a right to be represented on that task force,” he said. “The district cuts across city lines. City boundaries make no difference for school districts. I think they have an absolute right to representation.”
