The well-being of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) facilities took up a large chunk of the Board of Education’s July 24 meeting, bringing public comment into focus on district bond measures, as well as updates on construction and soil removal at McKinley Elementary School.
The prospects of going out for bond measures in the 2024 election cycle were met warmly by both the board and the majority of commenters during the meeting. The board unanimously approved of measures that would be for $495 million in School Facility Improvement District #1 (Santa Monica schools) and $395 million in School Facility District Improvement 2 (Malibu schools), which would need 55% local vote in November elections to pass.
Public comment ranged from the support of Building and Construction Trades Council representative Eddie Alvarez to Committee for Excellent Public Schools Co-Chair Sirinya Matute, with the latter expressing her prior support for November 2018’s Measure SMS vote. Former Samohi PTSA Executive Board member Gabrielle Cohen acknowledged the financial costs to the public while also lending her support.
"Even though none of us really like to ask our taxpayers for more money … our elementary schools and our middle schools deserve the upgrades that they need," Cohen said. "It’s time to get rid of those temporary mobile home classrooms that we’ve been talking about for years, we need roofs and ceilings that need to be repaired, electrical system that need to be replaced, and our students deserve to go to school in buildings that don’t look like they’re falling apart. We have the ability with this bond measure to do that for them."
Temporary classroom removal remains a top construction priority with the November bond, with district Chief Facilities Officer Carey Upton stating that the bond would eliminate 11 of the portables on the elementary and middle school levels, adding to the 19 already planned for removal with Measure SMS funds.
Another classroom construction shift takes place at the early elementary level, as the looming Universal Transitional Kindergarten (TK) program is set for 2025 in California schools, prompting new facility requirements for the grade level. Needing around 23 TK classrooms, Upton said the "big challenge" is turning typical 900 square-foot classrooms into 1,350 square footage with an in-suite bathroom and adjacent play yards. One example provided would be to take four regular-sized classrooms at Grant Elementary, dividing them into three TK classrooms and adding restrooms.
With the unanimous approval by the board setting the stage for November’s election, Upton added that the board has been "supportive and knowledgeable of what is needed" in an always-changing educational and construction landscape.
"They’re very aware that the taxpayers will have to pay for this, and how much we ask for and how much we can prove and show that we’re using their money [right]," Upton said. "They’re very much committed to showing that we’re being very good stewards of the money and balancing [finances] with making sure that the students have what they need to learn."
More immediate work is ongoing at McKinley Elementary School, where arsenic-tampered soils are currently being hauled off at the site. A plan for a soil mitigation process, capping it under the surface of structures with pavement, was nixed by the regulations of the Southern California Air Quality Management District (CSAQMD), reverting the district back to the original plan of hauling off impacted soil and replacing it with fresh dirt.
While the regulations could be exempted while working with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), CSAQMD refused to grant such exception, even when pressed by DTSC officials on the matter.
"We reached out to them, and they wrote us back and said, we’ve already given you an answer, and we’re not going to meet with you," Upton said. "So they refused to meet with us, and DTSC reached out to them … to try to get a meeting and they were also rebuffed."
The board adopted a resolution terminating the Environmental Oversight Agreement and School Cleanup Agreement with DTSC, and approved an amended mitigation monitoring and reporting program, in order to not delay McKinley work by a full year. Trucks will continue to load up soil at McKinley through next week, and will begin the importing of clean dirt before school starts, taking a "little break" while students get settled into the new school year before finishing.
Upton originally pegged the cost of the soil removal at over $1,000,000; however after a "deep dive" it was determined that this method would cost a little over $100,000 over the alternate mitigation.
"If you just pick it up and move it, put it in the truck, you’re paying for the trucks, you’re paying for the new soil, but once it’s gone, all of that other work disappeared," Upton added.
Several citizens in close quarters to McKinley spoke out at the board meeting, concerned with potential dust that would get into the air as well as the noise level of the project.
"We’re part of your community … we’re the people that are actually there while this construction is taking place," said Rosvita Rauch, who lives across the street from McKinley. "While you say we want to make sure [soil removal] happens before the school children return, our lives are equally as valuable."
To these concerns, senior environmental consultant Eric Fraske of NV5 stated that there is full-time monitoring for dust on site, with four monitoring stations along the fencing line, as well as a full-time air monitoring station to measure wind speed. Results will be posted from NV5 daily for locals.
"We actually have someone sitting there staring at a laptop all day watching the numbers, as it climbs [and approaches] a limit, we know we need to add more dust suppression, do more watering, things like that … with the work we’ve done so far, we’re well under our limits," Fraske said.
Upton added that himself and the NV5 team met with several citizens, walking them through the McKinley site and describing the testing processes in detail.
The soil mitigation change has no bearing on mitigation of soil vapors found with detections of "volatile organic compounds," mainly dry cleaning chemical agent tetrachloroethylene. The district plan to install a soil Vapor Intrusion Mitigation and Migration Engineering Controls System is still on the books.
thomas@smdp.com
