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GUHSD meeting could determine
future of Alpine high school
By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
EL CAJON — The Grossmont Union High
School District Board of Trustees is scheduled to listen to the
Bond Advisory Commission’s reports, and it is rumored that they
will vote on the BAC’s recommendations at the upcoming May 10
board meeting. This is expected to be a pivotal juncture in the
whole Proposition H Bond and Alpine High School issue, and how
the monies will be used.
The BAC has until June to deliver all of their findings
and recommendations to the board, however, at the April 16 board
meeting the BAC delivered basically the same report that they
had reported on at the March 29 meeting. The board members
listened attentively to each of the following recommendations.
The Repair and Renovations subcommittee presented that
the top three priorities of the existing schools are: Air
conditioning, bathroom repair, and science labs.
The Facilities and Curriculum sub-committee reported
that there are approximately 700 students from the Blossom
Valley area and 700 students from the Alpine area who would
potentially use a high school in the Alpine area. The group
defined what a full comprehensive high school means and how it
pertains to a 12th high school.
The Site subcommittee agrees with Essentia’s findings,
and is pleased that the district is moving forward with the EIR
process. However, the real meat of the report was when the
Finance subcommittee made their report, and recommendations.
The Finance subcommittee reported that the
constructions costs have increased 35-40 percent and because of
this, a panic has settled around the budget of this bond and
what the future possibilities are for construction. The Finance
subcommittee recommends that everyone adopts a “we can make it
happen” mindset, and to help with that mindset, they presented
five recommendations to the board.
The first recommendation is that the board should begin
by making a show of good faith by setting up a $65 million “High
School Sinking Fund.” This fund would decrease as expenditures
for the high school are made.
Other recommendations made at this meeting included;
dividing phase 3B into Phase 3B and 3C to better manage the
district improvement projects that are currently in progress,
hiring an independent project construction expert, thoroughly
review all Phase 2B bid specifications for conformity with the
Prop H bond language, and finally, the finance subcommittee
offered a lease-leaseback (funding method) approach for
gross/max pricing; construction cost savings plus extended
payment period option.
The GUHSD board was interested in many of the
recommendations that the BAC presented, but the board members
have reservations about relegating bond monies to the proposed
sinking fund. Member Robert Shield wanted to hear more from
staff before making any decisions, and Dick Hoy wanted more
details on financials before committing to any of the BAC’s
recommendations.
Hoy is unsure that their is enough money to reserve $65
million to make a sinking fund, as the BAC Finance Committee
advised, and was not willing to make any decisions that could
possibly cause disappointments to the Alpine community members
later on.
At the May 10 GUHSD board meeting, Alpine community
members will have another chance to show support for the 12th
high school efforts. The board has proposed to vote on the
recommendations that have been presented thus far, and it is
believed by many that this is a pivotal meeting and vote for
local high school efforts.
Alpine community members and students, as well as
members of the surrounding areas who would potentially be using
this proposed 12th high school should seriously consider
attending this particular board meeting.
The people of Alpine and the surrounding areas want the
Grossmont Union High School District to fully utilize the
Proposition H Bond funds. Proposition H was passed by voters
more than two years ago to modernize, renovate, repair, and
construct an Alpine high school to relieve overcrowding.
Currently the district has an enrollment of
approximately 24,444 students. This number divided by the 11
district high schools equals a number of over 2,200 students per
high school. If each high school is designed for 2,000 students,
then we already have over two hundred more students at each
school. This is not to say that the numbers are realistically
divided evenly among each school, but overcrowding is an obvious
and crucial problem throughout the district.
The district has declared that our schools are facing a
declining enrollment. However, SANDAG says that there will be
growth in the East County, and continual development in Alpine
gives credence to this claim.
The BAC has taken on the huge task of reviewing and
identifying problems, as well as researching financial options
and offering intelligent resolutions to give the GUHSD board
optimal solutions to implement these bond monies in all of East
County’s best interests.
Some throughout the district have referred to the BAC
as, “The Alpine Committee,” however BAC is not just an Alpine
entity. It is a combination of all interested parties in the
Proposition H Bond Measure.
The commission, chaired by Mark Price and co-chaired by
Danny Tucker is made up of people not only from the Alpine area,
but also, staff from GUHSD such as Tony Camara a trusted and
long time Math teacher in the district as well as qualified
business people like Jim Perkins from Procopio. Also serving on
this commission is: Julie Wiley, Jim Peabody, Ariel Kagen,
Patrick Waters, Mendy Brandt, Bill Garrett and Pat Price.
Each of these people has dedicated their time to
uniting efforts throughout the entire district to regain public
trust and satisfy the entire district’s needs.
 E-mail
Christy Scott
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