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Grossmont allocates funds
to purchase high school site
By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
EL CAJON — December brings new
beginnings to the Grossmont Union High School board as the
re-elected Priscilla Schreiber, and the newly elected Gary Woods
to the board of trustees. The counseling staff of GUHSD
presented new hope for secondary education plans for students,
and Scott Patterson outlined a potential financial plan for the
upcoming years. These inductions to the board as well as the
newly elected board positions set the tone for this almost three
hour meeting.
Priscilla Schreiber happily took her oath of office
delivered to her by her daughter, as did Gary Woods, taking his
own place on the panel. When elections for the board positions
were held, Robert Shield received the position of board
president, Jim Kelly was voted in as board vice president, and
Dick Hoy became the board clerk.
The trustees shuffled their seats to befit their new
standing and Robert Shield accepted the honor of president with
a well composed speech. He said, “I do not plan on taking this
role lightly.” He also said that board members will be asked to
make serious decisions with this coming year, and he knew that
no one was going to get their way all of the time. He said, “We
will govern in a civil and dignified manner.”
Once this business was settled, the counseling staff of
GUHSD presented a very hopeful report on plans for students’
futures. They have been diligently working towards students’
futures by disseminating information on secondary education
options and possibilities. They want each student to achieve not
only a better future, but to be able to take the next step using
not only their education, but common sense tactics as well.
When the monthly report was delivered to the board by
Gafcon/Harris representative and Project Manager Katie Wright,
another ray of hope was delivered. 787 classrooms to date have
been modernized. Valhalla is completing their design phase now
and will be entering into construction phase soon.
Wright then reported on the upcoming release of the
awaited Environmental Impact Report. This report that began two
years ago is to be released to the public as a Draft
Environmental Impact Report or DEIR on January 5. The staff is
now reviewing this DEIR and when this is released to the public
there will be a 45-day review period for the public to study and
comment on the findings of this report. The comments that will
be reviewed will be by anyone and everyone regarding this
report.
The DEIR will cover findings on the three study sites,
Wright’s Field, Chocolate Summit and the Lazy A Ranch. Wright
did mention that all the sites have issues of concern, such as
the disturbance of native grasslands, traffic related noise,
visual character (or disturbance of rural character as the
County calls it) stadium noise, and cultural site issues. This
document will identify the impact of building on these sites and
will also list any associated mitigations.
Wright said that when this report is released, it will
be well notified. Interested parties will find it on the
district web site, as well as at the County, and district
office. After all the responses are submitted, there will be a
preparation of responses prior to the final EIR release. This
will take place in March and April. After this occurs, the EIR
will be presented to the board for certification.
The next item of interest to Alpine at the board
meeting took place when Robert Shield opened a discussion
regarding the purchase of land in the Alpine/Blossom Valley
area. Per Superintendent Collins recommendations, Shield said
the board was allocating 45 million from Prop H funds and 20
million from Prop U funds to purchase a site for the new high
school. There was some discussion by Schreiber indicating that
by not taking all the funds out of Prop H, and waiting for
available funds in Prop U, this was a symbolic gesture regarding
the new high school.
Kelly rebutted that by using available funds from Prop.
H to continue work that was time sensitive and ongoing made
sense, and the money was being allocated for the property
purchase. Kelly said that Proposition U funds should be
available by June, which allowed the district to continue with
already in progress construction. Superintendent Collins echoed
this sentiment, saying that by allocating funds from Proposition
H, and Proposition U would not interrupt any schedule and
allowed the district flexibility in the completion of projects.
Scott Patterson outlined a potential financial plan for
the upcoming year, but stated that without the State budget in
place, every one of this numbers were subject to change.
Patterson said that he is expecting State budget cuts but they
are actively planning for these.
The good news however was that ADA is set currently at
18,660 which is 192 ADA above last year. This puts the district
in a position that as Patterson said, “is better than we
thought.”
He reiterated though that since the State budget impact
is unknown at this time, this can and will affect their future
plan.
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