100 signatures reached
To: [email protected]
Measure G & Mill Valley Middle School Site Selection
Dear Mill Valley Board Members and Dr. Kaufman:
I support our schools and the goal of the Measure G bonds to upgrade our facilities. I also appreciate that the Board is hoping to preserve the option to start construction on the Mill Valley Middle School Project by 2025 and this requires spending time on feasibility studies and designs now. However, the information presented at the September 13th Board meeting and the September 27th community forum has not shown that the Board has sufficiently considered the permitting challenges, costs and environmental and health hazards of building at the current Middle School site vs. the Edna site.
The existing Middle School was opened in 1972 on top of an old dump that is still releasing toxins including methane and hydrogen sulfide into the air and mercury and other heavy metals into the soil and ground water that all have to be consistently monitored and released out through pipes around the school grounds to this day. It also sits next to a Waste Water Treatment plant emitting hazardous and unpleasant odors, and is in a flood zone that will continue to get worse over the coming decades with climate change.
Despite the challenges of finding an acceptable alternative site such as Edna, we deserve to feel safe and proud of where our children are going to be housed temporarily during the construction and during their time at middle school. For a cost of up to $194M, we should be building a facility that will last for many generations to come.
What I respectfully request is that the Board delays any decisions on the eventual middle school site until it spends the time and money to conduct the needed feasibility studies at the current middle school site and the Edna site and receive basic bids from contractors to compare the construction costs and permitting and health risks with both and solicit needed community input. This type of feasibility analysis is typical for a project of this scale and is warranted to be conducted at two sites with the existing known issues at the current middle school site. The evaluation should include the plan and cost of temporary housing of middle school students at the current school site vs. permanently moving Edna students to the other elementary schools while construction were to take place there for the middle school.
This entire evaluation would provide a data driven recommendation and may only take another 90-180 days and will in turn leave the community with a clear decision that we can feel more comfort about.
It also may reveal that the Edna build costs (even with extra elementary school retrofit costs) are substantially cheaper (~$20-$50M) and lower risk than the MVMS site. The Edna site would also eliminate a concern that we are hearing from all parents about having their children in the middle of a construction site with toxic materials flying through the air for three years. It further might turn out that consolidating the elementary schools is the right decision for classroom capacity and retaining teachers with the decreasing enrollment trends we are seeing.
Thanks for your consideration.
I support our schools and the goal of the Measure G bonds to upgrade our facilities. I also appreciate that the Board is hoping to preserve the option to start construction on the Mill Valley Middle School Project by 2025 and this requires spending time on feasibility studies and designs now. However, the information presented at the September 13th Board meeting and the September 27th community forum has not shown that the Board has sufficiently considered the permitting challenges, costs and environmental and health hazards of building at the current Middle School site vs. the Edna site.
The existing Middle School was opened in 1972 on top of an old dump that is still releasing toxins including methane and hydrogen sulfide into the air and mercury and other heavy metals into the soil and ground water that all have to be consistently monitored and released out through pipes around the school grounds to this day. It also sits next to a Waste Water Treatment plant emitting hazardous and unpleasant odors, and is in a flood zone that will continue to get worse over the coming decades with climate change.
Despite the challenges of finding an acceptable alternative site such as Edna, we deserve to feel safe and proud of where our children are going to be housed temporarily during the construction and during their time at middle school. For a cost of up to $194M, we should be building a facility that will last for many generations to come.
What I respectfully request is that the Board delays any decisions on the eventual middle school site until it spends the time and money to conduct the needed feasibility studies at the current middle school site and the Edna site and receive basic bids from contractors to compare the construction costs and permitting and health risks with both and solicit needed community input. This type of feasibility analysis is typical for a project of this scale and is warranted to be conducted at two sites with the existing known issues at the current middle school site. The evaluation should include the plan and cost of temporary housing of middle school students at the current school site vs. permanently moving Edna students to the other elementary schools while construction were to take place there for the middle school.
This entire evaluation would provide a data driven recommendation and may only take another 90-180 days and will in turn leave the community with a clear decision that we can feel more comfort about.
It also may reveal that the Edna build costs (even with extra elementary school retrofit costs) are substantially cheaper (~$20-$50M) and lower risk than the MVMS site. The Edna site would also eliminate a concern that we are hearing from all parents about having their children in the middle of a construction site with toxic materials flying through the air for three years. It further might turn out that consolidating the elementary schools is the right decision for classroom capacity and retaining teachers with the decreasing enrollment trends we are seeing.
Thanks for your consideration.
Why is this important?
The Mill Valley School Board is planning to make a site selection decision at the 10/12 Board meeting so your input is critical today. Please feel sign on, send to your friends and get the word out. Also please plan to be in attendance at the 10/12 Board meeting.