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MVSD
A Letter to Elizabeth Kaufman, Superintendent of the Mill Valley School District
The following are excerpts from a letter by John Palmer to Elizabeth Kaufman, regarding the Mill Valley School District’s plan to build a new middle school on Friends Field at the Mill Valley Community Center.
Dear Elizabeth,
In light of Mayor Urban Carmel’s op-ed piece in the Marin IJ and Dick Spotswood’s op-ed piece that followed, I want to add requests;
First, that you and the Board recognize that the community overwhelmingly opposes the plan to build a new middle school on the Fields site;
Second, that the Board revert to the plan the way Measure G was pitched, that the community approved and voted for, namely “with all funds improving local schools”; and
Third, that the Board sit down with the City, mend fences, and work together.
I sit on a number of boards, including chairing the Facilities Committee of a major arts organization, so I well understand the work that goes into making difficult decisions about the allocation of limited resources to aging facilities. Further, most everyone I know votes for school bonds though their kids have long since graduated from college. However, I fear that the Board has already angered the voting public – certainly many feel blindsided about the way this was handled.
I believe the situation can be salvaged, however, if the Board were to agree to work with the City, which is exactly what Mayor Carmel, former Mayor Fisco, and I asked at the 2/1 meeting, as City Manager Cusimano has asked in two well-reasoned letters to you and the Board, and as former Mayor Spotswood advocated in the IJ. The Board could come out of this looking smart by simply saying something like,
“We had to look at this, and we did; the plan has some benefits, but the community has advised us that they would prefer another alternative, and we listened."
In addition to all the reasons you’ve heard, namely that
a) the documents overwhelmingly argue against the Board’s rights and ability to execute the new plan,
b) the community would never have approved Measure G if they knew of this plan,
c) the Board needs the goodwill of the voting public for future funding,
d) the Fields are a beloved and much-used community asset, and
e) the Fields are the City-designated gathering place in time of fire, earthquake, etc., there are logistical issues about which you may not have been well-advised.
First, I believe the Board’s consultants should have advised you all to take the temperature of the community, meet with its leaders, etc., before announcing the plan. It was very clear to those of us who deal with cities, boards, and public agencies that at least some of the Board members were sold on the idea prior to the 2/1 meeting, and that the “public comment” segment of both public meetings was strictly performative. One minute for the people who helped build this community (i.e. Dennis Fisco was on the Planning Commission for 8 years and on the City Council for 8 more, then devoted plenty of time and money to building those fields), one minute for the Mayor of Mill Valley?
Second, have you been fully advised about CEQA, which requires that the proposed project be subject to an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), with its impacts measured against the alternatives, including “no project”? The environmental impacts of this proposal would be enormous - penetrating the barriers which protect what lies beneath the fields, dumping an entire school onto landfill, etc. The builders I know (and I am one) all believe that the Board’s plan would require a full EIR, which could take 2-4 years to complete and approve. Even a mitigated EIR, were that somewhat easier path to survive community opposition, would take more time than the Board has to make the plan work.
As you know, the people who organized Friends of Fields are well-respected and highly experienced builders who could have been – and still could be - a very valuable asset to the Board. I urge your Board to reach out to them and use their skills, experience, and position in the community to help you come up with a plan that works, and that the community will accept.
Finally, I’m requesting once again that you and the Board recognize that the City is a willing partner, and that your team take the off-ramp/olive branch Todd Cusimano offered, and sit down with current and former City leaders to come up with a plan that benefits all the schools, all the kids in our community, and the community as a whole.