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Sadly, both Council and school board missed a rare and unprecedented opportunity to work together to achieve a better community. I am referring to the recent school board decision to move the Adult School from University Avenue to the Franklin School site, and while one or two Councilmembers have signaled their disapproval, Council itself has been silent. At this week’s Joint City/School “2x2” meeting, City representatives indicated that since the School Board had made their decision, let’s talk about how to deal with the resultant traffic problems. This is not leadership. This is not expressing a vision for the future. Besides ignoring environmental impact report regulations concerning the Franklin decision, this position doesn’t even recognize the core issue of the need for good planning. Any action regarding the use of precious public school sites affects every resident, no matter what neighborhood we live in.  

Residents throughout Berkeley are expressing deep concerns about what the school district intends to do about school sites at Franklin, West Campus, Oregon, Derby, and Hillside, as well as the recently purchased vacant lots on Gilman. They believe that future use of these sites is connected. They don’t know what the end uses that they will have to live with will be. They don’t know how these decisions will be made, nor what can be done about them. District documents and statements by senior District staff regarding the Franklin/Adult School switch all clearly point to the intention of the district to further develop the Adult School site. Residents are understandably not re-assured when they hear school officials now say that the district has no plans for the Adult School site. The uncertainty of the situation has served to heighten anxieties and create divisions.  

City Manager Weldon Rucker was absolutely correct when he wrote to the district requesting that their proposed Mitigated Negative Environmental Impact Declaration on the switch NOT be adopted. He stated the district had not considered the entire project, i.e., the impacts on both the Franklin site and whatever will occur at the Adult School site. Consideration of part of a project does not comply with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) law, and, therefore, the project should not proceed until a new full project environmental impact study is completed and re-circulated for public comment. This is a fundamental requirement that applies to everyone, from private developers to the University of California. The school district is not exempt from this law.  

I urge the district to go a step further by withdrawing the Franklin project and developing a master plan for all of their facilities. One environmental impact report could be done on the master plan and smaller, focused studies could be tiered off of that report. A clear future vision could emerge from the process of creating a District Facilities Master Plan. The community has always supported the district with their dollars, but creating a master plan could solidify that support and provide a basis for building a better understanding of the academic goals, problems and achievements of the district. Such a plan would address citywide concerns about such matters as traffic and other physical planning issues. It could also serve as a financial planning guide for the school board around construction issues as well as achieving technological advancements such as conversion to solar energy. A school master plan could be a powerful tool to unite the community around a host of goals that could bring about better educational opportunities and better physical planning for school facilities. (The city’s own master plan must address the pressing need to lower city density--but that’s another story that I’ll take up later). Just imagine the possibilities of linked school district and city master plans; an action that would put Berkeley in the forefront of good planning.  

It is clear that in any of the significant changes being considered by the school district, two major interests must be accommodated: the educational needs of our children and impacts on the neighborhoods that such changes might bring. The district has responsibility for educating our children, and how their facilities are used for that purpose. The Council has responsibility for ensuring that all of Berkeley’s neighborhoods, now and in the future, are good places for people to live. These goals need not be in conflict. They both involve basic, good planning. When accomplished together, they create a great city. Such a process would not mean that changes could not occur. It does mean that people will be fully informed, and ensure that the actions taken today advance our shared vision for the future.  

I urge City Council to take immediate action to write to the school district indicating unqualified, unanimous endorsement of the manager’s letter, and further requesting respectfully the withdrawal of the Franklin School decision, and committing to work cooperatively with the district to provide the kind of joint good planning that accomplishes mutual goals. 

Shirley Dean is the former mayor of Berkeley.