Council asked to contribute to Samohi projects
CITY HALL Santa Monica High School needs a lot of help.
It isn’t help necessarily needed in the classroom where students continue to post high marks, or even on the field where championship-winning teams have thrived, but rather the facilities in which it all takes place, the aging campus showing its long-history through the cracks in the outdated buildings.
Those were the general sentiments expressed by parents and other invested parties from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, asking city officials to consider chipping into the renovation of Santa Monica High School, which is about to undergo construction in two years.
SMMUSD officials presented on Wednesday a school reconstruction plan that included various opportunities for shared-use opportunities between the school district and City Hall, linking the Samohi and Civic Center campuses, the latter of which is slated to go through a series of changes in the next couple of years, including affordable housing construction and a recreational field. The joint-use between the two entities, which would open Samohi cultural and athletic facilities to the public outside of school hours, could make the project available to Redevelopment Agency (RDA) funding.
Agency officials are currently assessing redevelopment funding availability.
“When our kids win the baseball national championship or the cheerleading national championship or the soccer state championship … they not only represent Santa Monica High School, they represent the city of Santa Monica,” Principal Hugo Pedroza said. “They bring pride to this great city.”
An overall proposal to redo the high school, which would include a new 3,000 seat football stadium and a publicly accessible promenade that would cut east-west through the heart of the campus, is estimated to cost nearly $300 million in current figures. That number is expected to grow with inflation.
The first phase, which will replace the existing science and technology buildings by moving it to the northeast corner of the campus, is fully funded using Measure BB bond money and is slated to begin in about two years, according to Rikkie Binder, the school’s architect from the firm of R.L. Binder. The estimated $57 million construction project will also replace the existing softball diamond, which will be occupied by the new science and tech building. A few additional small projects could be molded into the first phase.
The $268 million bond measure passed by voters in 2006, will fund district infrastructure improvement and construction projects.
Proponents of the plan also point out the joint-use opportunities with the two campus’ cultural icons, including Barnum Hall, the amphitheater and Civic Auditorium, which once hosted Academy Awards ceremonies.
Parents have long complained about the structural deficiencies at the high school campus, which they said undermines the academic excellence that goes on inside the classroom. In previous Board of Education meetings regarding the topic, some parents said they have considered private high school for their children because of the aging facilities at Samohi.
Shared-use possibilities will come as part of future projects after the completion of phase one. The all-encompassing vision for Santa Monica High School includes a new 500-car parking structure beneath the stadium, an outdoor plaza, a new pool, soccer field and an outdoor walkway that would link the east end of the campus to the Civic Center. The promenade would be opened outside of regular school hours, allowing pedestrians and cyclists access while closing off the rest of the campus.
“The council really took a bold move when it purchased the Rand (Corp.) property … this is a chance to turn around and look to the east,”Judith Meister, the past PTA president of Samohi, said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 25, 2008. Read the original PDF.