Matt King – Sentinel staff writer

Article Launched: 05/24/2007 3:00:00 AM PDT

Leaders of Santa Cruz City Schools have killed a controversial Westside bus yard project and will instead create a plan to find the best place for its buses, a dual-language immersion program that’s outgrowing its home and potential new programs.

“We have several facilities circumstances that will come together in the next year or two,” Superintendent Alan Pagano said. “If we have tunnel vision about what’s going to happen at the site, it would be handicapping the district”

The move comes a month after the district asked the Santa Cruz City Council to delay a decision on the project, which the Planning Commission rejected because neighbors objected to the plan. The plan for the Swift Street site included a maintenance shop and parking for 27 maintenance vehicles and 18 buses, mostly short buses, on about two acres between Pacific Collegiate School and Delaware Avenue.

A group called Friends of the Westside threatened to take its complaints to the state Coastal Commission if the City Council approved the bus yard.

“It would be disingenuous of me to say that neighborhood sentiment wasn’t a consideration,” Pagano said. “We want to be good neighbors”

The district has land-use problems that date to the 1990s when it built a new headquarters on Mission Street and then sold it to the county Housing Authority in 2003.

Since then, district officials have been looking for a new bus yard, and its operations have been complicated by closing two elementary schools. One of them, Natural Bridges Elementary, now houses Pacific Collegiate, and the district leases its former Loma Prieta school to a private school.

Those leases expire in the next two years, and the Housing Authority has given the district a three-year lease to keep its buses and maintenance facilities. That gives the district a window to consider the best locations for the dual-immersion instruction, preschool programs, adult education and bus and maintenance facilities.

“It’s the perfect time to look at the overall picture of where everything can go so it all gets put together well,” said Trustee Ken Wagman, who had been the district’s most ardent supporter of the Swift Street plan.

Neighbors opposed to the bus yard project have said they would support using the Swift Street property for educational uses and back a plan to build homes there if the district could work out a plan to swap land with the Housing Authority.

“We’re thankful the district listened,” David Terrazas said. “Our first priority is to see it used for instruction, as it has been in the past. If they didn’t have an instructional use, we’re trying to find an opportunity for teacher and service worker housing”

Contact Matt King at mking@santacruzsentinel.com.

Sentinel Staff Report

Article Launched: 06/22/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

Whatever happened to the concept of community collaboration and cooperation? In today’s “go it alone” economic climate, pubic agencies and nonprofits alike are forced to balance their scarce resources budget by individual budget. When budget balancing leads to unnecessary cuts in services, the entire community loses.

Direct coordination and collaboration among service providers might just be the solution to maintain threatened programs and projects.

Case in point: strained negotiations between Santa Cruz City Schools SCCS and Santa Cruz County Office of Education-chartered Pacific Collegiate School PCS have now completely stalled with no direct communications between the parties. The Sentinel reported last month that SCCS does not want to “leave any revenue on the table,” but the agency’s focus on securing a short-term source of revenue may thwart more rewarding long-term opportunities.

It is admirable that SCCS is looking to increase their income by turning to the market place to rent the former Natural Bridges Elementary School. However, despite the recent property appraisal and reported inquiries, it’s unlikely that there are others out there willing to pay market rate for a property with outdated structures and restrictions limiting use to public facilities when there are plenty of similarly priced vacant facilities without these restrictions currently available.

The two parcels SCCS manages cannot be used for commercial development without city approval and neighbors would like the school and adjacent parkland permanently protected. It’s time that we look to other models to solve public-agency budget shortfalls.

In Santa Clara County, the city of San Jose and San Jose State University opened the new 475,000 sq. ft. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in August 2003 as a joint development project. This project represents a unique collaboration between a university and a major U.S. city and could be an example for Santa Cruz. Other agencies throughout California have linked programs through joint-powers agreements to streamline operations or created special districts to provide stable funding sources and to prioritize long-range planning.

We should consider these same types of strategies to support services right here in Santa Cruz. Schools could be built, parks could be maintained and programs could be funded, all through the process of cooperation and joint planning. What will it take to ignite the discussion?

Today’s financial constraints require new approaches. Without long-term planning and cooperation, public services will be unnecessarily placed in jeopardy. Perhaps SCCS and PCS can restart direct negotiations and identify their own creative solutions to meet their and the community’s long-term needs Their combined efforts can serve as an example of how public agencies can maintain and enhance valuable programs during these difficult budgetary times.

It’s at least worth a try, don’t you think?

Sentinel Staff Report

Article Launched: 08/03/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

In an emergency, every single second counts. This month, first responders like the City Police and Fire Departments and especially those who depend on their assistance, are counting on you to support the reinstatement of critical funding for emergency communications services.

As background, the Santa Cruz Consolidated Emergency Communications Center SCCECC is a Joint Powers Authority providing public safety and 911 dispatch services for the County of Santa Cruz, and the cities of Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Capitola. Each of the participating cities pays their own share of the center’s operational costs. Recently funding for our City’s share of SCCECC emergency communications services was suspended as a result of a First Appellate Court of Appeals decision that ruled that a fee similar to one charged in Santa Cruz is in fact a special tax that must first be approved by voters.

Measure T is a mail-in election that asks City residents to restore 911 emergency call center funding through a small monthly charge of $3.49 per phone line. This amount restores funding for emergency communications that was put in place in 2003, at the same rate that was established in 2003. Low income, Lifeline customers, and public institutions, like schools, are exempt from having to pay.

Whether you think you need them or not 911 services save lives and you might just know someone who has received emergency care through a simple phone call.

Recently, without warning three devastating fires struck our region and SCCECC coordinated the response and care for hundreds of residents. Dispatchers worked around the clock to ensure that emergency services were delivered as quickly and expertly as possible. One dispatcher, using GIS mapping resources, even helped various fire and law enforcement agencies, some from out of the area, during the Summit and Martin fires. With her assistance, agencies unfamiliar with the many poorly marked streets in the fire area were able to fight the fire more effectively and helped ease the evacuation plan of residents.

There is no schedule as to when the next disaster may strike.

Also, as parents of two young children, my wife and I are keenly aware of how critical it is to have available emergency services whether at home or in the community.

My wife is trained in responding to emergencies as a licensed heath care provider. One evening she and I were out at a club when an elderly man fell to the ground breathless. Everything in the room seemed to have stopped and it appeared as though no one, of the nearly 200 people present, knew how to respond. Through her quick thinking she immediately directed an employee to first call 911, and then directed another employee to administer CPR, while she began chest compressions until help arrived. The fire department was on the scene within four minutes after the man fell, and a life was saved.

That’s how 911 can work to help you whenever you are faced with an emergency.

There are thousands of stories like this. Dispatchers responding to burglary calls, trained to take the extra time to comfort victims and Police and Fire working with SCCEC to coordinate critical care to the elderly and injured. Without this critical communication link first responders would lose precious seconds to help those in danger.

You might be one of the nearly 281,000 calls SCCECC coordinated for service during the past year and have your own story to tell.

With your support of Measure T, whenever someone’s life or health is at stake, those who work to save them can immediately respond in the event of an emergency. Passage of the measure will also allow the dispatch center to meet the new Federal infrastructure and equipment requirements for all 911 services without taking money away from other critical City services.

Your support of Measure T will protect funding for our nationally recognized dispatch center. It’s the only one in California to be accredited by the Commission for the Accreditation of Law Enforcement “” a testimony to its professionalism and outstanding service. Measure T is a small price to pay for the safety and security of Santa Cruz residents and their families.

Please join me in supporting Measure T by returning your mail in ballot prior to August 26. The safety and health of our community depends on your support.

David Terrazas is a Santa Cruz resident.