Construction began in 2014 on the school, which was originally planned to open in the fall of 2016. Vivien Hao, communications coordinator of the LBUSD Measure K Bond Program, said that “construction delays” caused the opening date of the school to be pushed back to fall of next year.
“Things seem to always take longer than anticipated,” she said. “However, we want to make sure it’s done right.”
The decision to open the high school next year was made nine months ago, Hao said. She explained that a school cannot be opened in the middle of the year, so the LBUSD is waiting until the fall season arrives.
Signal Hill City Councilmember Larry Forester said the City pushed to have the opening date of the school extended until 2017. The two cities conducted community meetings to hear feedback from the residents in both Long Beach and Signal Hill, but Forester said some residents did not agree with the construction’s work schedule.
“They wanted to work from 7am to 10pm,” he said. “The community said, ‘No way.'”
Despite attending the community meetings, officials in charge of the project are not required to speak with Signal Hill City staff, according to Forester.
“You know, I’ve talked with Patrick O’Donnell, who is a member of the State Assembly Education Committee,” Forester said. “I told him that the fact that they don’t have to give feedback to Signal Hill is absurd.”
Forester said that his main concerns with the project focused on traffic inconveniences and that members of the community feared the traffic delays a school can potentially cause.
One concern in particular involved the “warranted” suggestion of traffic lights at the intersection of Hill Street and Obispo Avenue. The formidable steepness of Hill Street does not allow for traffic lights to be installed, according to Forester.
“Hill [Street] has a 17-percent grade slope,” he said. “People coming down Hill Street can potentially try to run the yellow light.”
Signal Hill City Manager Charlie Honeycutt explained that there will not be installations of traffic lights at the intersection. He said that traffic engineers decided to keep the stop signs that are already in place after they completed a traffic study of the area.
“We have been working with the LBUSD and raised issues about the project,” he said. “I believe they have taken the appropriate mitigation measures.”
Honeycutt explained that any school-related projects are mostly governed by the state of California.
“I will have a meeting one way or another,” he said. “If [LBUSD] choose to come, then it is up to them, but I think they want to attend.”
At a meeting in September of last year, Signal Hill and Long Beach officials met with residents to discuss issues and concerns about the school, Honeycutt said.
According to Hao, the LBUSD is not planning any more meetings. Instead, the district is waiting until summer of 2017 to conduct a community open house of the school.
Currently, a sizeable portion of land adjacent to the school is being worked on to complete the athletic field and parking area, according to Hao.
“We are working with the cities of Signal Hill and Long Beach to make street improvements on the south side of Hill Street before school opens in fall 2017,” she said.
Initially, the budgeted amount for the construction of Browning High School was $56 million, but Hao believes the project will cost more. She said that until the project is finished, it is difficult to calculate how much the overall completion of the school will cost.
The first group of students will consist of 120 to 140 9th-grade students. Once those students move on to 10th grade, a new group of freshmen will enroll, Hao added.
Ultimately, the school is expected to serve 800 to 840 students who will be encouraged to select a “career pathway.”
Hao said that Browning High School is one out of the five high school projects the LBUSD Measure K Bond Program is funding. McBride High School and Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science, two of the five schools in the program, recently opened their doors for student enrollment.
Hao said that Browning High School will offer studies in the fields of tourism, people movement, recreation and hospitality. She said that these four trades are crucial to the business backbone of Long Beach.
For more information about Browning High School or any of the other Measure K bond high schools, contact the LBUSD Measure K Bond Program Office at (562) 997-7553 or email measurekinfo@lbschools.net.
