During the Signal Hill City Council meeting on Dec. 16, Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser gives a presentation on a new “thematic” high school being built near Signal Hill.
Staff Writer
In a presentation to the Signal Hill City Council this week, Long Beach school officials said they plan to form a committee to address residents’ concerns about traffic and other impacts regarding a new “thematic” high school being built near Signal Hill.
During the Council’s Dec. 16 meeting, Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser gave an overview of the district’s plans for a new high school to be called Browning High School, which is currently under construction on a 10.3-acre site bounded by Hill Street, Obispo Avenue and Redondo Avenue.
Though LBUSD had previously proposed a K-8th-grade school with 1,400 students, school officials later switched plans to build a small high school that would include no more than 840 students, eventually, in grades 9 through 12. The new high school is expected to have 31 classrooms and four main buildings.
School officials have said that the district’s plans shifted because of a demand for smaller high schools and a drop in student enrollment caused by a “change in demographics.”
In recent months, residents and some councilmembers have expressed concerns about the potential impact that Browning High School may have on the surrounding community, bringing up issues of traffic and public safety.
During the Council meeting, Councilmember Tina Hansen said the intersection at Obispo Avenue and Hill Street is already a “debacle” for drivers and pedestrians alike and may pose a traffic problem once students and cars from the school are added.
“That is one of the craziest, scariest intersections that I drive through because nobody wants to yield,” she said. “Nobody wants to wait for anybody else, and it is a very, very difficult and dangerous intersection.”
Additionally, Hansen pointed out that the City is not permitted to install a traffic light at the intersection because of Hill Street’s steep grade that would create a dangerous situation for vehicles backed up on the street.
Tova Corman, executive director of facilities, development and planning for LBUSD, said the district conducted a traffic study on the high school project in 2012 to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that indicated there wouldn’t be any traffic mitigation measures required.
She said the high school, according to the district’s traffic study, would create 421 more vehicle trips to intersections in the morning hours (44 less trips than the elementary school) and 232 more vehicle trips during evening hours (104 less trips than an elementary school).
In addition, Corman said the school would have 132 parking spots, of which 60 spaces would be for students and staff, adding that the only entry to the school will be along Obispo Avenue.
Hansen, however, wasn’t satisfied with the district’s response about traffic impacts, stating that CEQA guidelines don’t take into account “specifics” of a particular intersection.
“The problem with CEQA is you just punch in numbers, but it doesn’t take into account the particular specifics of an intersection,” she said. “With this particular intersection, it’s impossible to put a traffic light there because of Hill Street and the grading … I am just incredibly concerned about the traffic flow going in and out of here.”
Steinhauser noted that the school district will be employing its own staff to serve as crossing guards around the school site for the first few years since the City of Long Beach doesn’t provide crossing guards for high schools.
He said traffic routes around other schools that the district has recently opened have gone relatively well with a few corrections made.
“All of our experiences have been where they’ve gone very smoothly, and we’ve corrected things.” Steinhauser said. “The school is going to grow a year at a time. We will have new issues that we’ll have to deal with every year.”
Councilmember Lori Woods asked the school officials if and when students would be let out for lunch, expressing concerns about students and traffic possibly impacting neighborhoods up the hill.
Vice Mayor Larry Forester added that some residents fear that Discovery Well Park will become a “hangout” for students.
In response, Steinhauser said the district would be deciding whether to restrict students from having lunch, which is 30 minutes, off campus. He said school hours would typically be between 7:45am to 2:45pm, with some students in clubs staying a few hours after school.
Forester stated that he considers LBUSD’s traffic study “flawed” and opposes the district not conducting a full environmental impact report on the project and not proposing traffic mitigations. He also suggested that the district form a committee to work on a way to resolve the potential traffic issues.
Steinhauser agreed, adding that the committee would consist of Signal Hill and Long Beach residents, city officials, school administrators and the high school principal to maintain dialogue with the community for the long term. In addition, he agreed to meet with homeowners associations to discuss the project at their request.
“I think the committee would be good,” Steinhauser said. “It won’t solve all the issues, but it will solve the vast majority of them.”
The $44-million project is the second of four new small high schools planned using funding from Measure K, a bond measure passed in 2008. McBride High School in east Long Beach was the first to open last year. The “thematic” high schools are primarily focused on specific career-path education and don’t have major sports teams like larger high schools.
Steinhauser explained that the district is reducing the size of high schools and focusing more on specific disciplines as a “pathway” to prepare students for internships, college and future careers. The district is expanding its “school choice program” in which students have more options to apply to different schools that offer courses in specific fields of interest, other than the one closest to home.
Browning High School would offer courses in food service/food science, hospitality, tourism and recreation. Additionally, students must meet certain requirements, such as passing algebra by the 8th grade, to be admitted. Even then, students may have to be randomly selected if there are more qualified applicants than seats at a particular school, he explained.
Steinhauser said that, in the case of Browning High School, students who live in Signal Hill and are interested in attending the high school will be given priority placement.
“We have to educate everybody on what high school is today,” Steinhauser said. “We send more kids to college than most school systems. Part of our issue is we have to educate all of our citizens on what these new schools mean.”
Steinhauser added that the main issue he foresees once the new high school opens, which is scheduled for fall 2016, is not having enough seats for students who will want to enroll.
“I think our biggest problem is, once we get passed these things in the next four years, we are going to have so many people who want to go to this school,” he said. Steinhauser added that he suspects homeowners will likely see their property values rise because of the new high school as well.
Signal Hill Mayor Ed Wilson said he graduated from a small high school and applauded the school district’s efforts to reduce the size of high schools and give students more options to have a successful future.
“When I first got on the Council, I thought we should have a small high school,” he said. “I still believe that. I graduated from a small high school. I believe in public education. I know a lot of people in this room and watching are products of public education, and that’s the other thing, we always have to think back to when we were in school and what we did and what we wanted … Kids do things, but they do things because they’re excited about their life at that time, and what we’re trying to do is put the environment in place that they’re able to exceed during that period of time.”
Other Council highlights:
Labor contract revisions The Council voted unanimously to approve a memorandum of understanding with the Signal Hill Employees Association (SHEA) to revise management salary ranges and changes to retirement-benefit formulas. City manager agreement The Council voted unanimously to approve an amended employment agreement with City Manager Ken Farfsing in a form approved by the city attorney.
Cherry Avenue widening The Council agreed unanimously to enter into a contract services agreement with Anderson Penna Partners Inc. for construction services in Phase 1 of the Cherry Avenue Widening Project that is expected to get underway in January.
Redevelopment properties Acting as the successor to the former Signal Hill Redevelopment Agency, the Council unanimously signed off on a long-range property management pan (PMP) that outlines the disposition of all of the City’s former redevelopment properties. According to a city staff report, staff received comments and questions from the State Department of Finance on the plan earlier this year and now plans to present the final PMP for approval.
The next Signal Hill Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 7pm in the Council Chamber.
