Brea Olinda Unified School District Updated May 2, 2011 Olinda School Frequently Asked Questions 1. Will the new school will be breaking ground this Fall? YES! BOUSD held the Groundbreaking Ceremony on Thursday, October 21, 2010. Large earth movers are in place and are scheduled to begin grading on Wednesday, October 27 th. Look to the District s website for the most current information and photographs on the status of construction. 2. Will phases 1 & 2 of the school be built in the next year? YES! Our current Phase 1 2 is under construction. The current phasing plan calls for the construction of two sets of eight permanent classrooms, the kindergarten wing of three classrooms, the office and library media center building, four temporary/modular classrooms buildings (two configured for a kitchen/food service center and two configured into a multipurpose [MPR] room), one temporary/modular restroom building by the temporary kitchen, the permanent lunch shelter area and all grading/site work. 3. Will phase 3 of the school be paid for by the sale of the old school? The source of funding for Phase 3 remains uncertain. Phase 3 could involve the construction of the third permanent eight classroom wing and/or a permanent MPR/kitchen. Developer fees from Tonner Hills and/or La Floresta could fund this construction, as could any proceeds from the lease or sale of the Olinda School site. The MPR/Kitchen could also include a small gymnasium design that could potentially become a joint use, jointly funded project with the City of Brea and State matching funds. If those State funds are available and the City has funds available to commit to this project, the funding split on this construction could be 50% State, 25% City and 25% District. This arrangement would significantly extend the purchasing power of any available construction funds that the District has at that time. 4. Will the new school not be completed when the campus opens for business? NO! While the phasing plan for completing all construction could extend several years, our currently approved contracts call for the completion of the Phase 1 2 plan before the campus opens for business in Fall, 2011. However, due to rain delays, we may be looking at move in during winter break, 2011.
5. Will the state mandate the old school site be sold if the District has no immediate plans for its use? The State does not mandate what a local school district does with any of its property. All the decisions relative to the disposition and use of the Olinda site rest with the Board of Education. 6. Is the current school site unsafe to be built out due to the geological survey findings? Unsafe is not the proper label to place on the site. Preliminary geotechnical investigations of the site completed when we were looking to expand and modernize the current Olinda site showed what we all know Olinda Village is built on a massive, ancient landslide complex. Even with the data from borings done onsite, the geologist could not develop the calculations to provide the Division of State Architect (DSA) with a site remediation plan and footing/foundation plan that would meet current school construction standards (which are different than the City s building code standards for residences). The question was referred to the California Geological Survey (CGS another State agency), who reviewed our geologist s report and other data known about the area. CGS reported that the data needed to develop a site remediation plan and footing/foundation plan would require borings up to 120 feet around the perimeter of the whole landslide complex, either on private property or public property (roads and such). Even with that data, the expert at CGS indicated that in all probability that the site would need to be remediated of land slide issues before the State (DSA) would approve any construction. We were told at that time that to remediate the site, we would need to excavate the site down to stable soil (at least 40 feet deep) and that the excavation would need to continue downslope on a 1:1 grade to the base of the slide plain, most likely to the creek bed. This would involve removal of all buildings on the site, removal of portions of Carbon Canyon road for an unspecified period of time, and removal of any buildings downslope from the school site during that grading operation (church, mobile homes,??). The excavation would then need to be compacted and filled to specific standards before a new school could be built on the site. This project is well out of the scope of any funds available to the District, and I am sure that any property owner downslope of the Olinda School site, including CalTrans, would have significant issues with this excavation plan. In addition, excavation of the large hill above the upper grade playground would need to be included in this excavation plan. Providing for the stability (both short and long term) of the soil for adjacent property owners creates additional challenges to any remediation efforts. As a result of this analysis, the expert at CGS developed the following recommendations and conclusions in his report:
Recommendations 1. The administration and the school board of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District should not plan for any new buildings on this campus unless detailed (second-phase) engineering geology and geotechnical studies indicate a passing (FS>1.1) dynamic Factor-of-Safety for the landslide. 2. If a new elementary school campus is sought by the Brea- Olinda Unified School District, then a Certified Engineering Geologist should be retained for the site-selection outside of known landslide zones. Several viable campus sites may be considered and ranked by appropriate parameters (absence of geologic hazards, suitable school-bus routes, cost of acquisition of real-property, centroid of student population, etc). 3. It is not necessary to immediately evacuate the campus. The landslide danger is serious but latent. This means that the landslide would most likely remobilize slowly during an earthquake or an extreme rainfall with substantial structural damage to school buildings. However, school children would have time to depart safely and in a timely manner. 4. The land still has reasonable resale value for commercial purposes (non-school), so that money can be realized and reinvested in a new campus. The school district can also continue to use the land for non-instructional purposes, like maintenance and parking of the school-bus fleet. Conclusions In conclusion, this landslide evaluation is approved in scope and quality. There is convincing geologic evidence of ancient landsliding on the campus. Olinda Elementary School is within an official landslide zone on the Yorba Linda Quadrangle, prepared by the California Geological Survey. The ancient landslide complex cannot be easily remediated. The California Geological Survey concurs with Petra Geotechnical (page 26) that new classroom facilities not be considered within the site unless the slide complex has been adequately investigated, characterized and appropriate mitigation recommended. We also concur that further detailed geological studies of the landslide may yield unfavorable results (static Factor-of-Safety, FS<1.5; or dynamic Factor-of-Safety, FS<1.1). Unless the existing landslide complex can be demonstrated to be stable by further detailed geological studies, it is not recommended to expand the campus by addition of new school buildings. The selection process for a new viable school campus in the Carbon Canyon Brea/Olinda area should be undertaken by a Certified Engineering Geologist. The principal geologic hazards in this area are: landslides, severe earthquake ground-motion, surface faulting on the active Whittier Fault, liquefaction in alluvium, seismically-induced settlement of soft alluvium, and petroleum contamination (tar & gas seeps) within older oil-fields.
7. Does a Charter School have the right to use the old school site? Charter Schools may request use of any unoccupied or unused District site. 8. Do you have a current buyer in mind for the old school site? As with other properties that the District owns, we do have individuals or groups express interest in purchasing those properties from time to time. We have had discussions with different groups interested in the Olinda site. No offers have been presented for the purchase of the Olinda site. 9. If not, are there plans in place to protect the school and its surroundings while it is vacant and on the market? (Residents are very concerned about an empty school). Now that a decision has been made to proceed with construction of the new school on Birch Street, we will begin discussions with the Board on the potential uses for the Olinda site beginning in November. 10. Do you have a plan in place if the sale of Olinda DOES NOT cover the costs of the final phase build out at the new site? Please refer to the answers for questions 2 and 3 above. 11. Have you exhausted all hope of retaining the current school site to be used for other School District functions? Please refer to CGS Recommendation 4 in the response to question 6, and the response to question 9. We are uncertain of any non school, but education, use of the Olinda that would meet the District s needs and meet with community support. 12. Have you considered keeping K 3 at Olinda (current) and sending 4th through 8th to the new school to help alleviate the burden of the current Junior high while still offering the additional classrooms necessary? Unfortunately, with declining enrollment at the junior high level, we are not seeing an increasing burden on classrooms at this time. We still would have the same issues with being able to make the Olinda site ADA compliant and the reduced classroom availability after the modular classrooms are removed from the site. 13. Does the new school design allow for conversion into a K 8 school, and if so, when would that happen? Yes. The school was designed to adapt to a K 8 model, a 6 8 middle school, or remain a K 6 school of up to 850 students. Changes to the grade configuration of the new school would have to be based on significant changes to our current enrollment projections and discussed at the Board level well in advance of that change.
14. What will be the name of the new school? While no name has been officially selected, if the Board decides to relocate Olinda from its current site to the new site (as it has been relocated three times before to my understanding), I assume the Olinda Elementary School name will replace our temporary title of the Birch Street School. 15. What students will attend the new school? As noted in the response above, relocating Olinda to the new site would essentially maintain the existing attendance boundaries for Olinda and the surrounding BOUSD schools. Any adjustments to the District s attendance boundaries would involve much discussion by the Board and numerous opportunities for community input prior to any change. Currently, future students from La Floresta and Tonner Hills would be assigned to the new school, or new Olinda.