Oceanside Unified to sell sinkhole-damaged Garrison Elementary, modernize San Luis Rey campus

Faced with a choice between two aging campuses, the Oceanside Unified School District Board of Directors voted Tuesday to modernize San Luis Rey Elementary School and to sell Garrison Elementary School, where sinkholes appeared last year.

The decision will permanently merge the two schools, which shared the San Luis Rey campus this year before the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures. And it closes the debate over what to do with the deteriorating campuses, which began when sinkholes formed at Garrison due to a corroded storm drain system.

Tuesday's meeting, conducted on Zoom, drew more than 150 remote participants, and a number of speakers. The decision to shutter Garrison and revamp San Luis Rey passed by a 4-1 vote, with board member Raquel Alvarez dissenting, arguing that the modernization project would not adequately solve serious facilities problems at the school.

"I do not and I will not accept the fact that we would put lipstick on a pig," Alvarez said.

Other board members said, however, that improving San Luis Rey would be the fastest and most cost-effective way to provide an improved campus for students. The improvements to San Luis Rey will cost $17 to $20 million, staff said, and will include fixing sewage and drainage systems, upgrading bathrooms, roofing, electrical, pluming and heating and cooling systems, bringing disability access up to code, ensuring fire safety and replacing older portables. Selling the Garrison property is expected to bring in about $6 million to the district, officials said.

"Where we're at today is, we've got to modernize some school and San Luis Rey is the best place to do it," board member Mike Blessing said.

The first sinkhole at Garrison Elementary -- about five feet long by four feet wide -- formed at the rear of school in February of last year, and in May, school officials discovered a second sinkhole, about four feet long by a foot wide, on a blacktop area. Since then, additional holes have formed near the kindergarten area, officials said at Tuesday's meeting.

A geological report in the fall determined that the sinkholes formed because of corrosion of the storm drain system, and recommended the district remove and replace the entire system. A subsequent engineering report concluded it would cost at least $13 million to replace the storm drains, which would not cover other needed improvements to the campus. The district had set aside $25 million from the 2008 school bond measure, Proposition H, for modernization at Garrison, but the storm water project alone would consume more than half of that.

Students and staff at Garrison Elementary School were relocated to neighboring San Luis Rey Elementary School in August, but that campus, built in 1963, also has decaying infrastructure. It's within range of high-power tension lines, a gas line and a flight path of McClellan–Palomar Airport, and is not in compliance with state-mandated setbacks from any of those lines, district officials said. The site also has problems with flooding, mold, broken bathroom fixtures, rusted railings and insect infestations.

However, the school commissioned a report on the site that concluded that the site's proximity to the power lines, a gas line and State Route 76 don't pose safety hazards to students and staff. Under state law, officials said Tuesday, the campus would be exempted from those standards if the district does a modernization consisting of less than 50 percent renovation of the facility rather than a full rebuild.

Some urged the board to find an alternate site and build a new school from the ground up, arguing that it would be safer, and a better investment, to choose a new location that complies with current safety standards. District officials said they looked into available land parcels in Oceanside, but most had inadequate acreage, and many had their own environmental shortfalls.

Teachers and parents who weighed in at previous public comment sessions on the issue expressed a desire to keep the two school communities together at a blended campus, and to ensure safe, healthy facilities for students and staff. But some speakers at Tuesday's meeting said that neither existing campus was worth the investment, and said the district should instead pursue an alternate option: to close and sell both sites, and move students to other neighboring schools.

"Is the option before the board the long-term solution?" asked speaker Sam Sanford. "Does it address the long-term challenges? Garrison has sinkholes plus high voltage power lines. San Luis Rey also has a flight path and high volume roadways. And San Luis Rey other issues: a sewer system challenges and mold. These would have to be addressed before it can be considered modernized, no matter how fancy it looks. I'm not confident they would be."

Parent Aimee Soto, whose twin sons started kindergarten at the blended school this year, said she was "passionate about protecting my children's education as part of Oceanside Unified," but said she supported the plan to shutter both campuses and re-enroll students at other nearby schools.

"There's all of these things you can't mitigate, which makes me think it's not safe for my children or any children," she said. "I personally will not send my kids back to that campus."

Board member Eric Joyce said he shared concerns about the school's setbacks from the various utilities, but said he was reassured by the report that they do not pose health or safety hazards.

"There's no other thing more important than the safety of our kids, and that study gave me confidence," he said.

School Board member Stacy Begin said that removing both campuses from the area would leave the community as a "school desert," and would undermine successful programs for performing arts and bilingual education.

"I know because I live in the San Luis Rey area across the street, we need a school in that area," Begin said. She said she supported renovating San Luis Rey, "if and only if this modernization is thorough. I don't want to see something that's just superficial."

District staff will return before the board with detailed plans and cost estimates for the modernization in May or June.

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