Well, it’s back to the drawing board for those hoping to add a 4th elementary school in Foster City…or in outlying San Mateo for that matter. Due to opposition, the idea of re-creating Charter Square for said school via a bond was dropped last Thursday by the school board. This has been a pretty wild and circular ride trying to find and agree on a suitable site for this school and who knows if it ever will happen? Here’s a couple of pretty informative links on this topic.

Elementary School Bond Put On Hold

and

What Will It Take To Build A New Elementary School?

Once again, the State of California has released their API scores for schools and, no surprise, Foster City schools are doing incredibly well. Brewer Island went up to 951 and continues to be the top elementary school in the district while Audobon stayed even at 901 while FC School dropped slightly…although to a spectacular 936 from 940. Bowditch is also the top middle school as well. This continues to be good news for homeowners here as these scores always weigh favorably on buyers making their decisions. Congratulations to the schools!

The big $25 million bond to build a 4th Foster City school will not go on the November ballot after all. Officials decided last night to pull it to conduct more studies on the possible site. They’re pretty tight lipped about their location as well. District officials are still planning to construct the new school, they just need more time to put it all together before it goes before voters. Here’s a link to the SM Daily Journal article about this:

Schools Pull Bond From Ballot

It would appear that the addition of a fourth school here in Foster City is going to come along with a tax in order to pay for it. The land can be purchased through funds through the 2008 Measure L. The contruction of the new school is to be funded by a bond measure costing $18 to $20 per $100,000 of a home’s assessed value.

The details of this big event were published in the Daily Journal a couple of days ago. Here’s a link:

Fourth School May Mean Tax For Foster City

Now a dollar figure has been attached to building a 4th elementary school in Foster City. That number is 40 million. It would be come via a bond measure that would likely go before FC voters this November too.

What’s interesting is that the vote will most likely be contained to Foster City residents only. The cost won’t be shared by the San Mateo side of the district…which has typically been the case in the past. This’ll sure be an interesting arguement. I’m going to be anxious to see how it plays out in the community! Here’s a link to the SM Daily Journal article:

New School In Foster City May Require $40 Million Bond

In yet another classic example of a dog chasing it’s own tail…the San Mateo-Foster City School District is targeting private property in Foster City on which to build a new elementary school. Here’s how the Mercury-News reported it the other day:

“District officials told the board Thursday that they plan to pursue talks over the next two months to acquire private land in Foster City. The district would also survey residents to determine what they are willing to do to support construction of a fourth elementary school in Foster City, officials said.”

Seems like it was just a  month or so ago that the District was talking about a big parcel in San Mateo at the end of Mariner’s Island Blvd. Guess that’s not the only idea they’re thinking about. I just have one question though…any idea where this big piece of public land is going to come from? The only big vacant area I can think of is the dreaded 15 acre site/Village Square. I’m thinking the city’s not going to give that one up. They’ve been clear on this one in the past…as they should be in my opinion. Outside of that, where is this dream property coming from? Think the Metro Center is going to be bulldozed? Is Charter Square big enough? Where’s is this elusive private 5 acres?

I sort of had to laugh at the last part of that quote above too…about the district surveying residents about their willingness to build a 4th elementary school. Are they going to ask residents to give up their residences? Maybe half of Antigua could be bought…or all of Foster’s Landing or Lantern Cove? Actually, come to think of it, I did hear a rumor a few years ago about Lantern Cove being sold or converted into condos…maybe it could be scraped and the land converted into a school!

I honestly can’t think of another alternative…can you? Meanwhile, the photo above sort of says it all to me. One day dizziness will probably cause an end to all this. One things for sure…we havn’t heard the end of this topic. Here’s the wholoe Merc story:

School District Pursues Private Land In Foster City For New Campus

The San Mateo-Foster City school district has come up with a new idea about the addition of another elementary school for kids in this town. It’s going to be discussed tonight in closed session at a board meeting, but the idea is that a 4th school could be added at the end of Mariners Island Blvd (technically in San Mateo) and end the drama and arguement about what part of FC (park, 15 acre site…etc) gets the school.

The area is an almost 3 acre lot that’s essentially across the street from Gilead Sciences and 3rd Avenue. A developer had the idea for a condo project at that location but never followed through with their plans…thus the opportunity for this l0cation.

Seems like an interesting compromise, but certainly it’s one that would eliminate most of the Foster City kids being able to walk to the school. Anyway, here’s a link to the San Mateo Daily Journal story:

Vacant Lot Eyed For New School Site

OK, here we go again! This time the State of California’s Academic Performance Index (API’s) came out…and all of Foster City’s schools lead the pack in this district. All three are over the 900 mark, congratulations to Audobon School for making that increase! Both Foster City School and Brewer Island School are tied for the district’s top spot. Needless to say…it’s really impressive. Listed alphbetically above, Foster City does an amazing job when compared to others…and that includes Bowditch Middle School as well. It’s also interesting to note that FC schools outpace all of the similar schools in the vaunted communities of Burlingame and San Carlos as well. Congrats you guys!

Last week it was pretty gloomy around the San Mateo-Foster City school board and the word was out that there was going to be layoffs of more than 100 employees. Well it seems that Measure A has passed by the narrowest of margins. At one point it appeared that it was leading by 3 total votes.

Passage will mean $6 million annually to the district but will not necessarily eliminate the need for more cuts. The district folk are still expecting to cut more in the future.

The new tax essentially renews a parcel tax that had previously been renewed in 2003 provides about $2 million in district revenue and it was set to end in 2010. A vote is going to occur on March 4 over a plan to cut various positions and the new tax plan will be a part of that decision making process. The final decision on cuts will be May 15.

Here’s a link to the Daily Journal’s story on this topic:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=125673

Well, the City Council slammed the door pretty well on the whole issue of a fourth public school being developed on park land in Foster City the other night. Tons of folks showed up too to express themselves in the process. The idea of Boothbay Park, Port Royal Park and the 15 acre site being used for a new school wasn’t suitable, the council decided. Here’s the Daily Journal acticle on this topic:

ParksBrouhaha

It would appear that the location the City would like the discussion moved toward is the area on the south side of Beach Park at Halibut, but there also seems to be quite a large number of issues that need to be overcome before that site becomes “the one”. I’m thinking the School District isn’t going to be too high on this site for all the reasons mentioned in this Daily Journal piece and I’m thinking the alternative ideas of adding square footage to the existing schools is going to get a whole lot more traction going forward. It’ll probably be the fastest fix too. It’s definitely a fork in the road for the 4th school.