The proposed demolition and reconstruction of an elementary school in the Carpinteria Unified School District took a step forward this week when Carpinteria’s Planning Commission voted to support a temporary-use permit to relocate students during the project.
Summerland Elementary School, 135 Valencia Road in Summerland, is slated to be demolished and replaced by site-built classrooms, a multi-purpose room, a library and an office. Construction on the proposed project is expected to start in July, Carpinteria Principal Planner Nick Bobroff said.
The Carpinteria Planning Commission signed off on CUSD’s request for a temporary-use permit to allow Summerland Elementary to relocate to Carpinteria Main School, 5201 Eighth St., for the 2021-22 school year.
Planning commissioners voted 5-0 with no discussion. There was no public comment on the agenda item.
CUSD is proposing to relocate Summerland Elementary’s 45 students and nearly nine staff to four existing portable classrooms on Carpinteria Main School.
Four existing portable classrooms at Summerland Elementary will be replaced with six new modular buildings, according to CUSD officials.
“We are very excited about rebuilding Summerland School,” Superintendent Diana Rigby told the Carpinteria Planning Commission at Monday’s meeting.
The approximately $6.2 million project is funded by Measure U, the $90 million general obligation bond passed by voters in the district in 2014, as well as “other facilities funds,” according to the Measure U website.
When the project is underway, Summerland Elementary students and staff will occupy four portable classrooms located on the southeastern side of the Main School campus and adjacent to the on-site parking lot.
Plans call for the existing on-site parking lot to be temporarily closed and repurposed as an outdoor play area for the students.
Students will be bused to and from the campus daily from Summerland Elementary to minimize traffic impacts in the surrounding neighborhood, and Summerland Elementary staff will have designated parking spots at Carpinteria Middle School on Palm Avenue.
The portable classrooms are leased by Santa Barbara County and the Carpinteria Children’s Project, and those operations will either be relocated offsite or to the Carpinteria Main School auditorium, according to the staff report prepared for Monday’s meeting.
No modifications to the existing portable classrooms are required to accommodate the proposed temporary use.
The on-site parking for the Carpinteria Children’s Project staff will be displaced, resulting in the need to utilize available parking on street in the area, according to the staff report.
“The temporary use of the portable classrooms by the Summerland school and the offsite relocation of existing uses by the county of Santa Barbara would result in 38 fewer adult and 45 additional students on-site during normal business hours,” the staff report states.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
