Solana Pacific: Why Did we Lose a $20 Million Verdict to Build our School?

By Scott Gulbransen

Scott Gulbransen wants to bring fiscal responsibility back to our school board. The $20 Million judgment is the biggest issue facing us today.

There is no more important issue facing our district today than the loss of $20 Million to Pardee Homes as a result of the land acquisition for Solana Pacific School.

For those of you not familiar with the issue, here is a synopsis:

- Faced with overcrowding in our schools in the Carmel Valley area as a result of poor planning for growth, the current board of trustees moved quickly to build Solana Pacific + often referred to as School 6 + in order to relieve this massive overcrowding.

- Pardee Homes, the developer who is responsible for a majority of the building of homes in Carmel Valley, offered several sites to the school district but only one was of interest + the property the school is now built on located on Townsgate Drive between the public library and community center.

- This piece of property, which had the highest value of any remaining parcel in the entire area, was slated to be developed into high-density rental apartments or condominiums. Pardee was a reluctant seller but entered into negotiations with the Solana Beach School District to sell the land.

- The district and Pardee could never agree on a price even progressing to mediation with a retired judge that also failed to result in an agreement. The district then took measures to seize the land through eminent domain. The district valued the land at just over $20 Million and waited an extremely long time to close the eminent domain procedure. As a result, the land price skyrocketed and Pardee sued the district claiming they were not paid Fair Market Value + or FMV + for the valuable property. Pardee won a jury trial and was awarded an $18 Million judgment against the district which is under appeal today.

As a result of this entanglement, the funds to build the areas next two schools + School 7 and School 8 + will be adversely effected. Current Trustee Joel Small, an opponent of mine in this election, admitted in the San Diego Union-Tribune that "...the jury's ruling with have an effect on the amount of money available for the next campus."

The issue here is not whether we needed a new school or not + we desperately needed it. The issue comes down to long-term planning and vision when it comes to our school board planning for growth. The board did not do its job to plan for growth in the rapidly changing Carmel Valley/Del Mar Heights area.

As a result of this lack of vision, the board had to play catch up. Faced with angry parents who were tired of their kids being crowded into portable classrooms and staggered lunch periods, the board acted with suspect legal advice knowing the process would land them in court.

In essence, they took a gamble with taxpayer dollars. They gambled they'd find a sympathetic jury who would side with them over the "evil" developer who was trying to deny local kids the opportunity to get a quality education.

In the end, their luck ran out and the gamble cost us all dearly.

I want to make sure that never happens again. As your school board trustee I will plan more effectively for growth to ensure the taxpayers are not fleeced again

There is no question the board did not plan accordingly for growth. Over the past 12 years, Carmel Valley has been one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in all of North County. Yet, for some reason the Solana Beach School Board did not see it coming. While boards in Carlsbad, Encinitas and Escondido moved quickly to lock up land for future schools, our board failed to do so.

Carmel Valley News award-winning education writer Marsha Sutton was quick to write about the board's lack of planning and vision. In her column after the verdict, Sutton wrote:

"The site was trouble from the beginning. But the district and school board stubbornly insisted that nothing else would do, and they ignored unmistakable warning signs from Pardee, an unwilling seller, that the developer would not roll over without a fight."

Sutton continued:

"At the time the property was taken from Pardee, the district had the land appraised for about $2.4 million per acre - an outrageous sum in itself given that the Del Mar Union School District paid about $500,000 per acre for its last three schools and the San Dieguito Union High School District paid under $500,000 per acre for its new high school just east of Carmel Valley."

It's clear where the responsibility lies here. As a young man growing up here in North County, my parents always impressed on me the need to plan in advance as waiting only makes the task harder and, in this case, more expensive. As a result of this lack of planning by the board, and members like my opponent Joel Small, the taxpayers are now paying the price. You all pay property taxes that support our schools. This $20 Million mistake will cost each one of you $952. It roughly translates to $7500 per student in the district. When you consider it costs the district approximately $7700 a year to educate a student, you can see just how expensive this lapse in judgment was.

This is one of the main reasons I decided to run for a seat on our school board. We need school board members that not only look out first and foremost for our kids, but we also need school board members who realize all taxpayers in our community are partners in public education.

We fund the schools whether we have kids in the public schools or not. Senior citizens fund a large part of our schools yet they are unaware of this breach of fiduciary responsibility. Homeowners without kids are in the same boat. When they learn of this egregious error, they are outraged.

We need a leader who will look beyond today and begin planning for tomorrow. My opponents Joel Small + who voted on this issue and played a part in the $20 Million verdict + and Art Palkowitz, who served on the site selection committee, will only continue more of the same. While status quo is good in our district when it comes to teachers and core curriculum, it's not good when it comes to fiscal responsibility.

As a new voice, and someone with no baggage related to the Pardee issue, I can offer a fresh perspective on growth and planning. I can work unabated on solving the current situation with Pardee and making sure it doesn't happen again. After all, Pardee owns the land the next two schools will be built on. Can we afford to send the same people to negotiate the construction of Schools 7 & 8 when they are responsible for creating an adversarial relationship with the developer of those next two schools?

I don't think so.

I will work hard to do what is right by our kids and by the taxpayers of our community. We have a wonderful school district filled with the California's best teachers. Let's not let them down when it comes to managing our money.