Ross Valley panel sets date on children’s center report

An advisory committee for the Ross Valley School District has set a date to finalize its recommendation on the fate of the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center.

The committee voted 6-0, with Claudia Holko absent, to approve the April 24 deadline for the draft report.

The committee has set an April 17 public hearing date to take feedback from the community to help inform its decision. Comments will be accepted before and during the 6 p.m. session at Wade Thomas Elementary School at 150 Ross Ave. in San Anselmo.

The seven-member committee, which has been meeting since January, will use the public comments to help draft a report and recommendation to the school district’s board by the end of April.

The report and recommendation will focus on whether the center property, located in Deer Park in Fairfax, may be declared as surplus property. Such a declaration would clear the way for the school district, which owns the property, to sell it to the center’s operators.

“That meeting is going to be extremely important before you write your report,” Bobbie Wunch, a San Anselmo resident, told committee members at their meeting on Tuesday.

Wunch, a health care consultant and former school district parent, suggested the committee invite a panel of experts to hear the public comments. Those could include officials from such agencies as the Ross Valley Fire Department, the Marin County Office of Education, the Marin Municipal Water District and the Marin County Board of Supervisors, she said.

“It’s my opinion that an expert panel could respond and provide additional accurate information about the status of the Deer Park site,” Wunch told the committee.

Committee members on Tuesday did not immediately respond to Wunch’s suggestion, which was made during the public comment period.

Three committee members — Chris Carson, Justin Taplin and Max Edwards — will work on having the draft report and recommendation completed by the committee’s meeting on April 24.

Depending on the response to the draft report, they would aim to have a final report and recommendation ready to forward to the board of trustees soon thereafter.

“I want to have the final revised draft at a time where we could all be present,” said Janet Garvey, the committee president. Garvey said she could not attend the April 17 hearing.

“You’ve had so many meetings where not all committee members have been present,” Heidi Tomsky, the children’s center director, said during the public comment period. “Will this affect the ability of the committee to make a recommendation to the school board?”

Written public comments may be submitted online at rossvalleyschools.org/Page/1589 through April 13. The responses will be loaded onto a spreadsheet that will be attached to the agenda for the April 17 hearing.

Those who want to speak at the hearing may sign up that night using a written comment card. Spanish translation services will be available, said Carson, who is also the school district’s chief business official.

Some members of the public expressed skepticism Tuesday about the committee’s process.

Sharon Sagar, a former school district trustee and who is the board president of the Ross Valley Charter school, said the committee’s flyer outlining its request for comments lacked any positive context about the strong feelings involved.

“This whole communication misses the facts that the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center wants to stay there, and the school district wants to have them stay there,” Sagar said. “This flyer is totally lacking in context.”

Carson said the flyer, which was examined for discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, was not the final announcement that would go out to the media or which would be listed on the website. He said the key words in the flyer were highlighted in bold type:

“Public input is sought on acceptable use of the RVSD space, including the sale or lease of surplus real property for child care development purposes pursuant to Section 17458, and tolerable use of the space on the site.”

Ross Valley resident Lisa Canin questioned why there was a committee agenda item Tuesday to examine the center’s 1999 lease with the school district. District officials have said the committee’s first four meetings were to research the issue and gather information.

“These meetings are loaded with disparate stuff,”  Canin said. “Reading this agenda is like reading tea leaves.”

The committee did not respond to the comment.

In September, the district’s board of trustees approved a resolution to complete the sale by Aug. 31. The resolution came after about six months of turmoil over a suggestion by district lawyer Terry Tao that the district evict its tenants at the center immediately because of potential liability over fire code and safety issues.

Rather than act on the eviction suggestion, the board of trustees approved the resolution to finalize the sale by Aug. 31. Having the end date in place would protect the trustees from liability, while also assuring the center occupants that their tenancy was stable until the end of August.

Although the resolution gives the district the ability to evict the center after that date, board members have assured the center that an extension could be granted if needed to allow for the sale process to be completed.