San Lorenzo Valley Community Advocates for Responsible Education v.
San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District
Filed 5/26/06
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
SAN LORENZO VALLEY COMMUNITY ADVOCATES FOR RESPONSIBLE EDUCATION, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. SAN LORENZO VALLEY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant and Respondent. | H028147 (Santa Cruz County Super. Ct. No. CV147109) |
This action arises out of a decision by the defendant school district to close two elementary schools in the San Lorenzo Valley area of Santa Cruz County. Plaintiff seeks to overturn the closure decision, alleging that it violates various state laws, including the California Environmental Quality Act, the Public Records Act, the Brown Act, provisions of the Education Code, and school bond financing laws. The trial court rejected all of the plaintiff's contentions. We shall affirm.
BACKGROUND
This suit was brought by plaintiff and appellant San Lorenzo Valley Community Advocates for Responsible Education, an unincorporated association (SLV CARE). SLV CARE challenges a school closure decision made by defendant and respondent San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District (the District). At issue is the District's April 2003 decision to close two of its elementary schools and to transfer students from those schools to the District's other two elementary school campuses. Plaintiff SLV CARE challenges that decision on various legal grounds.
Factual Summary
The District made the challenged decision in response to declining enrollment and fiscal difficulties. The initial decision to close one or more schools was approved by District's Board of Trustees in December 2002. From December 2002 to June 2003, the District entertained public comment on the issue at its regular and special board meetings.
January 2003 – March 2003: First Advisory Committee
The District also convened a task force – called the Superintendent's School Closure Committee (SSCC) – to consider the school closure question and make a recommendation to the Board. The SSCC was composed of 17 people representing all of the affected schools; task force members included seven parents, four teachers, four classified employees, and two community members.
Between mid-January and mid-March 2003, the SSCC met formally eight times; ad hoc subcommittees also met separately. In mid-March 2003, after considering an extensive body of information about the schools, the SSCC recommended the closure of Redwood and Quail Hollow Elementary Schools. To consolidate student populations at the north end of the San Lorenzo Valley, in Boulder Creek, Redwood students would be transferred to Boulder Creek Elementary School (BCE). At the south end of the valley, in Felton, Quail Hollow students would be transferred to San Lorenzo Elementary School (SLE).
April 2003: Closure Decision
At a public meeting held on April 8, 2003, the District's Board considered and ultimately adopted the recommendation of the SSCC. Thus, as to the north valley elementary schools, the Board voted to close Redwood, and keep BCE open. As for the south valley, the Board voted to close Quail Hollow and keep SLE open.
In May 2003, a community group proposed private fund-raising to keep Redwood Elementary School open for the upcoming school year. The Board rejected that proposal the following month.
June 2003 – October 2003: Requests for Public Records
Starting in June 2003, various written requests for public records relating to the closure decision were made by attorney Steven A. Greenburg, acting as counsel for plaintiff SLV CARE.
In July 2003, the District forwarded more than 400 pages of records to Greenburg. The following month, acting through its counsel, the District provided Greenburg with additional documents. After October 2003, document requests were addressed through formal discovery.
An additional request for documents was e-mailed to the District by San Lorenzo Valley resident David Churchill, with a copy to attorney Greenburg. The principal subject of Churchill's request was the District's use of money from Measure S, a multi-million dollar school facilities bond issue that had been approved by local voters in 2000.
June 2003 – October 2003: Consideration of Environmental Impacts
In early August 2003, in response to public concerns – and notwithstanding its receipt of earlier legal advice that the school closure decision was exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) – the District retained consultants to evaluate possible environmental impacts, including traffic. The District retained environmental consultant Stephen Graves & Associates (Graves). The District also hired traffic consultant Keith Higgins & Associates (Higgins).
Graves, the environmental consultant, confirmed that the school consolidation decision was exempt from CEQA. On August 19, 2003, the District formally approved the filing of a notice of exemption from CEQA. Despite the exemption, the District authorized Graves to prepare an initial study of environmental effects. The initial study concluded that the school closures and transfers would not create any significant environmental impacts, and that potential traffic impacts, though insignificant, could be minimized with recommended project conditions. After public comment and response, Graves stood by the conclusions in the initial study.
As for traffic, by June 2003, the Public Works Department of Santa Cruz County had advised the Board of Supervisors of the need for an ordinance to reroute traffic in the San Lorenzo Valley following the school closure decision. The initial study by environmental consultant Graves incorporated a report by traffic consultant Higgins. That report identified anticipated traffic and parking problems resulting from the school consolidations. Nevertheless, the traffic report concluded, mitigation measures were not mandatory because those impacts would not exceed historic levels. With respect to BCE, however, the report noted that the District was â€
