New School in Altadena Possible With San Rafael's Planned Closure

The Pasadena Unified School District announced last Friday that Pasadena's San Rafael Elementary School will need to be closed in the near future because of earthquake hazards, and the Altadenablog notes today that one of the options the district is discussing is opening a new school in Altadena.

The new location that the district announced is the district's service center property, which is located on Woodbury Road across from , according to PUSD spokesman Adam Wolfson

San Rafael is slated to be closed as soon as the 2013-'14 school year because of the discovery of new fault lines that run under the school, according to a district press release.  Under state law, the school cannot modernize any buildings within 50 feet of an active fault line, so the district is looking at a range of options for a new school or eventually moving kids in the San Rafael attendance boundary to new neighborhood schools.

According to the district's report, it would cost $18.9 million to open, making it the second-most expensive option suggested by the district so far. The cheapest option would be to simply close the school and plan for future enrolled students to be spread among other district schools.

A community meeting will be held Thursday, May 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the McKinley School auditorium, located at 325 S. Oak Knoll Ave., to discuss all possible options.

While the district listed the Altadena property as a possibility for opening a school, Wolfson stressed that the district's suggestions so far have been designed to get community input and are not suggested as ideal options for what to do with the 200 or so kids who attend San Rafael.

When Altadena Patch suggested the price tag of opening the school at the district facility in Altadena would make it an unlikely choice, Wolfson said:

"We're not offering our opinions on the options yet, but I think that is a fair assumption."

What About Recently Closed Altadena Schools?

Wolfson said that the district did not consider reopening recently closed Altadena schools Loma Alta Elementary and Burbank Elementary because neither is close to the West Pasadena neighborhood where San Rafael is located.

However, Wolfson also acknowledged that a significant number of San Rafael's students come from elsewhere in the district.  During the discussion on which PUSD schools to close in 2010, the committee charged with recommending which campuses to close .

The district could still consider the possibility of opening a closed Altadena school, he said--Thursday's meeting is intended to get community input on any possible options for planning for San Rafael's closure, he said.  

The current options the district has listed are:

• Closing the campus and relocate students/programs to other campuses. The move would cost $150,000 but the district would then also have $5.3 million in Measure TT funds earmarked for San Rafael to spend on other schools.
• Relocate to Allendale Elementary campus, which would leave the district with a $1.1 million Measure TT surplus after spending $4.2 million on modernizing the Allendale campus.  
• Reopen the Linda Vista Elementary school campus, which would cost more than $12 million, leaving the district with a net $4.77 million loss.
• The service center option in Altadena, which would cost $18.9 million and leave the district with a $9.2 million funding shortfall.
• Build a new school at the San Rafael site on a portion of campus not affected by geological hazards.  This would leave the district with a funding shortfall of more than $10 million.

A letter to district parents and the full staff report on options can be viewed at right.