Possible School Site Holds Community Open House

Palm Street in Altadena is pockmarked with red and white signs, some surrounded by flowers, that read "NO SCHOOL ON PALM." On Saturday, those residents and others were offered a chance to see the latest effort to take that slogan on.

The smell of sizzling taco meat and the sounds of The Who blaring over a speaker greeted visitors to an open house on the property of 183-205 Palm St. It's the latest purchase of Philip Clarke, the president and principal of Arroyo Pacific Academy, a college prep high school in Arcadia. Following the site's previous incarnations as a Bienvenidos Children's Center and the Sahag-Mesrob Armenian Christian School, it is Clarke's hope to turn the site into a branch campus for Arroyo Pacific -- an idea, he knows, that is drawing plenty of opposition from the neighborhood.

"We're letting them come in and see the place, and to see we're taking care of the property," said Clarke. "We find that when you actually meet the people, you get to hear the real issues. They also see that we're not strangers. For instance, someone brought up buses, so I thought, OK, we'll get quiet buses. But it turns out, after talking to a neighbor, that the buses were the problem ... they were getting parked up and down Palm."

The site is a familar battleground for the neighborhood's residents. It sparked the formation of the Palm Street Area Resident's Association (PSARA) after the Sahag-Mesrob Armenian Christian School operated at the site during the 2008-09 school year without telling the community or acquiring all the necessary permits from L.A. County. Clarke said he is currently undergoing the Conditional Use Permit process.

The PSARA also formed strong opposition to the Almansor Center's bid to purchase the property and use it as a day school for students with Autism Spectrum disorders. Dr. Nancy Lavelle of the Almansor Center, which is based in South Pasadena, eventually relented in September.

Worries about traffic, noise, pollution, and property value impacts in a residential neighborhood that features a network of narrow streets are the cornerstone of the group's fight against a school of any kind on Palm Street.

Coleen Sterritt, a PSARA member, brought some those concerns to the open house as she took part in a tour along with Greg Middleton, a member of the Altadena Town Council and a columnist for Patch.

One issue she raised is the proximity of some of the houses to the campus, some of which are separated only by a fence and trees. She also pointed out that the neighborhood has already experienced the noise and traffic effects of a school due to the Sahag-Mesrob situation years ago.

"It's fortunate that Sahag-Mesrob came in illegally, because we got to see what works and what doesn't when a school is on this site," she said to Robert Nguyen, a math and science teacher who was leading the tour. "We know the traffic, we know what the noise is like ... it's too much traffic for the neighborhood."

Sterritt remembers the site's past life as a Bienvenidos foster care center for kids. She pointed out to Patch during the tour that several of the cottages used at the site to house kids were converted into makeshift classrooms when Sahag-Mesrob moved in.

And the noise from the school is what she still remembers, whether it was soccer balls bouncing off the fences nearby or the congested stream of door-slamming cars driving up and around the driveway to drop off students.

"I bought my house in 1997," she said. "And there wasn't a school here. If there was a school here, I wouldn't have bought it."

Clarke and Nguyen both emphasized that the school will focus on the arts, and there will be no sports teams playing on campus. During the tour, Nguyen also pointed out rooms that could be used as computer labs or places to house a music program.

According to Nguyen, the Saturday open house is a one-time effort to "introduce ourselves to the community." Middleton suggested, however, that perhaps another "meeting of the minds" take place with the community to allow for a greater spectrum of voices, instead of perhaps relying on just those who attended the open house.

Chatter could be heard throughout the day of others commenting at the facilities over mouthfuls of food, and prospective students could be seen exploring rooms on the compound.

"You can tell (students) are excited," said Xochitl Bermejo, who could end up teaching English at the new campus. "I think they are happy to have some space to move around."

But it is the space around the campus that remains at the forefront of Sterritt's mind.

"They're nice people, very dedicated to what they do," she said. "They are doing a great job. But a school isn't going to work here."

Justin Chapman contributed to this article.