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Residents who live near Alisal Elementary School continue to push back against the Pleasanton Unified School District’s plans to remodel and expand the school site, despite the district’s recent attempts to address several of their concerns.
Resident Emelie Rogers said new design proposals from the district have not changed her or other neighbors’ opposition to the school’s proposed expansion, which includes building a new driveway off Kolln Street.
“We’re going to try and push the needle a little further to remodel but do not expand, do not put this driveway in,” Rogers told the Weekly.
The school district board in October 2024 approved the sale of $35 million of Measure I1 bonds, allocating the funds toward “a campus-wide modernization project” at the school. The campus was built in 1955 and last updated in 1998, and, according to the district, enrollment is expected to increase in the coming years due to development in the area.
The $35 million was initially intended to fund a new elementary school, as described in the 2016 Measure I1 bond priority list, but was later reallocated to fund renovations at the campus, which is located on Santa Rita Road up the block from Amador Valley High School.
According to the district, the project aims to renovate the existing multipurpose room into a new library; update the lighting in the administration building and classrooms; build new classrooms and a science lab; construct a new multipurpose room and kitchen; build a new stage and music lab; and add new outdoor play and eating areas, according to past design update presentations.
The project also aims to improve the school’s pickup and drop-off process and increase parking on campus by adding a new parking and drop-off lane and adding a new entry plaza for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students.
However, residents began taking issue with the project earlier this year after learning about some of the traffic and safety impacts the project would have on an area that many say already experiences a lot of traffic congestion in the morning.
Rogers, an 11-year resident of the Jensen Tract neighborhood, has been vocal about her concerns and helped rally her neighbors through a growing email chain and by speaking up with others at school board meetings. The Jensen Tract, along with Amador Estates, make up most of the neighborhood along Santa Rita Road between Jensen Street and Valley Avenue.
In response, the district has made several changes in an attempt to appease neighbors. The updates, which were presented at an Oct. 21 PUSD board facility committee meeting, include repositioning buildings in order to “preserve mature trees and protect neighboring properties’ privacy,” said Susanne Frey, the district’s safety and communications coordinator.
She also said the district is working with the city of Pleasanton to address current traffic and pedestrian safety concerns, including placing a crossing guard at the Santa Rita Road and Black Avenue intersection in front of Alisal to “encourage safer pedestrian crossings.” She said the district and the city conducted “traffic safety observations” to see what additional measures they could take.
Other measures Frey said the district has taken to address safety and traffic concerns include collaborating with the Alameda County Safe Routes to School program to “develop a traffic patterns map to help improve the flow of pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle traffic around the campus”; scheduling pedestrian and bicycle safety workshops for students; and continuing to educate students and parents about pedestrian and traffic safety.
“As part of the planning for the campus modernization project, the district has also evaluated bell schedules and observed traffic patterns to assess potential safety concerns involving vehicles that could use a possible rear campus pickup and drop-off area and students biking along Kolln Street to Amador Valley High School,” Frey said.
She added that the assessment has not yet identified any such concerns, but the district would continue to evaluate and make a final determination by the end of the school year.
According to the Oct. 21 facility committee presentation, the city of Pleasanton is also monitoring traffic speed on Kolln, has installed new safety signage and will continue reviewing options to “address corner cutting and overall vehicle and pedestrian safety.”
At the October meeting, the facility committee backed a new parking lot design option that Frey said was developed to “address community concerns while providing greater operational flexibility.” The new design includes three different operational scenarios that the district and school board will have to consider before making any final design decisions. The scenarios vary in terms of the proposed staff parking lot and whether parents, staff or emergency vehicles will have primary access to that section of the school.
“The design would allow the district to adjust parking lot access and pickup and drop-off operations based on actual conditions and community feedback, including after construction,” Frey said. “Committee members also encouraged continued community engagement as the design is refined.”
Frey said about 15 people attended the October facility committee meeting, with eight providing public comments. She said the discussion during the committee meeting was “constructive, with residents acknowledging the district’s efforts to incorporate community feedback while continuing to share questions and concerns regarding traffic, student safety and communication.”
Rogers acknowledged that the district is listening to her concerns and those of her neighbors. She said she and other residents invited several school board trustees and City Council member Matt Gaidos to walk through the Alisal neighborhood to better understand the impacts of the expansion. Rogers said board member Mary Jo Carreon and incoming Superintendent Ed Diolazo attended the walkthrough, and board member Justin Brown agreed to meet with them the following week.
Rogers said she has not heard back from board President Kelly Baehr; Baehr represents Area 3, which includes Alisal.
Still, Rogers said, she doesn’t feel the district is really considering the neighbors’ suggestions.
“I don’t think we’ve really moved the needle much,” she said.
Even with the changes made by the district, her concerns remain the same, she said.
“We shouldn’t be expanding Alisal,” Rogers said. “The impact on this neighborhood is just already unreal: speeding, cars double parking, people parking in people’s driveways, the inability of people here to leave to get to work on time.”
She said the new parking lot design includes a driveway that could hinder first responders from accessing the school site. One of the district’s proposed operational scenarios suggests reserving the Kolln Street gate for emergency vehicles.
Rogers reiterated that she and her neighbors are in favor of remodeling the campus.
“We want our local kids to have access to good, modern facilities. But do not expand it,” she said.
She also reiterated that the community is asking for more transparency and communication. She said the overall process has left the public out of much of the design conversation and that the district should have sought resident input earlier in the process.
Frey said the district is expected to submit the design plans for the initial phases of the modernization project to the Division of the State Architect at the end of this year. She said the district plans to obtain a building permit next spring and hopes to begin construction sometime next year, following another community informational meeting.
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