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Construction started onsite this week on the project to add a solar panel structure and reorient the Amador Valley High School student parking lot facing Santa Rita Road.
Crews were spotted breaking up and hauling away concrete on Wednesday and the marquee sign normally near the lot entrance had been removed, giving neighbors the first signs of visible progress on the project since school ended at the end of May.
“The fact that the fencing went up as soon as school got out may have contributed to an expectation that other work would begin imminently,” Pleasanton Unified School District Superintendent David Haglund told the Weekly via email this week.
“We are still on track to have 90% of the Santa Rita lot (done) by mid-October, if not sooner,” PUSD spokesman Patrick Gannon said. “We have heard some comments around the lack of visual progress, however it’s important for the community to know that our staff are working tirelessly and the project is currently on schedule.”
Only 50 parking spaces will be available in the Santa Rita lot (which typically features more than 400 stalls) when classes start Aug. 12, but there will be 315 regular parking spots in the Del Valle parking lot, roughly 121 temporary parking spaces located on the blacktop behind the large gym and another 32 spots for use at Valley Community Church until work is scheduled to finish in mid-October.
“We will soon distribute a shuttle plan to the families of Amador Valley High School,” Haglund said. “This will include student pick-ups away from campus and provide transportation to and from those locations before and after school.”
PUSD is also considering hiring Bay Area Traffic Solutions (BATS) for traffic mitigation around Amador during drop-off and pick-up times while construction takes place in the parking lot, which will also be reoriented.
District staff recently worked out an agreement as well with the Livermore Amador Valley Transit Authority for additional Wheels 605 and 611 bus routes, which will honor student IDs. A list of seven designated pick-up and drop-off spots was also updated recently when the loading location at Gatetree Circle was removed after neighbors complained. Only students walking or biking from homes in that area will use the Gatetree passageway.
Haglund said, “While there will be very limited and targeted student parking options available at the site, we are encouraging all students to walk, ride a bike, or use public transportation.”
The $650,000 project will be paid by a Proposition 39 state-funded grant.
Totally poor planning on PUSD part. The parking lot should have been left open for summer school parking during June and first two weeks of July. If the plan was to start mid July that was never conveyed to the public. Just yet another case of lack of communication between PUSD and the community, so sad.
Sounds like Dr. Haglund is dishing out some “alternative facts.” Faculty and staff at Amador were told they’d break ground the first Monday of summer vacation and that the background work started in 2018. This was the message given to the Pleasanton Weekly in their earlier article, too, apparently.
However, in a discussion with stakeholders a few days ago about the AV gym, Dr. Haglund said that the parking lot background work didn’t really start until April.
Now, lowest-bidder construction regulations probably means you’re going to get some hard-to-manage contracts, but why not just be straightforward about it and point out that the law impedes projects like this and there’s little PUSD can do about it? People would understand. It’s not a stretch to imagine that the recent lease-leaseback meeting was at least in part prompted by the parking lot delay, so Haglund could point to ways PUSD is working to overcome these kinds of obstacles.
Instead, now it looks like the district wasn’t paying attention to details and due dates, had to rush things, and are now covering it up with conflicting claims. Just like with the transcript changing illegalities, Dr. Haglund and Rich Gannon seem to prefer “fudging” the truth over coming clean. They still haven’t publically admitted to the five (or more?) counts of grade tampering. The “two” cases in the PUSD press release was a deliberate deception.
One has to wonder WHY? And what other district news have they similarly “fudged” without getting caught?
The PUSD staff is leaderless.
The PUSD staff is and has been winging it without management input or interest.
The PUSD staff has no active human resource leadership which can originate and administer effetive procedure for PUSD staff to understand and work within.
This quote:
“The fact that the fencing went up as soon as school got out may have contributed to an expectation that other work would begin imminently,” Pleasanton Unified School District Superintendent David Haglund told the Weekly via email this week.”
…is it real? Haglund has said before that Pleasanton Weekly misquotes him. The district (either the superintendent or his staff)claimed in the spring that construction would begin the Monday after graduation. If Pleasanton Weekly got this quote wrong, they should run a correction. If not, was the district flat-out lying in the spring?!?
It is sad, but we can not trust anything PUSD tells us anymore. And for this we just gave Dr. Haglund a raise.
It’s alarming the parents don’t get or demand more accountability from PUSD. Is it because (1) many residents just care about the property value, and their kids get most of their learning from after school programs and the k-12 is more of a day care program than anything else, or (2) they don’t want reprisals from the teachers and admin that seem extremely opaque in operations?
Neither is a good sign but there has to be a reason a school district can be this volatile and seemingly inept, yet keeps chugging along as if it was the Roaring 90s
“roughly 121 temporary parking spaces located on the blacktop behind the large gym”
As in where there are Portable Classrooms? Our district isnt so inept that they would have students literally drive on campus where classrooms are located… right..?
It is really sad that the pre-work was done while school was in session, this is complete and utter poor planning. Now there are additional UNPLANNED costs which are creeping into the project, for buses, parking mitigation, etc. This is no longer a $650,000 project, this is much much more. This is not only an example of poor planning, but poor financial management. The school district now wants to take more money from us in the form of new and extended bond measures. They have proven that they are inept in administrative hiring, contract management, financial management, and time management. Lets get the school board working for us, the residents.
This is not new.
Haglund emailed the teachers and staff in February/March that construction would not be starting until August.
Everything else since then have been lies and deception by Superintendent Haglund and his staff. This should be no surprise as this is normal behavior by Superintendent Haglund. It is easier to lie than to tell the truth and take responsibility
At some point I am assuming the Pleasanton Weekly would get tired of being lied to, but evidently that time is not here yet either. Pleasanton Weekly, why don’t you ask about that email?
Worst part is, they didn’t need to lie. If they just told the truth it would have been easier to accept.
On August 5th, Registration begins at Amador.
Students/Parents/Volunteers/Faculty/Administrators and then some will have their first experience with the “challenges” that will be presented with the fact that –
“Only 50 parking spaces will be available in the Santa Rita lot (which typically features more than 400 stalls) when classes start Aug. 12, but there will be 315 regular parking spots in the Del Valle parking lot, roughly 121 temporary parking spaces located on the blacktop behind the large gym and another 32 spots for use at Valley Community Church until work is scheduled to finish in mid-October”
I hope the district has a Plan B……………….. Hope Is Not A Strategy.
Yep,,pusd is having students parking on the black top in front of
the portables. How irresponsible is that!! Did they get backlash from parents about their kids being bussed in? Or parking a little to far from school? Is pusd goin to be there for traffic control when kids get out? Get a clue pusd and a backbone m!!!
What about the security and safety of the students? If there is any type of emergency and evacuation is needed, students will be trying to weave in and out of the cars on the black top to get to safety on the football field? An unacceptable solution PUSD!
Why put the fencing up if activities (summer school?) were occurring? It went up quickly enough to have waited until it was necessary. If you always tell the truth, it’s difficult to trip over yourself later.