City and PUSD consider striking a deal

Pleasanton city and school district leaders are set to examine sharing maintenance facilities and receive reports on Measure I1 bond projects like the planned Lydiksen Elementary School rebuild on Monday during the annual joint meeting between the City Council and Board of Trustees.

A demographer’s report with the latest school enrollment projections for the next seven years will also be heard at that evening’s public meeting.

A report by consulting firm Management Partners states Pleasanton Unified School District “may have better uses for the property on which its current maintenance facility is located (on First Street)” and that both city and district officials “believe there could be benefits from co-locating maintenance facilities.”

PUSD officials want to study the pros and cons of such an arrangement before deciding whether to pursue a deal with the city. If so, the district would potentially relocate “multiple operations” from their site at 4750 First St. to the city’s Operations Services Center (OSC) located at 3333 Busch Road.

The OSC site has multiple buildings and serves several city departments, as well as the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department. However, the report notes “there are varying degrees of compatibility with existing uses at the city’ s maintenance facility” like limited parking that “could become exacerbated” by co-location and need to be vetted.

Expanding operations at the site would also “require considerable resources from both city and district” but could provide opportunities to partake in joint purchasing, service sharing or cost sharing of capital improvements.

The district could also work with the city to acquire land through the East Pleasanton Specific Plan process for a maintenance facility near the city’s OSC. Besides a new district site, there are also options to accommodate the OSC with adjacent acreage that would “create more collaborations and efficiencies, and fewer redundancies for the two agencies due to their proximity to one another.”

While shared services between the city and district are feasible with co-located facilities, “both parties acknowledge that having maintenance functions nearby could eventually lead to shared services agreements to benefit the city and district in the future.”

Such agreements would require separate examination, discussions with affected labor groups, and a study of financial impacts and policy considerations.

The council and school board members are set to talk together about the possible shared facilities during their annual joint meeting, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the PUSD boardroom at 4665 Bernal Ave.

The full meeting agenda can be viewed online at www.pleasantonusd.net, by clicking on link on homepage.

In other business

* Updates on Measure I1 projects will be given after the co-location discussion including the planned solar array installation during the upcoming summer at the Amador Valley High School parking lot, the Lydiksen Elementary renovation and rebuilding the fire-damaged Harvest Park Middle School library.

While some projects like building a new fourth- and fifth-grade campus at the Donlon Elementary School site are location-specific, others like network infrastructure upgrades and site fencing are being implemented at multiple PUSD schools.

An update on the Measure I1 audit and Citizens Bond Oversight Committee will also be presented by district administration.

* The district will also lead a discussion on updated enrollment projections at the last leg of the meeting.

Each year the district contracts with demographers to better plan for revenue, expenditures staffing and facilities. The report is based on the district’s plans for the new 4th/5th campus, the reconfigured TK-3rd grade classes at Donlon and the other existing K-12 campuses.