Alisal Elementary neighbors keep pushing back on expansion as district floats new parking and Kolln Street gate options

Pleasanton Unified School District has reworked its plans for Alisal Elementary School after months of complaints from nearby residents, but some of those neighbors say the changes do not address their main objection: that the campus should be updated, not enlarged, the Pleasanton Weekly reported Monday.

The project

The board approved selling $35 million in Measure I1 bonds in October 2024 for a modernization of the Santa Rita Road campus, which opened in 1955 and was last updated in 1998. The bond money had first been slated for a new elementary school before it was redirected to Alisal. The district has said it expects enrollment in the area to grow with nearby development.

Plans presented so far include turning the current multipurpose room into a library, building a science lab and additional classrooms, adding a new multipurpose room, kitchen, stage and music lab, and creating new outdoor play and eating space. The district also wants more parking, an added lane for parking and student drop-off, and a separate entrance plaza serving TK and kindergarten students.

What changed

At an Oct. 21 meeting of the school board's facility committee, district staff showed buildings shifted to keep mature trees and protect neighbors' privacy, according to district safety and communications coordinator Susanne Frey.

The committee endorsed a revised parking lot layout with three possible ways to run it, which differ on which of parents, staff or emergency vehicles would get primary use of the staff lot. One option would keep the Kolln Street gate for emergency responders only.

Frey told the Weekly the design lets the district adjust lot access and pickup routines based on how traffic actually behaves, including after construction.

The district is also working with the city on traffic near the school, she said,, including a crossing guard at Santa Rita Road and Black Avenue, and that the district is still studying whether a rear pickup area and students biking on Kolln Street raise safety issues, with a decision expected before this school year ends.

Roughly 15 people came to the October committee meeting and eight spoke, she said.

Neighbors' view

Emelie Rogers, who lives in the Jensen Tract neighborhood, told the Weekly that she and other residents support remodeling the school but not expanding it or adding the Kolln Street driveway. She described speeding, double parking and blocked driveways in the area already, and said residents want more say and better communication from the district.

"I don't think we've really moved the needle much," Rogers told the Weekly.

What's next

Frey said the district plans to submit designs for the first phases to the Division of the State Architect before the year is out, seek its building permit in spring and start construction sometime next year, after another community information meeting.

Sources

pleasantonweekly.com