By David Harvey
SDUN Reporter
Almost a year later, ALBA has yet to receive those funds from the school district, though the money has been approved.
According to District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria, $630,000 from Proposition S – a countywide, $2.1 billion school-funding measure voters passed in November 2008 – has been allotted to the joint-use areas of the school and park.
“The only wrinkle, from what I understand, is that their receipts are slowed because of the economy,” Gloria said. “At the end of the day, the commitment has been made and the improvements will come, we’re just working on a time frame at this point.”
ALBA has approximately 60 students, a mix from San Diego high schools and middle schools. Most of ALBA’s students were suspended or had behavioral problems at their regular schools and typically spend 18 weeks in the program.
Currently, only the high school students occupy the North Park site.
“Neighbors were initially concerned when they were talking about bringing the school here, people were saying, ‘We don’t need more delinquent teens in this area, cause we already have that,’” said Sean Hartigan, chair of the North Park Recreation Council. “But my feeling is that people haven’t had any issues with the students here.”
According to Principal Vernon Moore, ALBA’s middle school students will be moving to the North Park location in December, and he said he is confident that despite the increased number of students, neighbors will continue to welcome the alternative school.
“I think ALBA enjoys the support that it does in this community because we’ve basically been an open book and if there are any problems or community members see our students out causing problems we try to take care of it, because we absolutely want to be a good member of the community,” Moore said.
Moore added that full use of the former elementary school has been delayed while the facilities, including the classes and restrooms, are brought up to high school and middle school standards.
A portion of Proposition S money, though not from the $630,000, will be used for the internal school improvements beginning on July 13, said Cynthia Reed-Porter, communications supervisor for the school district.
Although Moore said he expects the $630,000 to be available at the end of the design phase of the joint-use project – as early as January 2011 – Reed-Porter said that money wouldn’t be available for a couple years.
“[Project coordinators] anticipate getting the board award in November 2012, which is when they expect to go to the [school district board] to award the contract,” Reed-Porter said. “They’re in the very early stages of developing the scope.”
Gloria, along with North Park Community Association Board President Omar Passons, have been working on obtaining an additional $100,000-$150,000 of San Diego Redevelopment Agency funds for improvements to the North Park Community Park.
The money would go to enhance security and improve visibility at the park by removing utility boxes that block sight lines, installing cameras and relocating the Senior Citizens’ Center to 30th Street, Gloria said.
“That proposal is moving forward and I hope to get the support, not just from our North Park Project Area Committee, but of my colleagues on the City Council, so we can combine it with the $630,000 from the school district and bring real change to this park,” Gloria said. “When we clean up the lines of sight, when we remove the graffiti and when we install the cameras, I think we’ll have a new day here at North Park Community Park.”
Despite the promise of money from multiple sources, Passons said he would continue to seek additional funding for the North Park Community Park improvements.
“Until the project is done, I’m always going to be at least a little concerned, even if they said we have the funds and we’re going to break ground next week,” Passons said. “Until the ground is actually broken … we want to make sure our neighborhood doesn’t get lost in the budget shuffle.”
Despite the lack of immediate funding, students, neighbors and Gloria are working to bring more improvements to the community park, notorious for vagrancy, prostitution, drugs and vandalism.
“There are serious challenges at the North Park Community Park, and what we know here in this community is that we are a park deficient community,” Gloria said. “We do not have enough park acreage for the number of people who live in this community, so we cannot sacrifice one acre, one square inch, to prostitutes, drug dealers or gang-bangers.”
Action Team works with ALBA students to record and evaluate park’s problems
The ALBA high school ended its first year in North Park on June 11 with a joint presentation from students and the North Park Action Team.
The presentation highlighted possible improvements to the North Park Community Park and several issues the students and neighborhood want to see the city address. The students worked with the North Park Action Team from December to April to assess problem areas in the park.
“When we heard that ALBA was coming to North Park last year, we thought it was a great opportunity for the Action Team to team up with a group of young people that could really give something positive back to this neighborhood,” said Dan Tomsky, senior project manager for Vitality San Diego, which oversees the North Park Action Team.
The Action Team conducted environmental scans – documenting park usage – with students several times during the school year, giving the students notepads and cameras. The students documented broken lighting, drug and liquor paraphernalia, general litter and blind-spots.
“The bathroom part is not really safe, there are many corners and you don’t know who could be behind them,” said student Carlos Hernandez. “There are many things that need to be fixed in the park.”
The students were also trained in environmental crime prevention – a technique police departments use to deter vagrancy-related crime – and came up with solutions to improve the park’s atmosphere.
“[Because] there are so many eyes on the school and everyone really wants the school to do well, … I think there is more momentum now [to improve the park],” said Alexandra Jacobo-Mares, operations coordinator for the Institute for Public Strategies and a North Park Action Team member.
According to Jacobo-Mares, the San Diego Walk Association invited some ALBA students to act as environmental scan experts for an event at Colina Del Sol Park on June 26.
“It’s been so cool with [the ALBA students] being able to present the project to the community,” Jacobo-Mares said. “It shows them that people actually care.”
ALBA Principal Moore said most of the concern from residents when the school moved to North Park from bungalows behind Crawford High School in El Cerrito last year wasn’t about the school itself.
“A lot of people seemed to be saying if we were bringing in students who have had problems interacting at other schools, who’s to say they won’t have problems interacting with the park,” Moore said. “And I think that is where a lot of our efforts tried to focus, assisting community agencies with making some improvements here.”
During the presentation, a class of kindergartners held sack races and climbed over the play area, while neighbors and North Park community leaders thanked the students for their hard work.
“When I walk through the park today, I see a lot more people having barbeques and playing,” Moore said. “It’s hard to quantify it, but the park is improving.”
