Santa Paula High School parking still angers neighbor
November 12, 2014
By Brian D. Wilson
Santa Paula News
One neighbor near Santa Paula High School is very unhappy over the parking problems around the school and said the school “totally disrespects” their neighbors.
Chris and Lois Zsarnay appeared before the most recent meeting of the Santa Paula Unified School District Board.
Lois Zsarnay told the board that they had appeared before the board before and nothing has changed. Some parking was taken away because of the construction of the new Science/Technology buildings so the district created temporary parking on the baseball field. Zsarnay said that doesn’t solve the problem. “When there’s an event there’s only two cars on the baseball field,” she added. “It’s human behavior, they park next to our home because it’s closer.” She said they block her driveway or park right on her bumper and they block the crosswalk. She noted that this is a problem every week, primarily on Saturdays.
When they bought their home 24 years ago the problem wasn’t nearly as bad. “Now it’s every single weekend, all day,” she said. “It starts at 8:30 in the morning and because somebody decided to rent the auditorium to a church, it now goes until Saturday evening. We felt so violated when somebody decided to rent the auditorium to a church that advertises on their web site that they’re going to bring in 600 people. What were you thinking. That is a blatant slap in our face that says “we don’t care that you have a parking problem.” Zsarnay told the board that they have no confidence in the school board or school.
Superintendent Alfonso Gamino said they are working on a traffic study with the city, hopefully within the next 60 days. He added that he understands their frustration but the study is needed. He noted that construction workers would no longer be parking on side streets now that 29 spaces have opened up on school grounds.
Board member Kelsey Stewart said, “In light of the serious issue being the responsibility of the district and ultimately the responsibility of the board, I would like to request that all tentative agreements for use of the facilities at Santa Paula High School be brought to the board for approval. We need to know what’s going on at our campuses.” She said she was not aware that a church was using the auditorium. “If it would have been brought to the board I would have been very cautious about having that church go there.” She noted that Youth Basketball is coming up in January through February. “We need to let the neighbors now know that that’s coming up in January and February and that will be on Saturdays.” She also asked if neighbors to the high school are being notified when parking is on an upcoming agenda.
Another board member, Michelle Kolbeck noted that they have an overuse of their facilities. She suggested that there not be youth football on Saturdays following high school home games on Friday. “It’s got to be an either or,” she said. “We can’t be saying that from Thursday through Saturday that we’re having hundreds and hundreds of people, out of town people, everybody coming in to just this small, congested area.” She said they can’t continue to have multiple functions at the school on weekends.
Board President Diana Ponce-Gomez noted that she understands the need for youth to have facilities but she likes the idea of modifying the schedules and limiting use. She added that they need to reach out to the youth organizations to discuss the various options available to help solve the problem.
In a follow-up letter, the Zsarnays said, “We understand the School Board’s dilemma with providing events for our Santa Paula youth so they have healthy choices to keep them off the streets & out of gangs! We also believe that there are other school campuses & city fields where some events or practices could be held so the traffic & parking challenges are spread out over all schools in our small town rather than focusing so many at a campus that has almost no parking! If the School Board would also limit the number of events/activities that can be held on the High School campus each week and weekends then we would perhaps at least get a little bit of a break from the almost continuous traffic & parking issues!”
They also said, “We are still waiting for Mr. Gamino & Ms. Rose to follow through with their assurances from weeks ago that they would produce the records of all rental agreements & board meeting minutes for the past 5 years. We have a legal right to inspect those documents to see exactly who is making these discretionary choices that are creating these problems. We would appreciate it if the School Board would also instruct them to follow through & produce the records. We will also be meeting with the City Council to request they move forward with resolving these issues.”