Posted on Tue, Oct. 25, 2005
City Council approves first new Catholic high school in over 40 years
By Bonita Brewer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
To loud applause, the Livermore City Council on Monday night approved
what will be the East Bay's first new Catholic high school in more than
40 years.
"I'm very happy to see it will be here before I pass on," Livermore
Mayor Marshall Kamena said, saying the planned new campus will provide
"excellence in both academics and athletics."
The Catholic Diocese of Oakland hopes to open the school -- to be built
in phases, starting with freshman and sophomore classes -- in fall
2008. When complete, it will accommodate up to 1,600 students.
The council approved a development agreement and conditional use permit
for a 32-acre campus on 122 acres north of Interstate 580 and west of
Springtown Boulevard. The remaining 90 acres will be preserved as open
space.
Parent Michael Benz, who has students currently attending St. Michaels
Elementary in Livermore, said the new high school "provides an
opportunity for children to get a faith-based education who might not
be able to get it otherwise."
Benz was among the standing room-only crowd that attended the meeting,
many of them wearing brightly colored visors in support of the
proposal.
Some students liked the plans as well.
"I would sacrifice a lot just to get a good Catholic education," said
St. Michaels sixth-grader Madeline Pruneda of Livermore.
Her older brother, Ian, currently attends Moreau Catholic High School
in Hayward and will graduate before the new Livermore school opens.
"I'm sleep deprived," Ian said of how early he has to get up in the
morning for the commute to the Hayward campus. He said a Catholic
school closer to home will benefit other students. He added, however,
that it is worth his long commute to get a Catholic education.
Diocese officials have said a new Catholic high school in Livermore
will be more convenient for Tri-Valley families and, at the same time,
relieve enrollment pressures that have forced kids to be turned away
from such schools as Moreau, De La Salle and Carondelet high schools in
Concord.
"We have waiting lists," Sister Barbara Bray, assistant superintendent
for the diocese, said Monday.
She said the diocese plans to launch its fund-raising campaign
immediately following council approval and to begin construction in
2007.
Tuition rates for the Livermore school have not been set.
The new coed campus will include classrooms, a chapel, administrative
offices, performing and visual arts facilities, sports fields and 816
parking spaces in three parking areas.
City planners said they have addressed concerns raised by several
nearby residents that Redwood Road, off Springtown, would become the
main access to the school. Instead, access will be via the planned
extension of the Las Colinas Road overcrossing of Interstate 580 to the
south. Redwood Road will be used to provide emergency vehicle access
only, planners said.
At the urging of several neighboring residents, the council agreed that
an emergency gate will be installed there.
Studies have shown that most students would come from the Tri-Valley,
Tracy and Fremont areas, with perhaps 20 percent from Livermore itself.
Livermore school district officials have said the private school would
not eliminate the need for a third public high school in town. However,
that claim is disputed by people fighting Pardee Homes' November ballot
proposal for a project that would include land for a high school.
In addition to the conventional Catholic school planned for Livermore,
the diocese is considering a new Catholic high school in Oakland that
would be modeled after Chicago's Jesuit-run Cristo Rey High. It
combines job training and academics for students in low-income areas.
Bonita Brewer covers the city of Livermore. Reach her at 925-847-2120
orbb***er@cctimes.com.
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