Home Oakley Oakley School District Set to Discuss Park Facilities at School Board Meeting

Oakley School District Set to Discuss Park Facilities at School Board Meeting

by ECT

On Wednesday, the Oakley Union Elementary School District will discuss their Park Facilities during their school board meeting. They will also take up appointing two members to join the Oakley City council on a committee to discuss the Park Facilities future.

The District placed the item on the agenda after Oakley City Staff recommended the City cancel its agreement with the school district which prompted Superintendent Greg Hetrick to state the move could result in the closure of four parks at at Oakley Elementary, Gehringer Elementary, O’Hara Park Middle School and Vintage Parkway Elementary.

 

Oakley Elementary School

The recommendation by city staff prompted backlash from residents opposing the idea.

The City of Oakley says the contract, which has been in place since 2002 and expires in 2025, costs the city $150,000 per year and causes confusion on who maintains the properties and doesn’t like the complaints it receives. They also say park safety is a concern as reasons to cancel the agreement. The city also posted more than 30 photographs of the park in disrepair aimed to state their case to the public.

According to the City of Oakley Staff Report:

As has been discussed with District officials over the years, the maintenance of these areas has not met the standards and expectations set forth in the Agreement. Furthermore, residents are often confused about who is responsible for the park areas and the City frequently receives calls and social media messages about concerns with the safety and condition of these park areas. We refer these residents to the District, but the complaints are common and the maintenance of the areas has not significantly improved and has even deteriorated.

The park areas referred to in the Agreement are arguably no longer needed by the City, are not well maintained, and the funds currently sent to the District can be much better utilized with the park and landscape areas the City must maintain – providing a greater benefit to the community

During the August 13 meeting, Councilman Kevin Romick proposed no change to the agreement which had been in place since 2002 and urged the council to table the item. Councilman Randy Pope requested a committee be created to work on a solution.  The council agreed in a 5-0 vote without taking any public comments.

On Wednesday night, the school board will open the meeting with the Parks agreement discussion and appoint two representatives to work on the agreement.

If You Go:
Oakley Union Elementary School District
August 21 at 6:00 pm
Library at O’Hara Park Middle School
1100 O’Hara Ave, City of Oakley
Agenda: click here

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2 comments

Oakley Schools look like shit! Aug 20, 2019 - 8:24 pm

The schools all look like shit!! Landscape maintenance appears to be non existent. The schools should give the money to the city and look at contracting with a landscape company (or the city). The full time landscape people obviously aren’t doing their jobs! Their bosses should be fired!!

PattyOfurniture Aug 21, 2019 - 7:56 am

I walk the grass area at Gehringer and it looks like the school has been very skimpy on watering; I mean the grass was crispy and brown. They’ve just started watering it again, I suspect because school is back in. Mowing was neglected as well. Again, I suspect this was all cost saving measures since school was out for the summer. If the city is giving $150K a year towards maintenance (which I never knew about until the story on this website) they are not holding up their end of the deal. I could imagine that the school superintendent made the call to stop since the whole 150K deal was on the rocks. Kind of like how he said, “If we don’t get our $150K we’ll just shut them down”. Nice attitude to have towards this city and the constituents he serves. Nice way to say, “F-U Oakley thanks for the free money”. I did not enjoy the state of Gehringer this summer.

Little league sports teams use all of these areas for practice and games. These areas need to remain accessible and usable for the public. It’s not the school’s land, It’s OUR land.

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