Village Beat
by Kelly Mahan Herrick Kelly has been editor at large for the Journal since 2007, reporting on news in Montecito and beyond. She is also a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and is a member of Montecito and Santa Barbara’s top real estate team, Calcagno & Hamilton.
Cold Spring School Bond Measure Moves Forward
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Building Peace of Mind. The bond will be used to replace the portables currently located at the entrance to campus with a new 6,000-sq.-ft. classroom and administration building, as well as fix aging infrastructure in the existing classroom buildings
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arlier this summer, the Cold Spring School Board of Trustees approved a school bond measure on the upcoming November ballot, the first of its kind in 12 years. Measure L2020 is a $7.8M bond that will be used to fund much-needed infrastructure improvements and to fund a new classroom building to replace the dilapidated portables currently on campus. The bond measure has been in the works for years, as the board has been focused on replacing the two remaining portable buildings, which are over 25 years old and well past their useful life. A third portable building, which housed art classes, was removed last year after it was in disrepair. Recent growth in the enrollment on campus has highlighted the issue of the dilapidated portables even more, as the two remaining portable classrooms, which, in pre-COVID days, housed the afterschool program and special education, are beginning to rust and deteriorate rapidly. In 2016 the board voted to move forward with a new building to house classrooms and administrative offices; this new plan builds on those ideas, with plans for a 6,000 sq. ft. building to house three classrooms as well as the front office staff, and offices for school specialists. The classrooms, which will be outfitted with the newest technology including collapsible 10 – 17 September 2020
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walls and integrated outdoor learning space, will be used for STEAM and art classes, allowing for continued collaboration between classes and teachers. The proposed building will be the new gateway to the school, giving a place for visitors to check in before coming onto campus. When the school was first built in 1889, the entrance to campus was along Sycamore Canyon Road, before it became a busy state highway. For safety purposes, a wall was erected at some point in the ‘70s or ‘80s, to protect the campus from the traffic; the entrance to the school was moved east to the parking lot on Cold Spring Road. However, the office and administration building remained in the center of campus, causing visitors to have to enter the campus before checking in with campus officials, which many have considered a security issue. The new building, which will fit in architecturally and aesthetically with the current buildings, will improve campus security, and the parking lot will be reconfigured, allowing for better traffic circulation. The current office space will be used to expand the library, converting the library from a traditional book library to a media center. Improvements to existing infrastructure on the 100-year-old existing buildings include repairing
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MONTECITO JOURNAL
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