Castilleja School scrambles to relocate students during campus construction

Castilleja School’s plan to move its students to the College of San Mateo this fall, while its campus in Palo Alto is rebuilt, was rejected by the San Mateo County Community College District’s Board of Trustees on May 24.

The vote stunned the girls’ school’s administrators, who had been working closely with the college staff for the past nine months on the plan, and sent them scrambling to find a new location for students for the 2023-24 school year.

Castilleja officials had been hoping to rent unused space at the College of San Mateo. The college’s team had confirmed the classrooms Castilleja could use, as well as community college classes that Castilleja’s juniors and seniors could take and dates the girls’ school could hold its theater and dance productions there, Head of School Nanci Kauffman said in an email.

On May 10, the college district’s board announced it had given direction on the agreement to the college negotiator, Richard Storti, executive vice chancellor of administrative services, during its closed study session.

Returning to the matter in a closed session on May 24, the board then voted against the agreement and announced its decision in its public session. The details of the decision were not released, but Board President Lisa Petrides said during the announcement that the trustees affirmed their decision from May 10.

The decision shocked Castilleja’s administrators.

“CSM leadership gave us every assurance that the partnership was secure, and we were blindsided by this reversal,” Kauffman said. “We have not heard directly from the SMCCCD (San Mateo County Community College District) Board to understand their decision. They were well-aware that reversing CSM’s plan would be extremely disruptive to our community.”

The primary driver of the school’s decision to seek a temporary campus for all of its students, Kauffman said, was to reduce construction time. Castilleja won the City Council’s approval of its redevelopment plan in June 2022, following a contentious and drawn-out review process.

Holding classes at CSM would have also allowed the school to increase its enrollment by around 16 students — about 3.5% — in the coming school year without a problem, she said. But the school cannot accommodate the expanded population on its Palo Alto campus, given that the city has capped the school’s on-campus enrollment as part of its conditional-use permit.

The permit states that if any students remain on campus during construction, the school can’t have more than 416 students there — a restriction to which the school will adhere, Kauffman said.

Now Castilleja’s plan is to keep grades 7 through 12 at the school’s Bryant Street campus, she said.

“Our current plan is to enroll sixth graders at a dedicated satellite campus. Having a dedicated sixth grade facility keeps us in compliance with our Palo Alto CUP (conditional use permit) and brings a lot of benefits to our youngest students, including a schedule and resources that are tailored for the sixth grade experience,” she said.

Last week, administrators told parents the sixth grade will be located at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in south Palo Alto.

“The JCC really came through in our hour of need, and we are especially grateful to them as fellow educators,” Kauffman said in a June 12 email update.

Splitting off the sixth grade from the rest of the school wasn’t Castilleja’s first choice, but on the bright side, the move will reduce traffic to the Bryant Street campus during the next academic year, she said. The school will have the smallest student population on campus since 1994, she added.

“I’m deeply appreciative of the support from incoming sixth grade parents and current Castilleja families who have been understanding of the situation,” Kauffman said.

How Castilleja’s talks with the College of San Mateo fell apart

Community College District board President Lisa Petrides said in an email to the Weekly that discussions on Castilleja were in closed session and that the board isn’t able to comment on the deliberations. However, the board released a public statement on May 25 in which it stated that Castilleja’s proposals would result in “detrimental displacement of students and undue interference with programs and activities at the College of San Mateo’s campus.”

Castilleja School had been working to secure space for its students for months. Administrators reached out to staff at Cañada College, one of the campuses of the Community College District, last fall to discuss possible use of Cañada’s sports fields and minimal other space. Cañada College decided not to pursue an agreement as it was not in the best interest of its campus, according to the board statement.

In late 2022 and early 2023, Castilleja approached the College of San Mateo with a similar request – for access to sports fields along with other minor uses of space across campus.

“At the time, it was understood that Castilleja School had secured classroom space elsewhere,” the district board stated.

Beginning in February, conversations between the College of San Mateo and Castilleja began regarding hosting Castilleja’s entire operation for two years: the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years.

“When the conversations expanded to a much larger scope (i.e., a proposal for a long term and possessory interest use of property at CSM), the Board of Trustees became the authorizing and negotiating body for such a transaction,” the statement said. “The California Education Code and SMCCCD Board Policy state that any decision for exclusive use through a lease or joint use agreement falls within the purview of the Board.”

The board heard the details about the Castilleja School proposal for the first time during closed session on May 10, 2023, and rejected the proposal, the statement indicated.

Kauffman and Interim Chancellor Melissa Moreno spoke extensively on May 15. Moreno and Petrides also met separately. Petrides suggested that Castilleja might consider submitting a proposal for use of facilities on the CSM campus that was much reduced in scope, the board’s statement said.

Petrides, Moreno and other district representatives met with Kauffman, members of the Castilleja School Board of Directors, and other Castilleja School representatives on May 22.

“The parties had a thorough conversation about the situation, including the facts and applicable legal standards. A further conversation between the SMCCCD Interim Chancellor and the Castilleja School Board President also occurred on May 23, 2023,” but the board voted down the proposal the next day at its meeting, the statement said.

Kauffman, after reading the board’s statement, offered her response to the Weekly in a follow-up email.

“During these conversations, the SMCCCD Board made it sound like they were open to a smaller-scale usage, but when we offered that to them, they still refused to move forward with our smaller-scale proposal,” she wrote.

The school’s scaled-down options included a shorter lease and renting space for only juniors and seniors, roughly one-quarter of the original proposal, she said.

Kauffman said that last August, Castilleja was encouraged by a senior representative of the San Mateo County Community College District to reach out directly to the presidents of Cañada, Skyline and CSM to ask them to host Castilleja’s students because, as the representative reported, “all three campuses have significant unused capacity.”

After Cañada College declined to move forward with Castilleja, the girls’ school approached CSM. Castilleja didn’t approach Skyline because planning with CSM was proceeding well, she said.

By October, Castilleja was working with CSM to identify a combination of arts, athletics and science spaces that were going unused; and by February, CSM hosted a Castilleja Board of Trustees retreat, which included a tour of campus and a discussion of specific arrangements for middle and upper school students, she said.

Kauffman called it “confusing” that the district Board of Trustees “did not follow through on CSM’s good faith negotiations,” despite knowing the hardship it would cause Castilleja.

“CSM had communicated that the space to be leased was not necessary for operations in the 2023-24 school year, so we do not understand the Board’s decision,” she said.