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Mr. Pico indicated concern that the SchoOl District may not have had an adequate opportunity to present its position to the General P!an Steering Committee. Mr. Swift indicated the General Plan Steering Committee has discussed this item on two different meeting dates and representatives of the School District were present to discuss the issues. Charles (Chuck) Eddinger, 3445 Touriga Drive, member of the Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees, thanked Counci[ for its consideration of the purchase of the property. The issue of whether to build a school at the site has been around for the last ten to twenty years. More time has been spent analyzing this property by this Board and previous Boards than any other location. There have been many opportunities for the public to comment on this property and as of November 22, 1994, the School Board decided again not to build a school at Del P/ado. The decision is not based solely on demographics, developer fee agreements, school size, or class size, and not on State funding for facilities or the community's need to tax itself to build such a school. All of these factors and more were taken into account. The School Board believes its decision to be the best plan for the education of all of the students of Pleasanton, both those here now and those to come. Resources must be balanced and no decision is perfect. The School Board has received an offer from the Presbyterian Church to purchase the property. If Council decides not to purchase the property, negotiations with the church will proceed. Mr. Eddinger believed a church use is a good alternative for the site. If Council decides not to purchase the site, deferring zoning changes is acceptable. However, staff recommendation number 2 is not acceptable. The School District does not want to keep the site and leave it vacant. If negotiations with the Church fall through, the Board will work with the City on zoning of the land. Janet Yarbrough, 4560 Eull Court, indicated she was a member of the School Budget Committee, and supported sale of the property. That will save $35,000 per year and proceeds of the sale will benefit all schools in the District to enhance or continue programs that could be jeopardized by budget cuts. She has been a member of the Site Council member for the past five years. which administers funds for various programs. State Categorical funding has been ~educetl and th~ ~aie proceeds could be used to continue programs such as GATE, technology, school assemblies, P.E. equipment, math incentives, reading specialists, library books, etc. She was not in favor of the City purchasing the property because there is already an adequate park on Hansen Drive. It has already set its capital improvement funding priorities and should stick with its decision. Greg Evans, 5610 Paseo Navarro, realizes .the Council did not have control of School Board decisions, however he did not feel the School Board was listening to the people and has had a closed mind for the last ten years. He was opposed to building a school in the Stoneridge area because it does not alleviate overcrowding at DonIon or Walnut Grove Elementary Schools. The Stoneridge site will require massive carpooling to reach it. He believes the School District is trying to justify State funding, which may not be forthcoming, by purposely overcrowding 12/06/94 - 9 -