Photo taken from the Community Center parking lot shows the expansive grass field and historic Morro Elementary buildings, loomed over by the power plant stacks. Photo by Neil Farrell
The Morro Bay City Council will officially take a role in community efforts to purchase Morro Elementary School and keep it from being developed by private interests.
The Council unanimously voted to appoint a 2-member subcommittee consisting of Council Members Zara Landrum and Bill Luffee and have them work with the Community Development Director, and a citizen’s group — The Friends of Morro Elementary — on acquiring the property from the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, which has declared the circa-1930s school to be surplus property and wishes to sell it. The District’s actions also included Sunnyside Elementary School in Los Osos.
Another citizens group has formed in Los Osos and intends to raise money towards the purchase of Sunnyside either by the County or the Los Osos Community Services District (see related story).
Landrum and Luffee have been meeting with the Friends group, so they are already heavily involved and share the desire of the citizens to preserve the over 12 acres of mostly open space with historic significance, near the center of town.
Luffee said he approved of the subcommittee to help City staffers working on it, and to “listen to the public.”
Landrum too saw the subcommittee as a means to alleviate the staff’s workload on the matter and “to be a partner” in uniting the community’s wishes with Council goals. The acquisition of Morro Elementary is among the shortened list of adopted goals of this Council.
Councilwoman, Cyndee Edwards asked about the scope of work for the subcommittee and the idea of having council members involved with a citizen’s group.
Community Development Director, Airlin Swearingen, said he was developing a short-term action plan and welcomed the subcommittee as a sounding board for the public.
It could help bridge the gap and help him and the staff engage with the Friends group. Former Councilwoman Betty Winholtz is involved with the Friends of Morro Elementary and said having council members more involved would help move things more efficiently forward.
Satellite image of Morro Elementary School property. Photo courtesy SLCUSD
Landrum said the subcommittee’s purpose is to unite the community and city efforts to obtain the property. Its work would be completed when a sale agreement is signed with the school district, she said, or the conclusion is made that “it’s beyond the City’s reach.”
Mayor Carla Wixom pointed out that time was short to act. The School District needs an answer in August, as to whether the City wants to buy it.
City Attorney Rob Schultz explained that there will be a number of deadlines upcoming but not to worry, as the school district can’t just put it up for sale but rather has to go through a “Request for Proposals” or RFP process.
This is because such surplus properties are potentially governed by various Education and Government Codes at the State level and depending on what kind of surplus status it eventually falls under, will govern how the site is used in the future.
The property was purchased to build the school from the Quintana Family back in the early 1930s, paying with a $20 gold piece. This far predated the current, “unified” school district’s formation.
Those who want to obtain it today, see it as a vital piece of local history and the expansive grass playing field, as a needed for things like youth sports.
At one time in the early 2000s, shortly after it closed, the City had explored getting it and moving the City Administration from the current City Hall at Shasta and Harbor into the old school and create a “civic center,” for the government.
A Cal Poly landscape architecture class project even drew up designs for what such a civic center might look like. But that never really got off the ground.
Also, at one time, the School District floated the idea of building affordable workforce housing for its teachers and staff members, but residents soundly rejected that too.
