School Board Votes to Begin Spending Measure N Money on Nesbit

Editor's Note: The original version of this article stated the board voted 4-1 in favor of expanding Nesbit, but Chuck Velschow was absent from the meeting and the vote was actually 3-1.

The first money to be spent from Measure N will go toward expanding Nesbit Elementary School, the Belmont-Redwood Shores School Board of Trustees decided on Tuesday night.

The board voted 3-1 in favor of increasing the size of Nesbt to accomodate 525 students with money from , with Board President Andy Stulbarg as the dissenting vote. Board member Chuck Velschow was absent.

Measure N is $35 million in bonds passed by voters in November to expand and modernize the four Belmont elementary schools.

The expansion will include four classrooms at Nesbit, expanding their population to 525 students. In addition, the board voted to look into the possible expansion of Fox Elementary School.

Fox, which currently can accommodate 450 students, will add on four new classrooms as well, but will remain at a capacity of 450, with possible plans to expand to 525 in the future.

The four regulation size classes to be constructed at Fox Elementary will eliminate undersized classrooms currently on the school's campus.

Next in the process is the design and development of the infrastructure at Nesbit and Fox, both of which were originally set to accommodate 450 students, and add a learning center.

“The next step is for the architect and the construction management firm to continue to work on the plan,” Stulbarg said. “Those will get submitted and we can move forward so that we can start the construction in the summer of 2012."

The measure originally proposed $35 million in bonds for the four schools in the district--Fox Elementary School, Nesbit Elementary School, Cipriani Elementary School and Central Elementary School, all of which are on the west side of the district--to undergo significant expansion efforts. 

In the initial proposal, Fox would add on seven classrooms in order to accommodate 525 students. Nesbit would have added only one room and expanded its capacity to 450 students.

Central was to add one classroom facility, expanding its population to 450 students, and Cipriani would add no classrooms, but expand to fit 300 students.

In addition, each school would have added on a central learning center.

But parents from the Belmont elementary school who attended Tuesday’s meeting had several disputes concerning the growth of their children’s learning facility, namely, with overcrowding.

A major point of contention surrounded the issue of morning traffic, as some parent speakers commented that they currently wait upwards of 25 minutes to find a parking spot at their elementary schools due to morning congestion.

After much discussion, Stulbarg was unconvinced the current proposal presented any options to alleviate the morning complications that local parents fear.

“When I look at the numbers, my belief is that the growth is on the westside of Belmont,” Stulbarg said. “We don't know how much of that is in the Hallmark area, other parts of the current Fox boundary, how that flows down to Cipriani, but the decision tonight to have the additional growth at Nesbit means that we're going to see more kids from the current Central boundary going down to Nesbit.”

But despite the fear of overcrowding, traffic congestion and possible educational impact, the final decision was to first expand Nesbit, as Stulbarg, along with parents at the meeting, could not deny that the town’s population is growing at an alarming rate.

“We are just running out of space because we are growing so fast,” Stulbarg said.