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International School Opens, But Not Here |
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Written by Jeff Radford
Corrales Comment
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
Corrales International School still plans to open this fall —but in an office building near Jefferson and Osuna.
The start-up charter school’s board of directors has arranged to move
into space being vacated by another charter school at 3821 Singer
Boulevard at least temporarily.
After the Corrales Planning and Zoning Commission rejected school
proponents’ site development plan for their preferred location at the
northwest corner of Corrales Road and Camino Todos los Santos April 30,
they searched for an alternative location that would allow the school
to open as planned in September.
Corrales International School (CIS) board president Laura Erickson said
July 13 a revised site plan for 7227 Corrales Road will not be
submitted to P&Z any time soon. That will await developments
in a court action brought by Concerned Citizens of Corrales, Inc. to
reverse the zone change to “Municipal” approved by the Village Council.
CIS proponents won a hard-fought battle to gain a zone change for the
school on the 4.6-acre property, but then failed to convince the
P&Z commission it had an acceptable site development plan.
Neighboring property owners at the north end of Corrales objected to
anticipated adverse impacts. Citing many of those same objections, the
group filed sit against the Village for granting the M-zone.
When the site plan was rejected in late April, CIS officials
realized they wouldn’t have time to gain approval for a re-submitted
plan and accomplish all the renovations and site improvements that
would be required in time for classes which start September 2.
They have signed a five-year lease on the building on Singer, which has
a sub-let clause that will allow CIS to move to Corrales after the
lawsuit and site plan issues are resolved.
The school’s governing council will meet again August 15 at 11 a.m. in the building on Singer.
CIS will open with a maximum of 80 students for its first year in
grades kindergarten first, second and sixth grades, heading to an
eventual enrollment of 180 in grades kindergarten through eighth.
The new school will use the curriculum created by the International
Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) which offers “high quality programs of
international education to a world-wide community of schools,” Erickson
said.
She cited the organization’s data that more than 589,000 students
around the world attend one of the 2,186 IBO-oriented schools. This
would be the first in New Mexico.
The International Baccalaureate Organization was founded in Geneva,
Switzerland in 1968. Its president from that time until 1981 was John
Goormaghtigh, director of the European office of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace.
The Corrales International School’s website gives the following as
rationale for its curriculum. “Global warming, natural disasters,
terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, religious wars, reports of
genocide and illegal immigration have all recently filled the front
pages of our newspapers and television screens. However, despite the
serious nature of these global problems, many Americans remain
alarmingly unaware of even the most basic facts associated with these
international events.”
The new school proposed to address those deficiencies with the
IBO curriculum to produce “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young
people who help create a better and more peaceful world through
intercultural understanding.”
After the rejection of the site development plan for the former
Burrola property on Corrales Road, Erickson said, “There is no way we
can open there this fall.”
Even if the P&Z commission approved a revised site plan, “We
wouldn’t have time to get the property ready to open in September,” she
explained back in May. “So we’re looking for a temporary location. It
looks like it would have to be outside of Corrales.”
Assuming the school’s directors still want to get a revised plan before
the P&Z commission, they might get a favorable vote next time.
School proponents suggested they had last-minute changes to the
plan ready to be considered by P&Z at the April 30 meeting,
but those most recent modifications were not allowed to be introduced.
Proponents and still-strong opponents to Corrales International School
(CIS) had been given a deadline for submission of documents, evidence
and plan revisions so that P&Z commissioners would have time to
study all materials prior to the meeting at which they would rule.
Commission Chairman Mick Harper upheld the deadline to which both sides
had agreed, so even though some of the commission’s stated concerns
about the site plan might have been belatedly addressed by recent (but
inadmissible) changes, the P&Z rejection was based on the plan as
submitted and revised for the April 16 meeting.
The April 30 meeting was a continuation of the April 16 meeting, at
which only proponents of the school’s plans, not opponents, had time to
present their position.
When it was their turn, opponents brought out conjectural rendering of
what the facility would look like after renovations and additions were
completed, as well as their own new traffic impact projections and
interpretations of zoning regulations.
Primary speakers against the site plan (as they had been against the
zone change for the school this spring) were Paul Dearth, Mark
Meddleton, Elaine Manicke and D.K. Brown.
Meddleton said he was still concerned that traffic increases caused by
the school will require that a left-turn lane be added to Corrales Road
at its intersection with Camino Todos los Santos. He didn’t want any of
his Corrales Road frontage property to be taken to accommodate that
turn-lane, insisting that right-of-way be taken from the school site
instead and shown on the site plan.
Meddleton called for a new traffic impact study to be done using
new information about the school’s actual enrollment this fall.
He said enrollment data show that 84 percent of students will be
arriving by private car from the south, not 13 percent as used in
projections from the earlier traffic study commissioned by school
officials.
Another opponent, Adrian Panaro, argued that proponents were wrong in
asserting that only some sides of the school property require solid
buffer walls, a requirement when M-zoned parcels abut residential lots.
He read an ordinance definition of “abut” which indicates that all four
sides of the property abut private residences, even if separated by
ditches and roads.
After the opposition had its say, rebuttal fell mainly to Erickson. She
said since the fall 2008 enrollment had been set, it was known that 70
percent of students live in Corrales. Out of consideration for concerns
about traffic on Corrales Road at the Todos los Santos intersection,
Erickson said the school could require that students coming from the
south be delivered and picked up along Loma Larga.
However, since that time, CIS officials re-started their
enrollment process in late June. Some of those previously
enrolled dropped out faced with a commute or busing out of Corrales to
the Singer location. Some vacancies were still available in grades K,
1, 2 and 6 as of July 14, Erickson said.
At the April 30 P&Z meeting, after other members of the public had
been allowed to voice their support or opposition, Chairman Harper
asked for a motion that “enumerated the deficiencies” in the CIS site
plan and which invited the applicant to bring a revised site
development plan before the commission.
Commissioner Terry Brown did so, prefacing his motion with the observation that the CIS plan had “many flaws.”
He said the plan failed to comply with such regulations as
adequate architectural drawings, landscaping, waste water management,
acceptable building materials, traffic and traffic signage, off-street
parking, and stages at which specific site plan improvements would be
implemented. He also wanted “one way in, one way out” designations for
the site’s driveways.
The commission voted 7-0 to reject the site plan. |
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