BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Ravenswood School Board is negotiating with a developer to build 300 to 450 apartments to replace the district’s headquarters at 2120 Euclid Ave. in East Palo Alto.
The school board gave Chief Business Officer Will Eger the go-ahead to negotiate with USA Property Fund, a Roseville company. Eger told the board at a June 22 meeting he hopes to bring a contract back for approval later this summer.
All of the housing would be at below market rents.
The board previously had a contract to have a developer build biotech offices on the site. But both the district and the developer walked away from that deal due to the economy.
The board is looking at redeveloping its headquarters and the former Flood School site at 321 Sheridan Drive in Menlo Park to bring revenue to the district. Plans are in the works for 85 apartments at the former school site.
Due to declining enrollment, the district’s revenues are down. State funding is determined by enrollment — more students, more money.
The district expects to run a deficit of $2 to $3 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Enrollment is down because parents have been pulling their kids out of the district for better schools. Also, the district had been using Covid money, which has been exhausted.
There are other factors that impact enrollment. Low income families have been pushed out of the area due to rent increases and gentrification.
I’ve heard that excuse before, that people are being forced out of here — and that’s why enrollment is down. But if people are leaving, don’t you think that other families would have moved into their homes? Sharifa, it’s not as if all of those homes are sitting empty. I think the truth is that parents don’t want their kids in a lousy school system, and they’ve put their kids into charters.