By a 2-to-1 vote last Thursday night, the Fort Bragg Unified School District Board rejected the idea of a skatepark adjacent to the high school campus, despite the pleas of top city leaders and skaters and their parents.
However, as an alternative, the City Council agreed at a special meeting Monday to consider locating the skate plaza at Bainbridge Park. (See related story for details.)
Last week, the school board was encouraged to reject the location in a petition signed by 29 Fort Bragg High staff members and a plea from high school Principal Allan Urbani.
Urbani told the board he had talked to 18 different school districts about issues surrounding skateparks and found a unanimous voice against skateparks located close to schools.
“Skateboard parks and school districts have a difficult time co-existing in close proximity,” Urbani said. “One of the difficulties is, schools are in the business of education, and recreation districts and cities are in the business of skateboard parks.”
He said the assistant principal at Piner High School in Santa Rosa told him that police contacts had quadrupled since a skatepark was located across the street.
He said a school administrator in Southern California told him locating a skatepark across the street was the “worst mistake” the district had ever made. He said that school had to hire a security guard to protect the campus from vandals who hit the skatepark.
Urbani volunteered for any group to search for another site and said the high school staff was in favor of a park — just not so close. His opposition to the location was based on his number one priority as principal — school safety.
The site north of the high school, now occupied by a grove of pine trees, was the only location identified in a one-year study process by the City of Fort Bragg, the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District and the Fort Bragg Unified School District.
A decision had to be made quickly because about $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant moneys were found to be available last month to construct a temporary skatepark. But the application for the money had to be made right away, shortening the study timeline. That money may now be sought for alley repair in the city.
Recreation District Administrator Beth Pine and City Manager Linda Ruffing unsuccessfully encouraged the district to approve the skatepark.
“The school board has a responsibility to be a voice of the community,” said Pine. “We would like to stop waiting, move forward, we”d like to see it move forward on this site.”
Pine rejected a suggestion by Urbani that the Aquatic Center site might be an alternative. She said there was no way that the master plan for the aquatic center site could be changed in time for the city grant money to be used there.
“There was a lot of thought that went into that master plan,” she said. “The process for changing it is lengthy. I wouldn”t say the Aquatic Center is a quick fallback.”
Pine said the dog park recently added to the Aquatic Center Project is temporary. A temporary skatepark couldn”t stay at the Aquatic Center.
“We would definitely be moving the skatepark,” Pine said.
She didn”t say why a skatepark wasn”t part of the master plan, when it has been a top community recreation priority for several years.
At the last regular meeting of the school board, Lund said the site next to the high school was the only identified site owned by the three entities where a park could be developed.
Ruffing said rejecting the location would mean losing all momentum on a community goal that all three agencies have made a top priority — finding a skatepark site for the community”s youth.
“It”s probably not going to happen for a long time,” Ruffing warned before the no vote.
“We have been engaged in this dialogue for over a year. For all its problems, as perhaps the only available site, I won”t say the best site, because it does have its limitations ? What we are talking about is a very humble skatepark. It”s a skate plaza. It will be regulated, fenced, gated, locked, only open when the school says it”s OK,” Ruffing said.
Former board member Joe Lang chimed in, with a letter read by board President DeeLynn Carpenter. Lang, who has moved out of the area, said the school district was being pressured by the city to move too quickly.
“Willits is having extreme enforcement problems,” Carpenter said.
She described users bragging about how they came with bolt cutters when the park was closed.
“I have a problem with this location because of what is going on beyond our borders in similar locations,” said Carpenter.
Three middle school students, who only gave their first names, came to the podium and asked the board to approve a park, earning thunderous applause. They all said they were drug free and promised to help take care of the park.
Mayor Doug Hammerstrom said the city wasn”t trying to pressure the school district into a quick decision but asked the board to consider the entire dialogue that has gone on.
“I ask you: are these the violent vandals that are going to be using the skatepark?” Hammerstrom said, pointing to the crowd of school district students and some adults.
Carpenter said it was not students but people in their 20s causing the problems. Hammerstrom said many people in their 20s have had positive and empowering experiences from skateparks.
“The people that are here are asking you to trust their responsibility, and the city is telling you we will enforce the law,” Hammerstrom said.
Carpenter said if there had been more time, she would have been willing to consider a phased-in closed campus with a skatepark open dawn to dusk.
Mike Crowder, a math teacher at the high school for 29 years, presented a petition opposing the location signed by 28 staff members. He said the location at the front of the school was too visible for a skatepark. Classes are held on both sides of the park, making the park in, not adjacent to, the campus, he said.
Many who spoke in more than two hours of discussion said that Fort Bragg shouldn”t be compared to big city schools and their problems.
Jasper Henderson, editor of the school newspaper, The Howl, described a dangerous close call involving a skateboard enthusiast forced to skate close to the street.
“They are always at risk of bodily harm for doing what they love.” Henderson said the visibility of the park is a positive. Because it is so visible, school administrators could easily see any truants, he said, adding ,”We can use this over $100,000 to benefit our youth, who have been hauling their rails out onto the sidewalk, that”s a pretty desperate scene . Let”s do it.”
Fort Bragg City Councilman Dave Turner said if the schools could do this safely, they should.
“We need to do this,” Turner said. “We are not Santa Rosa. We are doing things to make sure we don”t have the problems Santa Rosa does. This is part of it.”
Neighbors also opposed the location, but the crowd clearly favored action to approve the park, based on the applause and on signs held by youths.
“If I were sitting up there, I would be trying to find a way to make this work,” said local attorney Ryan Perkins.
Board member Linda Rosengarten supported the location.
“There is no other spot at the moment for us to at least start the process,” she said. “It probably won”t be the last spot this temporary plaza is located.”
But board members Robert Hotchkiss and Carpenter voted no. Board member Jennifer Owen disqualified herself because she is a city grant writer.
Board member Wendy Boise was absent, not having expected the quick vote when she planned a trip earlier in the year, Superintendent Lund said.
Carpenter said she could not support a park with limited hours at the location.
“I think it would be very difficult to have a park in that location and have it not affect the school,” said Hotchkiss.
The board was then chided by audience members, who said the board should have made clear much earlier they were opposed to the site.
