Cloverdale city, school district officials at odds over developer obligations to schools

How much should developers have to do to offset the impact of new housing on schools?

In Cloverdale, the issue is pitting two of the most prominent local officials against each other. On one side is schools Superintendent Betha MacClain, who argues that the district can’t accommodate a huge influx of students from the 500 units of housing that are under consideration.

On the other side is Mayor Marta Cruz, who argues that developers already contribute heavily to city coffers and that if the school district doesn’t have enough money, it needs to audit its books to see where its funding goes.

MacClain has been Cloverdale Unified superintendent for a year and a half and has recently started attending Planning Commission and City Council meetings and special sessions.

When large housing projects are up for consideration, she has testified that the district can’t accommodate all the students the new housing would bring.

She also has brought a consultant, who speaks about the cost of new school buildings and the strain trying to meet student needs.

The district is not anti-affordable housing, MacClain stressed.

“Unstable housing doesn’t support a healthy life. There’s a difference between development and affordable housing,” she said. “The city is intimidated by developers; they’re afraid they will be sued if they don't just approve it.“

The city charges developers fees to offset the effect of housing projects, but MacClain wants some funding or provisions for the school district.

Last month, she told planning commissioners that Pacific West Communities, the developer of the 75-unit Cloverdale Alexander Valley Family Apartments, should be required to pay to provide safe roads and other amenities such as athletic fields and parks.

MacClain said she told the developer the district doesn’t have the capacity to serve the children that would live in the apartments.

“I want to make it clear that over 500 units are coming and the city hasn’t done anything to mitigate the impact,” MacClain said in a recent interview at her small office across the street from Cloverdale High School.

The district has old school buildings, constructed when Cloverdale was a tiny city, she said, and they need to be modernized and expanded as the city grows.

MacClain said she is trying to get some collaboration going between City Hall and the district for the benefit of all of Cloverdale. She was heartened when the city attorney and the school district’s attorney recently met for a discussion of mitigation measures for the Alexander Valley Family Apartments.

She said the strain has escalated as Cloverdale becomes even more of a bedroom community for commuters who are better able to afford housing there. Some of them want their children going to school where they work, often in private schools. In addition more and more students are transferring to other districts because those districts have more resources to offer a wider array courses, including electives as like opera.

About 10% of the children inside Cloverdale district lines attend schools in other towns. “And we have kids quitting school to work in the fields to support their families,“ MacClain said.

District enrollment has dropped from 1,418 in the 2016-2017 school year to 1,383 in the 2019-20 school year.

In response, the school board recently passed a cap on “who we can let go,” MacClain said. That means fewer students will be able to apply and receive transfers.

The irony is that Cloverdale is an ADA (Average Daily Attendance)-supported school district, meaning that a significant share of its funding is based that the more students who attend school the more state funds they receive.

Cloverdale Unified is surrounded by districts that are called basic aid districts, meaning that property taxes they receive in their communities exceed what the state would give them. These are mostly more affluent communities with high property values such as Healdsburg.

Windsor Unified is also an ADA-funded district, MacClain said, but has more resources. The former Cloverdale superintendent, Jeremy Decker, who is now Windsor Unified superintendent, could not be reached for comment.

Cloverdale voters in November 2018 passed Measure H, a general obligation bond measure to boost school budgets. The funds have gone toward constructing a new track and field facilities at Cloverdale High School, a new classroom at Jefferson Elementary School, a new gymnasium at Washington Middle School and replacing some portables.

Cruz, the Cloverdale mayor, is pushing back on the district’s stance over new housing and while questioning some of its spending priorities.

Cruz maintains that things like a new field should come secondary to classroom needs like teaching materials, teacher training and tutoring.

“They should be focusing on content,” said Cruz, a retired college professor. “You got to do with what you have.”

MacClain, who lives in Sebastopol, said it has been a struggle to get any kind of services in general for students or access to vaccines and testing during the pandemic, since she was hired.

“There is a lack of infrastructure to support people who are living below the poverty line. There’s a lack of health care facilities, a lack of grocery stores to buy fresh food and the town has become a dumping ground for industry,” she said. “We don’t have a tourist economy. We don’t even have a decent hotel.”

To MacClain the problem is a “civil rights issue.”

“We are fighting for the fundamental needs of our students and we are asking developers to do what they are obligated to do. It is a civil rights issue from my perspective, and any developer is doing it for a profit that should not be on the backs of our most underserved families and children.”

But Cruz said MacClain comes off as making demands.

“I didn’t hear collaboration,” she said. “When you bring a consultant, it means you have already got a point of view.

“I don’t recall a school district demanding a City Council or Planning Commission to push a developer for more benefits for the school district,” she added. “The city is in line to get what developers have to pay in fees.”

A council division between Bagby and Cruz on one side and and councilmen Gus Wolter, Joe Palla and Todd Lands on the other was obvious during the council selection of Lands on Wednesday as the city’s next mayor, starting Jan. 12.

“The district is trying to push an anti-housing agenda,” Bagby said. “But it’s strange that they bought a piece of property in the town, built a new gym and refurbished a football field so they’ve maxed out their bond money. ... I don’t they have their priorities set right. I think they are trying to cover up for their own mistakes.”

MacClain said the district is considering moving district facilities to the property they purchased with bond funds, then building new schools where the nonacademic facilities had been. She pointed out that the district was fourth from the bottom among districts in funding in the last list published by the county.

Bagby said there haven’t been a lot of new housing units proposed in Cloverdale until recently because of the pandemic.

“We’ve been recovering from the recession. What have they been doing to prepare for this?” she said. The superintending is claiming we have a basis to deny a lot of these housing starts, but they’re not sure how it’s going to spike their number of students or how we have a legal basis to do this.”

Cruz said the next step is “to find out why they (the district) don’t have enough money.” She said she thinks the district’s finances should be audited.

She also said a lot of the children who would be living in new housing “already live here.”

MacClain noted the district enrollment is primarily Latino — the same holds true for most districts countywide — and “we want to serve our community. If we have to absorb these students, all we can offer is crappy portables.”

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleencoates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.