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Health & Fitness

Two Years Later

What's happened over the course of two years? The NUSD completed its boundary study and facility master plan. And my hair grew.

It’s been about two years since the consolidation committees disbanded and the NUSD Board of Trustees shuttered Hill Middle School, ordered a couple of boundary studies, and then a complete facility master plan. The final product is being discussed at Tuesday’s board meeting. The hot topic appears to be what will happen with the San Andreas site, but there are loads of interesting tidbits throughout.

In Dr. Shalee Cunningham’s opening memorandum, the superintendent notes that “two tenants [sic] were established … 1) we were not interested in selling property, and 2) we are interested in generating revenue.” All of the research seems to indicate that the next decade brings to the district steady or declining enrollment, which means there appears to be no need in the short term for building out any of the sites. Except Parcel 1A over at Hamilton came with strings attached requiring at least 50 percent of the development to have an educational purpose and the tick-tock-of-the-clock stating development needs to happen within the next two years.

Hill Education Center, described in Cunningham’s memo as “a very valuable and centrally located piece of property,” might soon see the Early Intervention Program moved there from Parcel 1B.

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As for the San Andreas site, I can’t help but be surprised that City Manager Michael Frank “suggested in the next 5-10 years, the city might be required to convert some of this property to affordable housing, and a proactive move might be to negotiate the sale of half of this land for a preserve.” Does anyone else think Frank’s purported statement indicates he — and, by extension, the City of Novato — wants to try an end-run to take land off the table for affordable housing?

Anyway, two years of work comes to a culmination tomorrow night.

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On a lighter note, my two years’ worth of work came to a conclusion on Saturday. For the fifth time over the past 11 years, I'm donating nearly a foot of hair to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths. Want to know more about how you can donate? Check out the website. Don’t have that pesky gray and want to give to Locks of Love instead? Look here.

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