Hermosa Beach residents should know how much they were lied to.

Proof of how the Hermosa Beach school district and city deceived the people of Hermosa Beach in order to pass a $59m bond.

" We start by believing and we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away. "

Malcom Gladwell, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know

This is what the Hermosa Beach school board and city council members are trying to sweep under the rug.

None of whom will admit to anything – even when presented with evidence.
No one is going to tell the community the truth about how the school district and the city manipulated information and lied to taxpayers.

That’s why this website has been created.

OVERVIEW

In June 2016 the Hermosa Beach City School District (HBCSD) School Board members passed the $59M Measure S facilities bond to rebuild the grandfathered-in, seismically safe, iconic North School and to enlarge View School in response to a TEMPORARY overcrowding problem.

HBCSD school board members and Superintendent Pat Escalante, with the assistance from HBCSD Attorney Terry Tao, Hermosa Beach City Attorney Michael Jenkins, and Hermosa Beach City Manager Tom Bakaly, various consultants and City Council members continually mislead the community about the facts of the district’s facility options to convince the community to pass the district’s $59M bond.

This website addresses the intentional misinformation provided to Hermosa Beach residents from 2002 to 2019 by our community leaders:

1. Misinformation provided to residents regarding the grandfathered-in, seismically safe and iconic North School’s (renamed Vista School) condition, safety, appropriateness to be used as is for students, historical value and cost to renovate.

2. Misinformation provided to residents regarding HBCSD’s priority leasing agreement with the City of Hermosa Beach for use of the Community Center classrooms, office space and storage space. The misinformation provided by HBCSD regarding the condition, safety, appropriateness and cost to upgrade the Community Center for students.

3. The inappropriateness of hiring the unqualified Pat Escalante to be HBCSD Superintendent from 2012 to 2020. School board members continual support of Pat Escalante even after being given proof of her misinformation to the community to pass the district's $59M bond. Claiming that Pat Escalante had been honored by the Creative Coalition in Park City, Utah in 2017 and nominating her for Superintendent of the Year in 2019.

4. Misleading information provided to Hermosa Beach residents regarding HBCSD projected enrollment.

5. Misinformation provided by Superintendent Pat Escalante regarding the need to move 149 3rd grade students from Valley School to View School in 2015. This decision severely overcrowded View School and panicked parents and staff less than one-year before the district’s 2016 $59M bond vote.

6. The unfair advantage of HBCSD school board members to hire consultants and professionals using taxpayer funds to help pass the district’s $59M bond.

7. Proof of collusion and coordination between School Board members and Superintendent Pat Escalante, Political Consultant Larry Fox, Yes on S campaign chairman Michael Collins (husband of HBCD School Board President and City Council member Mary Campbell), Isom Advisors to provide an unfair advantage to the Yes on S campaign.

8. HBCSD misinformation and withholding of information on their district website paid for by taxpayer funds.

9. Misinformation and highly slanted information provided in the official Environmental Impact Report for North School that was approved by School Board members and given to the Coastal Commission in 2019.

From 2010 to 2013 HBCSD school board members took no action to relieve overcrowding. School Board members had the option of using either the grandfathered-in, seismically safe North School OR the district’s priority lease agreement to use classrooms, office and storage facilities at the Pier Avenue Community Center to immediately relieve district overcrowding.

From 2014-2015 HBCSD spent $1.3M on short-term overcrowding “solutions” that did nothing to relieve overcrowding at district campuses. The $1.3M spent on short-term overcrowding solutions did not go to improve a lasting community asset such as North School or the Community Center.

From 2014-2015 HBCSD hired enrollment consultants inflated future enrollment projections and ignored official California Department of Finance projections of declining K-8 populations in all coastal communities. HBCSD School Board members also voted to unnecessarily move 149 3rd grade students from Valley School to View School, overwhelming the already overcrowded TK-2nd grade campus and panicking parents and staff one year before the district’s $59M bond vote.

Starting in 2002 HBCSD school board members ignored the district's Facility Master Plan which recommended that HBCSD supply 14 additional classrooms by 2012 to deal with projections of rising enrollment. Instead, school board members built a low priority, $11M dollar gymnasium complex with the $13.6M Measure J facilities bond.

From 2002 to 2019 school board members ignored and misled the community about the facts surrounding district priority lease agreement for use of the Community Center gymnasium, changing rooms, classrooms, office and storage space for students. School board members along with the HBCSD superintendents Dr. Sharon McClain and the over qualified and expensive Dr. Bruce Newlin also neglected to quickly and cheaply renovate the North School campus to prepare for the Facility Master Plan's projection of future enrollment increases.

It is believed, and supported by the facts, that the failure of school board members to use the Community Center or immediately use the grandfathered-in North School was the result of an unofficial quid pro quo between HBCSD and the City of Hermosa Beach. It is believed that the quid pro quo was hatched by an influential clique of Hermosans to keep the Community Center exclusively for city use. The quid pro quo consisted of HBCSD denying and ignoring it's lease agreement for use of the Community Center for the city’s help in passing a $59M dollar facilities bond to build a brand-new, now unneeded, campus at North School. Building the now unneeded brand-new campus took five years and cost taxpayers $29M while district students and staff languished in unacceptably overcrowded conditions.

As of 2023 HBCSD has space for 1,902 students and a Hermosa Beach student population of 1,165 students. HBCSD has started bringing in students from outside Hermosa Beach to bolster district enrollment. However, HBCSD still has approximately 20 to 22 unused or underused classroom capacity. According to the California Department of Finance Demographics unit, K-12 enrollment is projected to continue to decrease through at least 2060.

Here are some facts:

Since passing their $59M bond in 2016 to build a brand-new campus at North School, HBCSD now [2023] has approximately 20-25 unused or underused classrooms

or approximately 500-600 extra seats of unused or underused classrooms space between its three campuses.

(This information will NOT be reported in any local newspaper!)

To accomplish the school district’s and the city’s short-sighted goals, HBCSD students and staff were made to endure YEARS of unnecessary and egregious overcrowding which compel the community to pass the district’s $59M bond.

It does not matter if one believes that the community was better served

by building a brand-new 510 student campus as enrollment dropped.

The issue at hand is that the

city and the school district purposely out-right lied to voters and taxpayers

in order to pass their $59M bond.

From 2002- 2020 school board members’ decisions made no sense given the true facility facts and the needs of the school district.

Since the district’s $59M facilities bond was passed in 2016, taxpayers are now on the hook to pay approximately $98M ($59M with interest over time) through 2050 for 500+ seats of unneeded student capacity with no future increases in enrollment in sight.

Taxpayers will be paying off the 2002 $13.6M facilities bond through 2030. Final cost of the 2002 $13.6M bond with interest over time is approximately $30M.

This website is dedicated to all the good citizens of Hermosa Beach who speak up at meetings and fact check HBCSD and the City of Hermosa Beach to try to effect a change for the better.