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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCORRESPONDENCE - 85C85C City Council Meeting Correspondence 6/5/2018 TO ALLOW GODINEZ HIGH SCHOOL TO ENHANCE ITS SECURITY CONTROLS ON IT'S MAIN CAMPUS, AND TO REDUCE THE CITY OF SANTA ANA'S SCHEDULING AND MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS RELATED TO THE JOINT USE AGREEMENT IN PLACE AT GODINEZ HIGH SCHOOL, DIRECT CITY STAFF TO WORK WITH SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT TO AMEND THE AGREEMENT TO EXCLUDE THE PHYSICAL BUILDINGS AND PARKING STRUCTURE FROM THE SCOPE OF THE AGREEMENT Date of Name Representative of In Favor In Opposition Correspondence of RA*. of RA.* 1 6/4/2018 Chris Schmidt 2 6/5/2018 Joyce Feuerborn Parent, Teacher and Santa Ana Resident 3 6/5/2018 Lisa Treen Godinez Athletic Director "RA - Recommended Action Tuesday, lune 05, 2018 Page 1 of 1 Mitre -Ramirez, Norma From: Huizar, Maria Sent: Monday, June 4, 2018 9:41 AM To: eComment Subject: FW: COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM ADDED - 85C Categories: Correspondence Please enter into the record. Thank you. From: Chris S [ Sent: Saturday, June 2, 2018 7:32 AM To: Subject: Fwd: COUNCILAGENDA ITEM ADDED -85C Mr. Siegenthaler, National Park Service I wanted to make you aware the city of Santa Ana and Santa Ana Unified School District are proposing a change to the Joint -Use agreement at Centennial Park. As the land in Centennial Park is part of the Federal Lands to Parks program and deeded to the city of Santa Ana by the National Park Service, are they allowed to "EXCLUDE THE PHYSICAL BUILDINGS' which are located on park property from the Joint -Use agreement? Kind regards, Chris Schmidt From: Huizar, Maria Sent: Friday, June 1, 2018 3:27 PM Ce: Godinez, Raul <RGodinezAsanta-ana.org>; Carvalho, Sonia R. <SCarvalhoga santa- an >; Mouet, Gerardo <GMouetgsanta-ana.org>; Jurado, Jeannie <JJuradogsanta- ana.ara>; Valentin, David <DValentin2santa-ana.org>; Sonia Carvalho - BBK <Sonia.Carvalho@bbklgw.Com> Subject: COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM ADDED - 85C Mayor and Members of the City Council, The following item has been added to Tuesday's City Council Agenda: 85C. TO ALLOW GODINEZ HIGH SCHOOL TO ENHANCE ITS SECURITY CONTROLS ON IT'S MAIN CAMPUS, AND TO REDUCE THE CITY OF SANTA ANA'S SCHEDULING AND MAINTENANCE OBLIGATIONS RELATED TO THE JOINT USE AGREEMENT IN PLACE AT GODINEZ HIGH SCHOOL, DIRECT CITY STAFF TO WORK WITH SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT TO AMEND THE AGREEMENT TO EXCLUDE THE PHYSICAL BUILDINGS AND PARKING STRUCTURE FROM THE SCOPE OF THE AGREEMENT (Councilmembers Solorio and Tinajero) Maria D. Huizar I Clerk of the Council Clerk of the Council Office I City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza, 80" Floor, Santa Ana, CA 92701 2 (714)647-6520 I ® mhuizarCq]santa•ana ore This e-mail (and attachments, if any) may be subject to the California Public Records Act, and as such may therefore be subject to public disclosure unless otherwise exempt antler the Act 2 Orozco, Norma From: Feuerborn, Joyce < Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2018 10:31 AM To: eComment Cc: Lisa Tran; Linn; Treen, Lisa; Church, Jesse Subject: Joint Use Agreement Categories: Correspondence To the Santa Ana City Council, I am a parent, teacher and voter in Santa Ana. As a teacher and parent at Godinez Fundamental High School, I feel like our students and my kid gets a first class education but are treated as 2nd class citizens when it comes to facilities at Godinez. Here is what many parents and teachers/advisors/coaches would like to see happen on our campus for ALL of our student athletes: 1. Payments: As it stands, our principal Mr. Church is required to cut a check for on average $20,000 each summer for use of our own gym and fields. Really??!! In order to not accrue as many fines, coaches end up cutting practices short or we pay the city to use our own facilities. Not good for our students or our budget. 2. Safety: We have had multiple incidences of people walking onto our track and fields during the school day. Most people are good but at times random people have walked onto our campus and there have been altercations where police and/or security is called and this puts our students in danger. We need to be able to make our school a LOT MORE SECURE. Having the ability to build fences around Godinez would make our children safer. 3. Parking garage: The garage should be part of the GFHS's campus and NOT part of the city. This will allow us to fundraise during city and state tournaments thus giving us $$$ to buy new equipment and clean up and maintain existing fields. Which brings me to #4... 4. Upkeep: Godinez is required to clean and maintain all fields and facilities even if other schools, organized teams or people use and misuse them. Example: our front office gets calls weekly because the field is a mess and there is a city tournament, so the fields need to be cleaned and ready. Our custodians are then pulled from their regular duties and must clean the fields of cigarette butts, liquor bottles and trash. Since there are little to no fences, people misuse the baseball and soccer fields all the time but GFHS spends their own money to keep our fields maintained. 5. Track: Godinez has the only dirt track out of high schools in ALL OF ORANGE COUNTY. Many times PE classes are stopped because the track is muddy or a random person just wanders onto the track which causes a safety issue. Our track is an embarrassment to SAUSD and many times, I've had parents from other schools note how sad our track and fields look. There are multiple other reasons and as a water polo mom, I haven't even addressed our lack of a pool at the largest high school in SAUSD. But, for now, the issue before you is to fix the joint use agreement. This will keep our students safer, fitter and yes, happier. t N As a tax paying citizen and voter, it's time Godinez has first class facilities. Fix the joint use agreement and make our school better because it's about the kids. Thank you for your attention, Joyce Feuerborn Joyce Feuerborn CJE English/Journalism teacher Godinez Fundamental HS Orozco, Norma From: Treen, Lisa < Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2018 12:59 PM To: Feuerborn, Joyce; eComment Cc: Lisa Tran; Linn; Church, Jesse Subject: Re: Joint Use Agreement Agenda Item 85C To the Santa Ana City Council, I would like to start with giving you some Godinez Athletic background regarding our field and gym situation. For the past 11 years I have been the Girls' Athletic Director and an original staff member at Godinez. I am sorry that I am not able to attend tonight but wanted to be heard regarding these issues as they are extremely important to me and our entire school! Our PTSD, Principal Church and our Board Members have been extremely supportive in making some changes to the current joint -use agreement which was made over a decade ago and has never been revised. In my opinion, this has been problematic for Godinez Athletics & the school in general from the beginning. I would also like to thank all of the City Council Members that have met with us and listened to these issues and recognize the need for change and revision of the current joint -use agreement. GODINEZ GYMNASIUM Upon moving to work at Godinez, I didn't understand from the beginning that I would have to even give the City a complete booking for use of our gymnasium for whenever we needed to use it. We cannot host any events or tournaments without City approval plus are charged by the City for usage. This has absolutely never made any sense to me and nothing has every been done to change the initial agreement. We use the gym ALL OF THE TIME. The fact that I have to do this is extremely time consuming and really ridiculous considering how many times it gets booked for City events. This year, I am taking over as the school's only Athletic Director with the retirement of my AD colleague - Greg Coombs. That being said, the sole responsibility for securing courts, fields and pool facilities for our Godinez student -athletes falls on me. This alone is a full time job! Mr. Coombs and I have worked together over the past years to get this done and make all these reservations as we have no facilities that are our own. Just think about that for a minute, Godinez has no facilities that are their own, and as a well functioning high school we have been servicing well over 900+ student -athletes annually. Our coaching staff, student -athletes and parents have been very patient and flexible over these past few years but many are tired and frustrated with the facility issues and conditions for Godinez. This has been exacerbated by the fact that Godinez has had no athletic site improvements unlike the improvements made at our sister high schools. Currently, I must submit to the City all the reservation dates, times and events that we are having in our own gymnasium. I must submit reservation information for the entire school year of our usage after 6pm and request usage for any time on weekends. During the summer, I must submit my requests for daily usage after summer school hours M -F and any time on the weekends. I am respectfully requesting that you release the Godinez gymnasium back to the school and amend the agreement with the City. for usage. GODINEZ THEATER 3 I cannot speak to the particular reservations needed from us to the City, but my understanding is that it is very similar to what I have to go through with the gym. Again, this makes no sense as we use the Godinez Theater as much as we use our gymnasium and get "kicked out" for other non Godinez related events. I am respecfully requesting that you release the Godinez Theater back to the school and amend the agreement with the City for usage. GODINEZ PARKING STRUCTURE The use of the parking structure to host events has also been problematic for us. We cannot charge patrons for parking per the City. As a Santa Ana high school we have limited ways and means to raise funds for our athletic programs and we are prevented from doing so because of the current joint -use agreement. CENTENNIAL/GODINEZ FIELDS I realize this is not part of the agenda but I am requesting that you consider this additional problem for us as part of the current joint -use agreement. Frankly, it is a nightmare for me, our coaching staff and athletes plus a huge source of stress, time and energy. Countless hours have been spent over the years because of the fact that we have no home fields and no priority consideration with City field usage. This is a daily struggle that spans the entire year and not just a season. High school sports are year round and there is not much down time so facility usage and conditions are detrimental to our athletic program's success. Unfortunately, when I took the job I was falsely under the assumption that Godinez Athletics would have priority booking for the fields with the City. We do not and we have to compete with all other schools in that want to use the fields from the City; most all the schools we are competing with for usage are NOT even Santa Ana schools. So we really have no set fields to use and have no priority for our games or practices which leaves us scrambling to find a "home" for our sports teams to practice & play. The Godinez football field, track and baseball fields are programmed by the City for usage and they are in horrible condition due to the extreme use and lack of attention. We also must reserve the grass fields #5 & #6 where the softball diamonds are for daily usage (practice/games/any activity) and this includes use for our physical education classes! We get charged for the daily usage (yes, even for PE classes) and the district expects Godinez Athletics to play for all of the bills submitted from the City for our usage. Again, this does not make sense to me either and is another example of how the joint -use agreement needs to be revised. Usage varies from season to season and year to year, but it is a lot of reservations and extreme planning. Also, a side note regarding the track. We cannot host any track meets on the track due to the fact that there are not enough lanes and that the track is a dirt track. No one in the County hosts track meets on a dirt track; thus another facility issue for our athletic program as well as a disadvantage for training. If we are not able to book the City fields here in Centennial Park then I must find other venues for us to use. This means that I have to attempt to book fields over at the Santa Ana Sports Complex at Valley HS & Carr Intermediate or other areas available. This is also extremely problematic as both schools run their own athletic events that take priority over our usage. Once again, leaving Godinez without a set "home" field and schedule that is difficult and even more costly for Godinez Athletics to accommodate. Again the financial burden is being placed on the school. Please also take into consideration that we have no "home" tennis courts nor "home" swimming pool which are additional necessary reservations at other venues to be made in order to offer these programs. Again, we are not given priority for reservations (dates/times) regarding these sports either and incur additional costs to provide these programs. More importantly, these scheduling problems are having an extreme toll on my coaching staff, our athletes and parents. The various difficult hours, different locations and necessary transportation (not just of bodies but equipment and necessary items) is a lot to ask of any human being to follow much less of teenage kids. In regards to the field situation here at the very least, I respectfully requesting that Godinez be given priority for reservation usage at the DYSC turf fields #2 & #4. and that we be allowed to submit our request for the fields and have priority over others. This would give us at least a "home" for our soccer programs and lend continuity to their schedules and support base. This would also go a long way to help my efforts to schedule home field usage for our soccer programs. If I were just be able to submit my request and not have to go through a selection process every year. it would help tremendously. Currently, we have no scheduling consideration as a partner with the facilities that are right here and convenient for our school and this would help to change this issue. There are also other game management issues at play here for me as well that are definitely affecting our participation & fan base for your consideration; various venues for contests = no set home field, transportation costs, notification of officials and Godinez students, parents & staff. Use of the Godinez football field and the 1V & Varsity Baseball fields must be reserved thru the City for any time after 6pm during the school year and anytime on the weekends. During the summer I must request reservation usage of these fields for any time and date we need usage. This too has been problematic as the baseball fields are scheduled for not only baseball usage but also soccer games in the outfields. Currently, we have our lower level football teams practicing on the JV baseball grass because there is no where local for them to go. Our varsity football squad has to go to the DYSC turf for practice right now during the summer. Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope that my perspective can give you some background regarding our struggles here at Godinez and help move you to act in regards to amending the agreement between the City & SAUSD. If you need more information from me or have any questions regarding the athletic side of any of this please do not hesitate to contact me. The bottom line is that if we all want to provide Santa Ana citizens with the best possible situations for participation and event success at Godinez and Centennial Park. Respectfully, Lisa Treen Lisa Treen Godinez Athletic Director