Mayor ‘Cautiously Optimistic' About San Diego's School-Library Plan

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By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 02/13/2009

The plan to add a 300-student high school to a proposed $185 million central library in downtown San Diego is moving at a snail’s pace—and now there’s a proposals to waive state building safety codes for public schools rather than spend more money and time on a feasibility study, reports the San Diego Tribune.

The proposed San Diego Central Library.

The library-school idea first surfaced last December, just as a $20 million state grant to help build the new library was set to expire. Under the plan, San Diego schools would pump an additional $20 million to help cover construction costs, using money from Proposition S, a bond measure that passed in November. Private donations for the library fell short and without the school money, the city wouldn't have enough cash to start the library, the Tribune reports.

In addition to providing the extra badly-needed funds, the school partnership might stop the library from losing its $20 million state grant, which was awarded in 2003 and set to expire on December 31, 2008 unless there was solid evidence that plans for building the new library were progressing. The city, however, recently received an extension until July 1, 2009.

In a letter dated February 2 to State Librarian Susan Hildreth, Mayor Jerry Sanders says he “remains cautiously optimistic that such an arrangement can be reached” to save the longstanding plan for the nine-story central library, of which two floors would be devoted to classrooms.

Locating a high school in the library was expected to push costs above the library's existing $185 million price tag because building codes are typically more stringent for schools.

But that may not necessarily happen if the California Department of Education waives the Field Act, as the San Diego Unified School District is now suggesting, says the Tribune. Another option is a San Diego state legislator convinces those at the Capitol to exempt the project from the act, which dictates school building standards.

The school board had earmarked $20,000 and the city has promised $14,000 toward a $168,000 feasibility study that would focus on state law dictating tougher standards for school construction, which are requirements to make schools safer during earthquakes