Neighbors of School Say Sound of Children at Play Can Be Deafening

To officials at Calvary Baptist School, the laughter and shouts of children frolicking on the playgrounds are a joyful sound, something to be expected at a school with more than 400 students.

But the noise sounds more like cacophony to some of the Gardena school’s neighbors, who complain that the clamor of boisterous children invades their homes and yards almost continuously on school days.

Complaints have reached such a pitch that city officials hired a sound engineer to study the problem. Both school officials and neighbors hope the engineer’s report, due in mid-April, will help to resolve the dispute.

Residents say sound levels increased when the city permitted the school to expand three years ago from 350 to 415 students. Residents of about a dozen homes adjacent to the school on Manhattan Beach Boulevard at Crenshaw Boulevard say they are bothered by noise from the playgrounds.

“You have no idea what I’ve gone through with that church and the noise,” said Evelyn Pillsbury, 78, who has lived on Manhattan Beach Boulevard next to the school since 1970. “When it was hot the other day, I opened my sliding door and it was just a madhouse.”

Cindy Mathiowetz, who has lived on Atkinson Avenue for 12 years, said the noise gets so loud that residents are driven away from their back yards and from the rooms in their homes that are nearest the school.

To reduce the noise, school officials have taken steps outlined in the conditional-use permit issued by the city that allowed the expansion. A cinder-block wall more than nine feet high was erected between the church and residential properties, for example, and parents were no longer permitted to drop students off at a school entrance on Atkinson Avenue, said Principal Ron Pearson. A four-member good-will committee of church representatives and residents was established to discuss problems, he said.

But residents say it hasn’t helped much.

“It’s still noisy,” said Monroe Skaggs, who has lived at the end of a cul-de-sac on Chanera Avenue next to the school since 1968. “Did you ever try to bottle up sound? You can’t do it.”

Difficult Choice

When the weather is hot, said Skaggs, 76, he and his wife Elsie, 72, are faced with a difficult choice: keeping windows and doors facing the playground shut to keep out the noise, or opening them, letting in the breeze--and the playground sounds.

“If we weren’t the age we are we’d pull up and move tomorrow,” said Skaggs, who spends much of his time at home after a recent triple-bypass heart operation.

The school, established on the four-acre church property in 1950, was there before most of the residents, and only in recent years have a few neighbors started to complain, Pearson said.

“They knew the school was here when they moved in,” Pearson said. “You hope there won’t be noise, but we’re a school, and kids make noise.”

Not all the neighbors are upset, Pearson said. He cited a letter signed by Pillsbury, which stated: “I am happy to advise you that the playground equipment used by the children of your school no longer constitutes a bothersome annoyance to me. I am satisfied with the arrangement.”

Regrets Signing Letter

But Pillsbury said she was persuaded to sign the letter by a friend who is a church member, and that she now regrets it.

Other Atkinson Avenue residents interviewed, some of whom have children in the school, said they are not affected by the noise. However, their homes are farther away from the school.

Residents close to the school said the noise was acceptable until the school started to grow.

“When we moved in, we were aware of the situation and the problem was tolerable at that time,” said Dean Mathiowetz. The school is “an excellent educational facility, (but) they’ve outgrown the property,” he said.

The dispute between the church and residents officially began in 1986, when school officials applied to the city for a permit to build a gymnasium and a three-story, 28,000-square-foot building to make room for more students.

25 Conditions

The permit was approved with 25 conditions to lessen the effect of the expansion on the surrounding neighborhood, said Assistant City Manager Mitchell Lansdell.

The permit also set a schedule for increasing the number of students at the school. The limit for the 1987-88 school year was 415, to be increased to 450 in 1988-89, 490 in 1989-90 and 510 students after 1990, provided the school met the conditions of the permit.

One of those conditions was to ensure that the school’s noise level did not exceed 55 decibels for more than 30 minutes an hour.

Five sound measurements have been taken since March, 1986, by the sound engineering firm Gordon Bricken & Associates--four at the school’s expense and one paid for by the city, Lansdell said. Noise from the school exceeded 55 decibels only once, in March, 1988, when levels ranged from 43.8 to 59.1 decibels.

Readings From Back Yards

The readings for that test were made from the back yards of the Mathiowetz and Pillsbury homes at 10-minute intervals from about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the sound level exceeded 55 decibels only at the Mathiowetz home.

A normal conversation has a decibel level of about 55 from 10 feet away, according to figures from the sound engineering firm. Freeway traffic from 50 feet away measures 75 decibels, and the sound of a jet plane taking off produces about 125 decibels from 200 feet away.

After the school failed the March, 1988, sound test, the city froze the student limit at 415, Lansdell said.

Residents claim school officials knew in advance when sound measurements would be taken and kept students quieter than usual.

Pearson responded that the first four tests were not secret. He knew beforehand about all but one of the sound measurements, he said, but “purposely did not talk to the teachers and try to move kids around. I did not want to be accused of interfering with the sound study.”

$275,000 for Wall

Pearson said school officials have done everything the permit specified and are “bending over backwards” to meet residents’ demands and to meet the 55-decibel limit.

The cinder-block wall, for example, cost $275,000, Pearson said. As a condition of the permit, and at the residents’ request, the wall was built with Plexiglas windows to allow sunlight to enter the back yards, he said. In addition, officials voluntarily reduced the number of classes allowed on the school’s two playgrounds at any one time from four to two.

The complaints about Calvary Baptist are regrettable, Pearson said, because the school serves a vital community function by providing “a good sound education with a spiritual emphasis.”

Although the school is run by the 1,000-member church, it is financially self-supporting, said church member Daniel Thompson, also a member of the school board. Thompson, whose 6-year-old daughter Andrea attends Calvary’s preschool, said most of the congregation is aware of the dispute, but the issue has been kept separate from church business.

“We’re trying to keep as few people from getting involved as possible,” Thompson said. “We’re keeping it on a management level, without involving the whole church.”

Day Care Provided

About two-thirds of the students are from Gardena. Including the library and reading laboratories, the school has 22 classrooms housed in two buildings on the church property. In addition, the school provides day care for about 100 preschool students in a separate building on the school grounds.

The school is moving ahead with plans to build a gymnasium, the second phase of its million-dollar expansion plans. Some residents said they are concerned about extracurricular and weekend activities at the gym and their impact on the noise level.

Resident Lois Hefner, who is a member of the good-will committee, said she is worried because the new gym may be built directly behind her house.

“I don’t know if that’s going to mean more or less noise,” Hefner said. “I don’t know if I’m going to be bothered by revving engines or loud radios. There are so many questions.”

Effect on Property Values

Some residents said proximity to the school has caused the property values of their homes to decrease. Dean Mathiowetz said homes similar to his but one block over are selling for about $315,000, compared to the $240,000 range at which homes on Atkinson Avenue are valued.

But Gardena real estate broker Bill Johnson said it is unlikely that the value of homes near Calvary Baptist would be affected by noise levels at the school.

“Those homes are worth as much as any other in the area,” said Johnson, whose office is on Crenshaw near Manhattan Beach Boulevard. The average price of a home around Atkinson Avenue ranges from $225,000 to $350,000, depending on such variables as the number of bedrooms, total number of square feet and improvements made to the home, he said.

Proximity to a noisy playground might lower a home’s value by $5,000 or $10,000 at most, Johnson said.

Lansdell said the city will decide whether to modify conditions of the school’s permit after it receives the sound engineer’s report.

May Allow More Students

If the report indicates that the school is satisfying conditions of the permit, the city may allow the number of students to be increased to 450, Lansdell said. If the school is not meeting permit conditions, additional restrictions could be imposed or the permit could be revoked, forcing the school to return to the 350-student limit before the expansion.

Meanwhile, residents and officials from the school and church are hoping the engineer’s report will help bring an end to the three-year standoff.

“I would prefer they don’t build a gym, and that the project go back to where it was” when the school had 350 students, Dean Mathiowetz said.

But school officials hope to continue the expansion, Pearson said. If the sound engineer’s report is favorable to the school, officials hope to enroll 35 more students.

“We have families waiting,” he said.