Redondo Hears Protests but Extends Christian School’s Lease

Supported by parents and students who packed the Redondo Beach City Council chambers Tuesday night, Coast Christian School won a three-year renewal of its lease on the former Franklin Street Elementary School.

However, after a lengthy and often emotional hearing, several council members cautioned Coast Christian not to expect another extension because the city wants to convert the surplus school site into a public park.

Coast Christian Supt. Nick Anderson said his school has been trying to find another suitable location that it can afford in the land-scarce South Bay. He vowed to intensify that effort.

In 1986, the city acquired a 99-year lease on the Franklin site and three others that the Redondo Beach City School District had declared surplus.

Lease Expires in June

At the same time, the city took over the lease held by Coast Christian, which has operated a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school and day-care center at Franklin since 1982. The 350-student private school’s current lease, which was renewed two years ago, expires at the end of June.

The council voted unanimously to renew the lease after listening to a long parade of speakers extol the school’s academic and moral standards and its provision of child day care for working parents.

“Coast Christian is an asset to the community,” said parent Jim Dickson. Besides offering an alternative to public schools, he and other parents said, Coast Christian helps overcome a severe shortage of quality day-care facilities in the area.

To counter claims that the school’s neighborhood in North Redondo prefers a park, the parents offered an informal survey that they said showed support from 69% of nearby residents for continued operation of the school.

Commitments Cited

Robert Lutz offered an opposing petition that he said had the signatures of 155 residents strongly opposed to renewing the school’s lease. He condemned the council for not keeping what he said were past city commitments to convert the Franklin site to a public park for recreational, cultural and other community uses.

In a 20-minute speech, interrupted several times by heated exchanges with Mayor Pro Tem Ron Cawdry over time allocated to the two sides, Lutz said he sympathizes with Coast Christian’s plight but believes that the neighborhood’s need for more park space should have first priority.

Lutz predicted that Coast Christian would be back in three years to ask for another extension. “But I say, ‘No more,’ ” he said, contending that his children and others who need recreational space “have suffered enough” for the sake of the private school.

When it appeared that the steady stream of Coast Christian supporters, including several children who pleaded for their school, had swayed the council to their cause, Lutz stormed out of the meeting. He said his side had not been given a fair hearing.

Received More Time

Cawdry responded that he had given Lutz 20 minutes, compared to a five-minute maximum allotted to other speakers, because Lutz stated at the outset that he was speaking for his side in the dispute. Only a handful of school opponents stayed through the lengthy meeting.

Under the agreement unanimously approved by the council, Coast Christian’s rent will go up 15% to $9,360 a month in the first year and continue rising to $14,417 in the third year, for a total payment of $440,000 to the city over the three-year lease.

The city will use the school’s cafetorium for community purposes on weekends and after school on weekdays, and the school will share access to the playground with the public. City officials said all or part of the rental income would be used to begin developing the playground into a public park.