Dry Creek School was established in 1876 by a donation of land from the Finley family. The original deed had the written caveat that if the land was ever not used a school, the land has to revert back to the family that donated it.
[Note: There is a California law now that states those reversion clauses are only good for 60 years]
In 2013, the school board voted to temporarily move the students from the campus to the Creekview Middle School campus until needed upgrades could be made and school enrollments in the district stabilized, (Creekview Middle School was opened in 2008 when the district thought it would need a 3rd middle school but the recession made it so that campus was not being fully utilized). This move was supposed to be a temporary fix until the upgrades could be done.
In 2015, the district began focusing on the development of a new district office and teacher training center and began looking at available resources to fund that $7.5 million project. It appears that the historic Dry Creek campus started to be looked at as a potential for income rather than making it the elementary school for all of the students immediately surrounding it (171 from just south of the school and another 20 next door plus those from all the new developments down PFE Road).
In 2018, the school board voted to put the school up for sale despite the fact that there are new housing developments that have been approved right next door to the school (308 houses). The interesting thing is that the projections for students from these new developments were never included in the information presented to the board in public session.
When it was accidentally discovered that the school property had been put up for sale (accidentally because it was done on the hush hush), a group of concerned residents and former Dry Creek School students began a "Save Historic Dry Creek" group that has been rallying support to save the school.
We have also been busy uncovering all the misinformation that has been presented to both the board and the public about the costs to renovate the old school along with raising questions about legalities of many of the things that have occurred in relation to the sale. For example: -the sewer issue--it was found that it can actually be hooked into a sewer system that is present not far from the campus.
-the original deed-while the district claims that there was a law passed back in the 1980's called the Fair Marketable Standards Act that makes it so that the school does not have to be given back to the family, further investigation shows that this Act may not apply to land donated for public use. Additionally, this Act has been challenged in court throughout the state--specifically in situations such as this--and it was deemed that the land did have to revert.
-when a former school is looked at to be sold, there is a list of other government agencies that it must be offered to who might consider things such as converting it to a park or other public facility. The district administration does not wish to pursue this possibility because they must sell it at 1/3 of the value of the property. But it legally must be offered and the district administration refuses to provide the list of agencies that they have contacted--which they should be legally required to do.
-the property is listed on the "for sale" sign as residential and commercial. The property is not zoned for commercial use. So unless someone buys it and tries to rezone it, this is a misrepresentation of the property.
The Committee has finally, after months of only being able to speak during the public comment section at the beginning of each Board meeting, been able to secure a spot on the agenda on Tuesday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at the Creekview Ranch campus. We invite as many people to attend as possible to ask questions and to urge the Board to consider alternative plans to demolishing our 140 year old school.
