Neighbors ponder building's future.

Byline: SCOTT MABEN The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 5/21/02): Santa Clara resident Don Adams' first name was incorrect in Monday's EducationExtra story in the City/Region section.

His video camera at the ready, Don Adams waited on the corner for his kids to march across River Road in a patriotic display reminiscent of the Fourth of July.

Noah, a fourth-grader, and Jonah, a second-grader, joined hundreds of their classmates Saturday morning for Santa Clara Elementary School's "Stars and Stripes" parade and carnival.

It was a spirited yet bittersweet celebration. As part of its cost-cutting consolidations, the Eugene School District will close the 71-year-old school in less than a month, sending its teachers, staff and 350 students to other schools next fall.

Residents accept that time has run out for the little elementary school that sits at the heart of Santa Clara. But like many at Saturday's final school carnival, Adams said the collection of brick buildings should have a second life serving the bustling, mostly unincorporated community at the north end of Eugene.

"I'd like it to stay student-oriented, such as an activity center for the area," he said. "If it can't be an elementary school, at least keep it child-oriented."

Doris Viegas stood in the schoolyard taking in the excited commotion. Kids darted from the Sno-cone stand to the dunk tank to the milk bottle toss and other attractions.

Viegas has many fond memories of the school, where she worked for 20 years as an instructional aide before retiring six years ago. During her tenure, the school was threatened with closure several times, and each time parents and community supporters rallied to keep it open.

"I suppose this time the writing was on the wall. Everyone knew the fight was over," Viegas said. "For me, this is a sad and touching day."

But it also was a time to dream about what could become of the site.

"It would be nice if part of it could be left as a park dedicated to Santa Clara," Viegas said. "And if they could keep the building and use it for after-school activities, that would be great. But I don't imagine there's funding for that."

She pointed to the one-story row of classrooms, filled with small desks and chairs, children's artworks and science projects. It would make a wonderful space for boutique shops and antique stores, she said. And the big building housing the gymnasium and offices would be perfect for community gatherings, Viegas observed.

"I could see it still being very functional," she said. "It's right in the smack-dead center of all the activity."

District officials acknowledge public support for a community center and say all ideas will be considered. But money will be the key factor in deciding what becomes of Santa Clara Elementary. The property, on a busy commercial corner, could fetch big bucks for the financially strapped school district.

A school board-adopted policy says surplus property "shall be managed to maximize the financial return to the district while taking potential community benefit into consideration."

"The intent is to be able to manage these properties in such a way to maximize economic benefits to the district, particularly in the economic times we are in right now," said Hillary Kittleson, the school district's finance director.

Currently, the district's property classification for the 5.5-acre site notes that it is to be sold when the market is favorable. Proceeds would help buy and develop land or upgrade existing facilities.

District officials plan to hire a consultant soon to help the school board decide what to do with the school and other district sites that may be declared surplus property. The public will have a say in the matter, officials promise.

After the district closed Whiteaker Elementary School last year, school officials agreed to keep and convert it to a community center housing such services as the Early Education Program and Head Start of Lane County.

Christine Hutchinson is building a similar case for the Santa Clara school, which her son attended for a year before he entered middle school. The Santa Clara resident and chemical dependency counselor has worked since spring break trying to convince district officials and community leaders that Santa Clara should be a community center.

The area lacks any such focal point, she lamented. "There's absolutely nothing north of the Belt Line."

Hutchinson, who is starting to solicit grants and sponsors for her vision, sees the school as a base for reading and arts programs, community concerts, preschool and after-school care, a teen center, a neighborhood library and much more.

"I just started spreading the word through people I knew, and it began snowballing from there," she said.

She convinced Hildegard Krusen, administrative assistant for Early Education Program Inc., a preschool serving 190 disabled children ages 3 to 5 in Lane County.

"We are very much interested in a classroom there," Krusen said.

With part of Santa Clara's students to be integrated into Spring Creek Elementary next year, Early Education will be squeezed out of its room at Spring Creek and is looking for a new place to serve 28 Santa Clara students.

"We have to move out, so we're really in a bind," Krusen said. "And we'd like to stay in the neighborhood in which they live."

Hutchinson also has shared her ideas with Superintendent George Russell and Mayor Jim Torrey, among others.

Torrey said he likes the idea of a community center serving Santa Clara. He has even pitched the school as the perfect spot for a Boys & Girls Club. But the mayor said he doesn't know who will pay for the upkeep, utilities and other costs.

"If money was not an object, there would be no question that would be a wonderful facility," Torrey said. "We can't expect automatically for 4J to just forgo the revenue they could generate by selling that site. They will be very concerned about doing what is best for the community."

On Saturday, kindergarten teacher Cindy Bass, in her 29th year at Santa Clara Elementary, took a break from the carnival and walked to a quiet corner of the schoolyard. Here, a young flowering currant tree, twin park benches and a stone marker memorialize Kennedy Lyons, the 6-year-old Santa Clara student who was killed a year ago last Friday when a United Parcel Service delivery truck hit her on the sidewalk in front of her family's home.

If the school district sells the school property for commercial redevelopment the memorial may be uprooted. That worries Bass.

"Kids come out here to sit and read," she said. "Some of them leave flowers."

She, too, imagines a community center or park and believes that residents would rally behind such a project. "I think they'd work night and day to make that happen," she said.

Nicole Heath, whose daughter attends third grade at the school, is one of them.

"I have invested a lot of my life in this place," Heath said. "I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who wants a Safeway to go in here. Santa Clara needs more culture. We don't need another strip mall."

Santa Clara Principal Jerrie Rauch said she, too, would like to see the schoolhouse spared.

Some teachers even fancy the idea of it as a McMenamins pub and hotel akin to the Oregon microbrewery's Kennedy School in northeast Portland.

"It would be a shame to let it sit vacant," Rauch said. "It's a prime piece of property."

CAPTION(S):

Mike and Linda Eben play the part of Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty to have their picture taken with parent Christine Wellentin and her daughter eight-year-old Melissa Arterburn at the last Santa Clara Elementary School Spring Carnival. (CHRIS PIETSCH/The Register-Guard) Saturday, May 18, 2002 CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard Mike and Linda Eben, playing Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty, pose with Christine Wellentin and daughter Melissa Arterburn at the Santa Clara Spring Carnival.