Thumbnail image courtesy of Uncharted Shores Academy
Uncharted Shores Academy has found safe harbor for its Offshore Resource Center thanks to a Crescent City Council decision Monday.
The Council’s unanimous approval to lease its property at 475 7th Street to the charter school comes roughly two weeks before Uncharted Shores was set to vacate one of its satellite locations at Washington Square, according to Executive Director Dan Cartwright.
In addition to offering space for students in its homeschool program to meet with teachers, the Washington Square space also housed the school’s business office, Cartwright said. But because of Sutter Coast Hospital’s plans to use the building for medical offices, its current tenants need to be out by the end of the month, he said.
“We’d been looking since they talked to us back in September, but we haven’t been able to find anything,” Cartwright told Redwood Voice Community News on Tuesday. “We’ve done everything we can to share that information with everybody we know — the school district, realtors, community members — and Eric Wier became aware of our need and said we might have an option for you. This was his idea.”
The Offshore Resource Center’s new home is at the northwest corner of Peterson Park about three blocks from Uncharted Shores’ main campus at 330 E Street. City Manager Eric Wier said the building was constructed in the 1960s or 1970s and had been a preschool for decades.
Its most recent occupant, North Coast Children’s Services, had operated a Head Start program at the building, however the structure is currently vacant, Wier said.
Councilors unanimously approved a five-year lease with Uncharted Shores Academy with the option to renew twice for an additional five years each. The school will pay about $1 per square foot in rent, about $3,200 per month. Rent will be payable quarterly and is set to increase by 2% each year, Wier said.
“They’re going to be responsible for utilities and taxes,” Wier said. “Maintenance of the building will remain with the city itself, but the maintenance of the soft components they have in the building — wifi, things like that — will remain their responsibility.”
There is a playground that goes with the building. Wier said Uncharted Shores will have use of the playground during school hours. It will be available to the public outside of those hours. Wier said the school agreed to share the costs of maintaining the playground up to a maximum of $15,000. This includes replenishing the wood chips.
A contractor was scheduled to visit the site on Tuesday to start work on tenant improvements Uncharted Shores agreed to pay for, Wier said. The school hopes to start its lease on June 22.
Cartwright confirmed that work started on Uncharted Shores’ new building Tuesday morning. Though Sutter Coast Hospital asked the school to vacate its former location by July 1, it contributed funding to help with the move, which Cartwright called a blessing.
“We had about $100,000 invested in that space, in that building, over the last five to six years,” Cartwright said of the Washington Square location. “And to lose it when you consider IT infrastructure, security infrastructure and those types of things was tough. They were willing to step up and assist us with those transitions, both the city and Sutter. We appreciate the partnership from both those groups.”
According to Cartwright, the new space offers functionality that its former home couldn’t provide. The ability to do outside programming or have a safe place for parents to be with their kids while one child is working with a teacher was limited at the Washington Square site.
Cartwright also pointed out that the Washington Square location was in the tsunami inundation zone. The Peterson Park location is in a hazardous location as well, but reaching safety is a lot easier.
“The tsunami line goes through the middle of the Walmart parking lot and the Ace Hardware parking lot. The strip mall is in the tsunami zone,” he said of the Washington Square site. “We’d have to cross Washington, which is a trek when you’re going across the street and you assume this would have happened after a near-shore earthquake when all the power lines are down. Then if it’s a disabled person whether it’s any of our staff or any of our students, that could be pretty dicey. I’d rather take the two blocks.”
At Monday’s meeting, Crescent City Councilor Jason Greenough asked if the city would be “on the hook” for any repairs that would be needed if a child damages something. Noting that children can be destructive, Greenough referenced problems at Del Norte High School “with kids going in the bathrooms and just destroying the bathroom,” and asked if those costs would be shared.
City Attorney Martha Rice said if there was damage to the property’s interior caused by the tenant’s use, they would be responsible and “their insurance would hopefully” help pay for that.
“Generally if the roof is leaking or the windows are leaking or for some reason the toilets won’t flush, and not because a kid flushed something down there, then we’ll make sure to go in and fix those large things,” she said. “But if there’s any damage caused by the tenant or their use, then it’s going to be their responsibility to fix that.”
Uncharted Shores’ new facility comes about two weeks after Del Norte Unified School District renewed the school’s charter. In the three years since Cartwright has been the school’s executive director, its enrollment has grown from between 275 and 280 students to roughly 310 to 315 students.
Its transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade students are at the schools’ Early Learning Center at the corner of Northcrest Drive and Washington Boulevard. Its second- through eighth-grade students are at its main campus.
The new site at Peterson Park could see between 80 and 85 students when the school year resumes in the fall.
“I think it’s important for a community as small as ours, that there are options for families to choose from,” Cartwright said. “So we’re happy to be there in that space and we want to provide as much opportunity for as many students as possible but still maintain the integrity of what we do and how our program works.”
