New district criticizes Grant over new campus

A fancy new campus rising in East Natomas has become the latest flash point in the toxic relationship between the Grant Joint Union High School District and the new school system that soon will absorb Grant.

The new district, Twin Rivers Unified, will take over Grant and three other elementary districts on July 1 in a merger. In recent months, Twin Rivers has tangled with Grant over administrator assignments and Grant's offer of buyouts to top managers.

Now, Twin Rivers wants to halt construction or scale back the new $155 million campus that Grant is building just north of Del Paso Road.

In a letter Wednesday to Grant officials, Twin Rivers Superintendent Frank Porter accused Grant of being financially irresponsible and possibly engaging in illegal funding practices in building the campus.

In particular, Porter and his staff question whether the new campus is needed, given the current housing slowdown. And they believe Grant is using questionable bonding mechanisms that could bring financial disaster to Twin Rivers when it inherits the debt load.

The letter cites "grave concern" and is sprinkled with accusatory phrases such as "back breaking debt burdens" and "possible violation of the fiduciary responsibility."

Porter's letter infuriated Grant's leaders, who were in the process of writing a response Thursday afternoon. They believe the project is being financed prudently and is justified in terms of enrollment needs.

"This is a last-minute missile," Grant attorney Jacques Whitfield said of Porter's letter. "It doesn't make any sense."

The campus is a source of pride for Grant. Known as the East Natomas Education Complex, it will include a middle school, high school, 750-seat performing arts theater, stadium, aquatic complex and library.

A visit to the site this week revealed a busy construction scene. Bulldozers and dump trucks zipped back and forth, moving soil for the theater and administrative offices. Middle school foundations were in place, and workers in hard hats smoothed the concrete floors of classrooms.

The campus is being designed for 1,094 seventh- and eighth-graders and 1,860 high school students, said John Raymond, Grant's assistant superintendent of facilities. It is set to open in fall of 2010.

The campus was first envisioned in 2003. At the time, planning studies showed 14,000 new homes were on the horizon in the area, signaling a need for roughly 3,500 more seats for seventh- through 12th-graders, he said.

In 2006, Grant voters approved a $230 million bond measure, which included the new education complex. In January 2007, Grant contracted with McCarthy Building Co. to build it.

Later in the year, when voters decided to merge Grant with three other districts, Grant's leaders felt it was important to continue with the new complex. If the district broke its contracts with McCarthy, which by then had dozens of subcontractors lined up, it would have cost more than $30 million in cancellation fees, Raymond said. "The responsible thing was for me to continue the project," he said.

Twin Rivers officials, however, are deeply worried about the current housing downturn, as well as a building moratorium in the Natomas basin while levees are improved.

"Two and a half years ago, when they planned this and there was a housing boom, it made sense. Today it doesn't," said Rob Ball, Twin Rivers' associate superintendent. "We're going to have a brand new building and no students to put in it."

Raymond expressed confidence that the housing market will revive and enrollments will grow. Because construction costs are rising so swiftly, he said, it made sense to proceed with construction. Every year of delay could add about $10 million in spiking building costs, he said.

In addition, Raymond said, the new complex is designed to relieve overcrowding at Rio Linda and Grant high schools. Even if no new homes go up in the next two years, he said, the campus would open with 1,700 students from across the district.

Twin Rivers' biggest concerns lie with the costs and the debt load on the complex.

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