School district disregards deal about cutting eucalyptus tree

Agreement with city called for hearings

City wants explanation

By Kara Chalmers

When one of the two big eucalyptus trees at Saratoga Elementary School was cut down May 3, it came as a shock to activists and city officials.

Gay Crawford, who had advocated on behalf of the 100-year-old tree since talk of tearing it down began two years ago, was out of town when the district cut the tree, and was saddened to find out. Jill Hunter, another advocate, had returned to Saratoga the night of May 2.

"I was in my garden when I heard the chainsaws early in the morning," Hunter said. "I ran down to the school dressed in what I was wearing. I didn't even stop." Hunter said by the time she reached the school grounds, the tree had just been felled.

City officials were similarly surprised.

The city holds a Cooperation Agreement with the elementary school district promising that the tree would not be cut down without a public meeting first. Last week Saratoga city officials demanded an explanation.

The district staff's answer? According to Bill Norton, Saratoga's interim city manager, they forgot. That's what Robert Logan, the school district's attorney, told Norton.

In a statement Friday, Stephanie Petrossi, president of the Saratoga Union School District, called the failure to inform the city an "unintentional oversight."

"I am flabbergasted," said Councilman Evan Baker at the City Council meeting May 9, when Norton informed the council of the response he received from the school district's attorney.

The city and the district had penned a cooperation agreement on June 4, 1999. Section 2b provides that the district would first hire an arborist to determine the need to remove the tree or trees, and then give a copy of the arborist's report to the city. The district agreed to hold a public hearing at a regular meeting of the board no sooner than three weeks after giving the city the report. At this meeting, the board was supposed to decide whether to remove any trees.

According to Saratoga city officials, the city never received a copy of the arborist's report, nor did the district notify the city that the tree would be removed.

Debate over the fate of the trees began in the summer of 1998 when the architect's preliminary plans for the expansion of Saratoga School called for the removal of both large eucalyptus trees for safety reasons and to make a larger playfield. On April 27, 1999, the district and the tree supporters reached a compromise. The district would keep the two large trees until May 2000, at which time the district's arborist Deborah Ellis would recommend the removal of the less healthy of the two.

According to the agenda for the April 18 board meeting, the eucalyptus tree cutting was not an agenda item. Nor was it on the May 9 agenda.

In fact, the tree was cut down just four days after Ellis gave her report to the district, stating that the tree could be cut down. The district informed the construction manager of the board's decision April 29, according to SUSD Superintendent Mary Gardner.

In a letter dated May 5 from Saratoga's Vice Mayor John Mehaffey to Petrossi, Mehaffey wrote, "I am very upset that the district would flagrantly violate our agreement without even the courtesy of a phone call to me or to a member of city staff."

Petrossi said at the May 9 SUSD board meeting that she received the letter from Mehaffey and that the district would send a letter of apology to the city. Also at that meeting, Gardner announced that failing to inform the city was a mistake and that she takes full responsibility for it.

The remaining large eucalyptus tree will be kept, according to Gardner.

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