Saratoga News

Notre Dame to move preschool onto Sacred Heart property

Sisters of Notre Dame will let preschool stay till '99

Plans could face opposition

By Sarah Lombardo

Officials from Notre Dame Montessori Preschool, who have been searching for a new location for about six months, said they have found a home at Sacred Heart School on Saratoga Avenue.

The 32-year-old preschool has been looking for a new location since the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur announced last December that they planned to sell the 22.5-acre property on Bohlman Road that also houses their villa and has served as the order's headquarters for its California province. The sisters intend to consolidate their facilities with those in Belmont. The move will not affect the sisters' other facilities--Notre Dame High School in San Jose and Sacred Heart School--but preschool officials were notified in January that they would have to be out by this September.

After months of searching, Judy Yarbrough, head teacher at the preschool, said Sacred Heart School administrators called them with a plan. "They indicated an interest in having a preschool," she said.

Yarbrough said the Notre Dame sisters have agreed to let the school stay at its current location until the school's planned moved-in date of September 1999.

Yarbrough said logistics for the move have yet to be worked out, but that she doesn't foresee having to make any changes. "As far as we know, we intend to continue the program as it is," she said. The preschool is licensed for 32 students each in its morning and afternoon classes, although administrators usually limit afternoon class to 25 children to accommodate several kindergartners who are enrolled.

Jane Daigle, Sacred Heart's principal, said she is not sure whether the preschool will move into existing classrooms or new facilities on the property, adding that expansion is planned at Sacred Heart, which currently enrolls about 300 students.

"We have additional space needs that we have to address at this time," she said. "The important thing to us is that we were both founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame, and so we have that historical connection between the two schools."

Daigle said school administrators hope to meet with an architect over the summer break to discuss options for the site.

Such options, however, could increase the red tape for the preschool's move. According to Community Development Director James Walgren, Sacred Heart could be required to obtain a conditional-use permit for the preschool--and gain Planning Commission approval--if the preschool were to be located in new buildings. Otherwise, he said, "it might be covered under their current permit."

But a Planning Commission hearing opens the door to opposition from neighbors and city residents who fear increased traffic on the already-congested Saratoga Avenue.

One World Montessori School faced stiff opposition from neighbors who lived near Immanuel Lutheran Church, also located on Saratoga Avenue, when that school tried to move in. Neighbors complained that the school would add to the danger and traffic on Saratoga Avenue.

The project received approval from Planning Commissioners--who attached a number of conditions--but was reversed by the City Council on appeal.

But Daigle said she is not too concerned with public outcry, pointing out that the Notre Dame preschool is significantly smaller than One World, and that Sacred Heart has no residential side streets through which parents can take shortcuts.

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