City officials and the school district met Dec. 7 to discuss the findings of a school facility needs study. According to the study, carried out jointly by the city and the school district, even if minimum housing development happens in Sunnyvale over the next few years, there are not enough current school sites to handle new students. At least one if not two new facilities would be needed.

City planning officer, Trudi Ryan, said that the study was not based on a timeline but rather on a study of how many new households could be served by the existing schools in the area.

According the city's long term plan for development, the city wants to add 511 new housing units each year--along with programs and zoning to accommodate the people that would buy those units. Since 1999 however, the city has only been adding about 350 new units a year, a difference Ryan attributes to the struggling economy.

As part of the study, the school district and city looked at possible expansion for the city over the next few years, studying a minimum growth of 75 percent of available land and a maximum of 90 percent.

If the city continues meeting only its minimum growth goals, at least 700 new students--made up of 250 elementary age and 450 middle school age--will enter the school district. The eight elementary schools in the district are enough to handle 250 students, but attendance boundaries would have to be redrawn to evenly distribute the students. Even with minimum growth, the 450 new middle school students are too much for the district's two middle schools--Columbia and Sunnyvale--to handle.

According to the study, a new middle school would be needed in central Sunnyvale.

If maximum growth occurs, Ryan said they predict 2200 new students. To handle the students, the district would need a new 600-student elementary school along with a 1,000-student middle school.

Ryan said there is no set time for the growth in the city; the findings are all based on the minimum and maximum growth that could happen. The city is looking at growth as a long-term, ongoing process that depends on a number of different factors, including the economy.

The city and district came up with a five-year plan to begin addressing the problems before they arise. By 2006, the district wants to have identified how many students will be entering the school district in the next few years, and by 2007, have found a site for a new school to handle that influx. By 2007, the district hopes to analyze attendance areas to see if changing the boundaries could help the situation. If needed, in 2009, the district hopes to have found a place for a new elementary school.

Deputy Superintendent Ben Picard said the challenge with funding may be in finding land for a new school. State funds that could cover the cost of adding permanent and temporary buildings to the district can't be used for purchasing land, and here in the Bay Area, available 10 acre plots--to build a new elementary school on--are hard to come by. He also conservatively estimated that the construction alone--without factoring in materials or operations--could cost almost $8 million.

It would take $13.5 million for construction alone on a 20-acre, 1000-student middle school.

The two parties are planning to hold a third meeting sometime in the future.