Residents surrounding Anna Yates Elementary School rallied Saturday morning between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. to protest what they called the city council’s illegal waiving of the ordinance prohibiting construction on Saturdays. VIDEO STORY COMING SOON. For back story read more.

School Adds Saturday Construction

BY// AMANDA MARTINEZ

At Tuesday night’s city council meeting City Manager Patrick O’Keeffe approved Saturday construction at the Anna Yates School Site on 41 Street and San Pablo Avenue for the next two Saturdays.

The council, without a full board present was unable to cast a vote allowing construction for the next seven Saturdays as planned. Several weeks ago, the council suspended the city’s noise ordinance which prohibits Saturday construction to allow work at the site on Saturday, the 18th. But now with the city managers decision, construction will go on until November 1. The council will revisit the issue at the next city council meeting on November 4, to extend Saturday construction for the remainder of the project.

Since last June a project to renovate and refurbish the school, which serves 405 students in grades K-6, has meant daily construction in the Emeryville neighborhood between the hours of 7a.m. and 6p.m., 5 days a week. The sounds of saws, hammers, tractors, and cranes are becoming much too familiar for the residents who surround the school.

“The reality is that the small neighborhood is enduring a lot of noise pollution,” said Wanda Stewart, spokesperson for Emery Unified School District. Stewart has heard first hand from residents who say they are frustrated because they are also enduring construction noise from the Oak Walk Project, happening only one block over, on 40^th Street.

At the last school board meeting, School Board Vice President, Kurt Brinkman apologized for the noise, and emphasized the board’s priority to have the school’s facilities finished by December 1.

In order to make the December 1 deadline, Enviroplex Inc. and Kenridge Builders have requested permission to have Saturday workdays. This will help them to,“ recover from delays that have resulted due to re-design and manufacturing. ”

Although construction is currently on schedule to be done by the December 1 date, students will not be back on campus until after the New Year. School officials say it will take the month of December, which includes winter break to setup the school and move teachers back into the classrooms.

To accommodate students’ transportation needs from Anna Yates to the school’s temporary location at 61 St, the district has approved a $40,000 contract with East Shore Charter Line buses to provide a shuttle service between the two locations for the remainder of the year. The district, which has been providing the transportation service since September, has already spent $26,000 on the charter buses.

The final $66,000 busing expense is a cost that school board member Cheryl Webb acknowledged at the last school board meeting as,“A big expense that could have been dealt with differently.”

Joe Frantz, assistant superintendent for fiscal services, explained the necessity of the buses in acknowledging the strain it would have cost on parents to make temporary arrangements  to get to the new site.

Many students who attend Anna Yates also attend morning- and after- school recreation programs next to the Anna Yates school.

Staff from the recreation program takes students to the buses and ride with them to and from school.

“Having the buses have allowed students to keep continuity in their schedule,” said the recreation program’s director, Darryl Hampton.

Special note: The polling location that is usually held on the Anna Yates school site will be closed on November 4. Voters should instead visit Emery Secondary School at 1100 47 Street to vote.