BHUSD Initiative/Hoops/Builder’s Remedy Docket

The Beverly Hills Unified School District has announced the transformation of its College and Career Counseling Department. This is in furtherance of what Superintendent Dr. Alex Cherniss describes as part of the effort “to take head on improvement of academic progress.” He explains that this is “aimed at increasing the number of students performing at grade level and above through targeted support with an after school intervention program and will also prepare our students for college.”

Some of the specifics deserve some mention.

One of the most significant changes, as I understand the transformation, is to have some of the high school counselors dedicated to 9th and 10th grade and some dedicated to 11th and 12th grade rather than all counselors covering 9 through 12.

The counselors who concentrate on 9th and 10th grades are referred to as Academic Advisors and their roles are to “guide students in course placement, academic pathways, and personalized support [and range] from planning classes that align with graduation requirements to pulling students in for extra help when challenges arise.”

The counselors who concentrate on 11th and 12th grade are termed college counselors “provide students and families with individualized guidance on college applications, scholarship opportunities, financial aid, and post-secondary planning.”

This division makes sense to me.

Wellness and mental health is also an expressed priority and there are two wellness counselors. A BHUSD press release describes the wellness resources available at all schools: “At Beverly Hills High School, the NormanAid Wellness Center offers a dedicated space for student well-being and partners with the Maple Counseling Center to provide additional individualized counseling services. At Beverly Vista Middle School, students are supported through BulldogAid, a wellness program designed to meet the unique needs of middle schoolers. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs) and school psychologists further strengthen these resources, ensuring students across all grade levels have access to professional mental health support.”

Board of Education member Judy Manouchehri is very enthusiastic about the changes. She told me: “The newly transformed College & Career Counseling Dept. is truly a trophy program in which the District is prioritizing our commitment to our students’ success and achievement. It is an initiative that I brought to the Board this past Spring, and I am grateful to my colleagues on the Board for supporting it and even more grateful to Dr. Cherniss, Dr. Seeman and the rest of our staff for making it a reality. The new approach mirrors and I would suggest goes beyond even what private schools offer their students in terms of personalized attention and support to reach their college and career goals.”

Board of Education President Rachelle Marcus is both supportive and optimistic. She is hopeful that these resources will result in a greater number of students aiming for four year colleges. She notes, however, that “a prerequisite for success is that parents and their children take advantage of this opportunity.” And, “we will have to circle back in two or three years to see if this is successful.”

Apropos of that, I note that the latest US News & World Report ranking of public high schools was recently released. BHHS rankings and performance on proficiency exams on which rankings are, in part, based are virtually unchanged from the prior year. The High School is ranked #166 in the Los Angeles area, #348 in the state and #2540 in the U.S. Proficiency scores are also largely unchanged among high school students with Reading at 72% proficient, Math at 43% proficient and Science at 39% proficient. When I interviewed Dr. Cherniss shortly after he took office, he said that his goal was to improve these scores by 5%. That struck me then and now as a very ambitious goal for one year but the aspiration is commendable and we will take a look next year and thereafter.

Board of Education member Dr. Amanda Stern, herself a licensed school psychologist, pointed out that: “The re-structured counseling program is designed to assist in all academic areas, strategize for college and career readiness, and proactively support emotional well-being for all students.”

Another innovation that I understand will be announced shortly is a tutoring program for students in the elementary schools. Free tutoring will be offered to all students who are not performing at grade level. This will be an after school program and the tutors will be the elementary school teachers in each school. As it is an after school program, participation cannot be mandatory but, in Dr. Cherniss’ words, “strongly encouraged.”

Bottom line, Ms. Manouchehri opines: “At this point, there is no reason for any BHUSD resident to enroll their children in any school other than BHUSD, because we are getting it all right with our programs, facilities, operations and more.

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The BHHS varsity basketball team has a new coach, highly regarded and longtime assistant Adam Verdi. Coach Verdi has been affiliated with the program for a number of years and has been involved with the Dream Basketball Academy that develops young hoopsters. I wish Coach Verdi great success.

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The Builder’s Remedy projects that we have heard so much about have traveled through the Planning Department pipeline and will soon be coming in front of the Planning Commission for entitlements. By reason of the constraints of state law, it is likely that the Commission’s discretion will be limited to some tinkering around the edges. This limitation is highly regrettable. It is one more example of the state’s wrong-headed efforts to increase housing by a meat axe one size fits all package of incentives to developers which has been a dismal failure state wide while simultaneously damaging or threatening well-established neighborhoods.

Be that as it may, here is what is coming up.

On October 9, the Planning Commission will review and consider the following projects:

9441 Olympic Blvd on the NE corner of Olympic, Beverly and Reeves – 13-story mixed use project with 75 dwelling units (15 affordable) and 52 parking spaces.

9467 Olympic Blvd on the NW corner of Olympic, Beverly and El Camino – currently the site of Pavillions Market – 8 story mixed use project with 105 dwelling units (21 affordable) and 180 parking spaces.

333-353 S. Beverly on Beverly between Olympic and Gregory – 8 story mixed use project with 135 dwelling units (27 affordable) and 264 parking spaces.

Given the minimum parking provided at 9441 Olympic (a total of 52 spaces for 72 dwelling units), this seems unlikely to succeed as a business matter but that is for the developer to worry about.

At a special meeting on October 14, the Planning Commission will review and consider the following projects presented by or affiliated with Leo Pustilnikov:

346 N. Maple on the east side of Maple, south of Alden – residential only 12 story project with 65 residential units (13 affordable) and 15 parking spaces.

401 N. Oakhurst on the north side of Alden – residential only 11 story project with 25 residential units (5 affordable) and 14 parking spaces.

Similarly, with or without Mr. Pustilnikov’s reliance on Waymo, a total of 90 residential units and 29 parking spaces strikes me as unlikely to succeed.

At a special meeting on October 21, the Planning Commission will review and consider:

8844 Burton Way on the south side of Burton Way between Swall and Clark – residential only 26 story project with 200 units (30 affordable) and 318 parking spaces.

At a special meeting on October 23, the Planning Commission will review and consider the following projects:

214-16 S. Hamilton on the east side of Hamilton between Wilshire and Gregory – residential only 8 story project with 90 units (18 affordable) and 13 parking spaces. This is another project of or associated with Leo Pustilnikov.

9430 Olympic on the south side of Olympic between Beverly and Beverwil – residential only 13 story project with 53 units (11 affordable) and 23 parking spaces.

232 Tower on the east side of Tower between Wilshire and Gregory – residential only 8 story project with 55 units (11 affordable) and 14 parking spaces.

All will be parking challenged.

There are still a few more Builder’s Remedy projects that will be presented in late October or November but there is no firm schedule as yet. One Builder’s Remedy project, located at 211-217 S. Hamilton is on hold due to owner’s request. The proposal is for a residential only 14 story building with 210 residential units (42 affordable) and 155 parking spaces. The land and anticipated entitlements is listed for sale by CBRE.

As noted, several of these projects plan to have little or no parking spaces other than the minimum required, for example, for handicapped parking or EV charging. This is because California law prohibits cities from requiring parking for projects within ½ mile of a “major transit stop” (in this case stops for bus routes that run at least every 20 minutes during rush hours). I am assuming that this condition has been satisfied.

Two comments about that. First, the Planning Commission can provide that residents in those buildings will not be eligible for residential parking permits but, of course, that could be changed in the future. Second, it is difficult to imagine that a multifamily developer could find buyers or renters for a building that offers no parking so it may be appropriate to take the developers’ intentions actually to build these projects with a grain of salt.