School Board makes deal for Rancho to use church lot

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 8:53 a.m.

Associate Pastor James Kruger is looking forward to giving up his second job -- that of unofficial traffic monitor in the parking lot of the College Park Baptist Church.

The Clark County School Board voted Thursday to approve a three-year lease of the church's parking lot on Owens Avenue, which has been taken over by overflow student parking from nearby Rancho High School.

Rancho is slated for replacement beginning in the summer of 2004. But ongoing construction and extra portable classrooms forced administrators to close off the student parking lot at the start of the academic year in August.

The district will pay the church $100,500 for the three-year contract. That will free Kruger from his daily shifts directing cars, picking up soda bottles and candy wrappers and also provide the church with funds to repair any damages to the parking lot.

If the School Board did not approve the contract, Kruger said he was considering chaining up the parking lot as soon as this morning.

"The principal has tried to work hand in hand with us on this, but frankly I was reaching the end of my rope," Kruger said following the vote. "I'm glad to see the contract go through. I think we've found a good resolution to the whole situation."

For at least 20 years Rancho students and staff have used the church parking lot as part of an informal agreement, but never to the extent seen over the last four months, Kruger said. Each weekday nearly all of the 200 parking spaces have quickly filled with student cars.

That has left church staff, as well as visitors coming for the weekly charitable food and clothing clothes with nowhere to go, Kruger said.

On several occasions, he has resorted to calling a towing company to remove student cars blocking fire and turn lanes -- but only after calling the school and asking the office to announce to students that they needed to move their vehicles, Kruger said.

"After towing three or four times, the kids got the message that we weren't fooling around," Kruger said. "Those are violations that could get us into hot water with the fire marshal."

The trash left behind by students was also an annoyance. Rancho Principal Robert Chesto at first volunteered to have school staff patrol and clean up the lot but was told by the district it posed a liability concern.

"For us to tell district employees to monitor someone else's private property, we need an agreement in writing," said Dusty Dickens, director of zoning and demographics for the district. "The contract will allow us to take that responsibility."