Update 9.22.09

We're IN!!

Tomorrow marks the first day we have occupancy in our new building on 601 E. Franklin Street! Too many thanks to hand out, but we so appreciate the efforts of the Building Dept. of Monterey, both Butch Maloney & John Kuehl, and the Fire Marshall, David Reade, who took time off his vacation to see this process through!

Tomorrow we will have orientation to the new building. Parents, stay tuned to your emails for details!

Praises to our Heavenly Father!

Update 9.19.09

We are almost there! We made a strong "push" this week to move-in. Right now, we are simply waiting for the Fire Inspection to take place right after we install all the fire-related system for the building. We are scheduled to have all the system installed by Tuesday afternoon. The walls are up, taped, textured and painted! Doors are installed and locks will be rekeyed on Monday. Only the exterior paint will be delayed at this point. Stay tuned as we hope and pray that we will be able to move in within the week!

Update 9.08.09

I would like to update you on the progress of our new campus:

1. Framing inspection has been completed and the walls are being finished.
2. Exterior doors are to arrive today and windows have been installed, which will allow us to finish the exterior of the building.
3. Vents for each room will be installed within the week.
4. Tentatively, we are expecting to move-in on the 21^st of September. However, it is possible that we may move-in before that date. We will keep you posted.

Update on our Use Permit:

1. On August 11^th, the Planning Commission granted CCHS a use permit that was valid thru Dec. 19^th to allow us to go through the formal process of submitting an application to the ALUC (Air Land Use Commission) for their recommendation in an advisory capacity.
2. On August 24^th, my understanding of the ALUC’s decision was to find that the city of Monterey was not in compliance with their City Land Use Plan (CLUP) of 1987 – even though a new one has been adopted. Furthermore, the county attorney filed a claim that the ALUC’s role has jurisdiction over this decision vs. an advisory role. (The reason I say that this is “my understanding” is that we are still awaiting the official letter from the ALUC to the city because it had not been submitted as of Friday, Sept. 4^th.)
1. After speaking with both an ALUC staff member and a staff member on the city’s Planning Committee, it is clear that the issue is not about CCHS but involves city politics. Both staff members apologized to me, personally, and assured me that they believed that we would still get a permanent Use Permit.
2. Although we would have preferred to submit to the recommended conditions the ALUC had for CCHS for safety and noise, their decision does not give us this opportunity. Instead, I personally believe that the ALUC’s decision actually works in our favor as they were looking at establishing some sort of restriction on the maximum size of our school that was not based upon our building code, which would limit our growth potential.
3. By next week, we hope to be placed on the Agenda for the October 13^th Planning Commission meeting where they will respond to the ALUC’s decision. The Planning Commission does have the authority to overrule the decision of the ALUC. More details to come as this date is confirmed.

We know that none of this could not be done without the prayerful support of our families and friends. However, we are so grateful to the staff members and team at Shoreline Community Church for their warm hospitality and their accommodating our every need these past several weeks. It has been such a blessing to our students to be in an environment that is both warm and conducive towards learning.

We are almost there! Keep praying & please contact us if you should have any questions.

Planning Commission says "YES!"

Last night was amazing! Yes, the Planning Commission approved our Temporary Use Permit good thru Dec. 19th allowing us to (in the meantime) go through the formal process of working with the ALUC's recommendations before we ask the Planning Commission to make their formal approval of the Use Permit. We were blessed by all the families, friends, and community supporting us in the meeting room! After listening to a very interesting discussion of UFO's and a Dog Hotel, we were able to share our proposal. First of all, the staff in the Planning Dept. shared a wonderful presentation with the commission, and the commission was not only very accommodating, but encouraging and fun! Personally, I was blessed by a comment from one of the commissioners who said something like, "I have one final thing I need to share: I am really excited for your school, and I hope that it will be long term for you. I am particularly looking forward to how your presence will change the 'feel' in that area of the city."

What's new? God is amazing.

Update 8.10.09

With two days before school begins, a lot has happened!

Back on Saturday, July 25th, the "Big Move" took place thanks to many volunteers with a cheerful heart and willingness to work up some sweat. The move went very smoothly thanks to trailers, trucks and SUV's. We were basically done by 11 am! Special thanks to Community Outreach team at Shoreline Community Church, Wilson Plumbing, parents and students! It was simply amazing!

We now have all our "stuff" in our building. As many of you know, we will begin our school year at Shoreline Community Church until we complete our construction and finish the permit process.

USE PERMIT

On Tuesday, August 11th at 7pm we will be encouraging everyone to support CCHS at the Monterey Planning Commission meeting at the City Council Chambers in Few Memorial Hall of Records located Pacific & Madison Streets in Monterey. Please pray that we would be able to get a Use Permit that would allow us to complete construction and get the building permit.

On August 24th at 3pm, we will be meeting with the Air Land Use Committee (ALUC) to go over their checklist of items in relationship to the proximity of the airport.

7.24.09 Update

Boy, Blogging is not as easy as it looks! As you can tell, I am more of a "worker bee" than one that sits down & writes down my thoughts!

My apologies for the lack of updates recently. However, I can assure you that we have been working very diligently preparing for next year. With the move and the abbreviated summer, there has been a truckload of things to do! Here's a quick look:

1. Tomorrow, July 25th is the Big Move! We will begin @ 8am at the old site in Pacific Grove and move things to our new site. If you have questions, call me on my cell at 970.401.0454. Those helping out, please make sure to sign-in so that we know you were there to help!

Point Persons:

Old Site: Tim Wong (1002 David Ave, Pacific Grove, CA)

New Site: Jill Hudson (601 E. Franklin St., Monterey, CA)

2. On July 13th, we moved some donated furniture from Santa Cruz that helped furnish our building with improved desks for teachers and other accessories. Thanks to the teachers, students and parents that helped!

3. Planning and Building: Currently, we have been working with the Planning Dept., Building Dept., the Air Land Use Committee (ALUC), and the City Attorney to interpret the guidelines of a procedure to issue a Use Permit for the property. The City Attorney has been very helpful, and we are hopeful that we will be able to move forward with construction soon. Please continue to pray for clarity between the various government agencies as they consider our situation and timing. 

Update 7.02.09

This was a busy week!

First, thanks to all of you (about 30 students, parents, alumni, and friends) who helped make Saturday's move on June 27th quick & fun! 

We were able to consolidate all our "stuff" from the 1st wing (Main Office, Room 1 thru 4) into the MPR and Rooms 5 & 6 in a little more than 3 hours! It was incredible! 

This week we continued to get things prepped for construction and prepare for next year. 

Please continue to pray for the user permit process. The city's planning department met today and nothing out of the ordinary came up, except that we needed a recommendation from the Airport Land Use Commission for the project. Surprisingly, their next meeting is not until late August, but we are working with officials to see what can be done to get approval earlier. Please continue to pray that God's hand would be in every area of this process so that we can start school on time on August 10th! (Are some of you praying for a longer summer?!!)

Again, our next scheduled BIG MOVE is July 25th at 8am. However, we still need some help to move furniture from offices donating supplies on Monday, July 13th. Please let me know at twong@calvaryhs.com if you are available to help on the 13th. 

Thank you!

Update 6.25.09

As we prepare for Saturday's move, we thank all of you who have dropped by boxes for packaging! Although we have boxes still in front of our building, we still could use more boxes. The reason: we have continued operations at our new campus in Monterey. Saturday's move into the 2nd wing @ David Avenue will include helping boxing up some of the books from classrooms and offices. If you have more boxes, please drop them off! We can use them. Furthermore, we do have need for packing tape (clear plastic). We could also use a team to move our copier and printer to our new location! 

Tour of New Campus

For those of you who have not recently visited our website at www.calvaryhs.com, here is a quick youtube video of our new campus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkfPzhXGxhg

6.23.09 Update

Two days at our new location, and we still feel like we are living a dream! It's been great having students come and help us get things set up. Mrs. Espinoza already has unpacked her items around her reception area and the internet is up & running. Today, the phone system is being installed. We hope to be able to answer our phones beginning tomorrow.

The lifts in the service bays are being removed today. We also resubmitted plans to the city that will expedite construction and save us money in the process. 

NEED:

This Saturday, June 27th we will consolidate our items into the 2nd wing of David Avenue. We need to move all items out of the office, Rm 1, Rm 2, Rm 3 and Rm 4 down into the MPR and Rooms 5 & 6. Please arrive at 9am to help with this transition. In addition, we hope to uninstall white boards and any fixtures. So, if you have some tools, it would be great to bring them. 

Our BIG MOVE is schedule for Saturday, July 25th - so please mark your calendars! More info to come!

Furniture donations: we have a couple of offices donating furniture to our school. If you are available to help with this move, it is scheduled to be on Monday, July 13th. Please let me know if you can help at twong@calvaryhs.com. Thank you!

Update 6.19.09

New Office Location

Monday, June 22nd will be our first day at our new campus to hold our office hours. Please be patient with us as we will try to settle into our new location without our entire phone system installed nor furniture placed. The owner of the building is doing his best to move his furniture and equipment out of the building, but is running into some obstacles due to circumstances beyond his control. Please pray that those obstacles would be removed so that he can begin moving his items to their location. Once that is completed, we can begin to move some of our items into the building. 

Move Out from David Avenue

PGUSD has politely asked us to move any remaining items we may have into the MPR, Rm 5 and Rm 6 by July 1st so that they may begin utilizing the first wing as a building to replace their district office storage facility that will be demolished in coming months. They have been quite understanding and accommodating. We thank both Andre, the facilities coordinator, and Mr. Blakely, PGUSD's Business Manager, for their support and encouragements.

Construction

Currently, we are resubmitting plans to the Building Dept. that will save us both time and money in converting the service bays into classrooms. We also will be improving the layouts of the building to accommodate better circulation of students. Please continue to pray for the Use Permit to be granted and also for both Tom Carleton and Steve Shook as they work together to submit plans for the Building Dept. 

Ants, Ants, Ants!

No building is perfect! This building comes with colonies of ants! I-405 during rush hour looks like some of the ant trails I see going through our showroom floor! Please remember that there will be no food at any time on the "main floor" or carpeted areas for this reason. 

Update 6.16.09

Permit & Plans

The use permit was submitted to the city of Monterey Planning Dept. last Friday. Please continue to pray that they will approve the change of use so that we will be ready to go on August 10th for the new school year! Drawings for changes to the building will be submitted by the end of this week. With those drawings, we will be able to talk with contractors about converting the building to a school. 

Needed Stuff

Praise God that we have gotten some response to items that we need! Thanks for all the boxes and packing materials donated! 

Update on Move:

We will find out more by Monday our time frame for the Big Move. As we still are coordinating with the owner of the building, we are waiting for construction. Therefore, we have determined that it would be best for us to postpone our Big Move until the completion of construction. On June 22nd, we will migrate over to the new campus. We will only have one line and voicemail as we await our phone system to be installed on Wednesday, June 24th. Internet will be operational, but our wireless system will not be installed immediately. Saturday, June 27th will be our initial move of materials that are essential but not interfering with construction. 

Right now, our tentative date for the Big Move will be probably July 25th, but to be confirmed.

Update on move date(s), needs and office hours

USE PERMIT

Our goal will be to submit the Use Permit by this Friday. We are told that it should be a 4-6 week process, so if it does take six (6) weeks, we will have a two-week cushion before the beginning of school on August 10th. We can still move items in before we get the Use Permit approved. We decided not to include a proposal for the modulars as this could complicate the process. 

SUMMER HOURS

Summer Office Hours will be from 9am - 1pm Monday thru Thursdays. If you would like to come in outside of these hours, please make an appointment first. 

MOVE DATE(s)

Migration: Beginning June 22nd, we will have our office at the 601 E. Franklin location with the phone lines being transferred and infrastructure being set up. Please contact my cell 970.401.0454 if you are unable to get in touch with the office and have an emergency during that week. We hope to have our phone system installed on Tuesday, June 23rd and our internet up and running that week. 

Big Move: Saturday, June 27th, will be the BIG MOVE! We hope to have a layout of what key items we need to bring and what needs to be discarded. Depending on the status of construction, we are moving 35% - 50% of our items on this date. In addition, we would like to have a "family lunch" from Noon to 1pm where everyone is invited to celebrate what the Lord has done! Afterwards, we will finish up the move. More information to come!

NEEDS

• Large mirror for the locker area
  
• Couches in good condition (not an urgent item)
  

(these items are in addition to items previously listed)

Pictures of 601 E. Franklin, Monterey

Click on the following to see pictures of the new campus:

http://cchsmonterey.shutterfly.com/#

Also, did you know that Monterey-Salinas Transit is only a few blocks away? Please check with the website for bus routes and fares. Students, I believe, receive a 50% discount on fares.

http://www.mst.org/

You may also read more about our move and the significance about the building on this blog:

http://tjcaia.com/blog/2009/06/new-life-for-a-new-building/

Strategy for the Move

CURRENT STRATEGY:

We are still gathering all the facts. Soon, we will have a better idea of the timeline with the city to get the use permit and make sure we meet all building codes. Right now, while we are packing some essential items, we are also mapping out where everything will go and all the infrastructure we will need (phone lines, internet, alarm, etc.). We are also hesitant to move too much over as there still needs to have construction to make the rooms ready, so only essential items are being moved over at this time. In addition, we are allowing the owner to have time to move out current items from the building. 

So please, I know everyone is anxious to get from HERE to THERE, but please be patient as we hope that planning will help with the ultimate move. In addition, we are still trying to tie up all the "loose ends" of the year and prepare for the new year. 

The best way to communicate is via email, so please try emailing us! Thank you!

Please stay tuned and subscribe to this blog.

If you should have any questions, please email me at twong@calvaryhs.com

Things We Need

Prayers! It is so exciting to be moving into a new location and a new building! However, we still need to get the use permit that is a "process."

THINGS WE NEED:

1. Boxes, boxes, boxes. Preferably the volume of a duffle bag so that we can place books in. However, we still can use other sizes if they are durable and in good condition.

2. Packing Tape

3. Sharpies of various colors

4. White Boards (our new facility will need white board installed)

5. File cabinets 

We are still looking for portables/modular rooms to place on the property at a reasonable price. However, we do not have it in the budget for these rooms because of the cost of transportation, electrical hookup, and installation. However, if we were able to install portables, our service bay could be used for other activities. We even had an offer to provide auto mechanic class and keep the car lift in one of the bays. However, we would need to move pretty fast to offer this as an option. Otherwise, we can still offer it in the future, but would have to reinstall the garage door and lift later.

Site Preparation

Welcome to our attempt to keep you posted!

We have turned in all our Final grades for Semester 2 and graduated the class of 2009. Now, it is time to begin planning for "The Move." 

It's been great to hear everyone's support and encouragement. 

SITE PREPARATION:

Today @ 3pm I met w/Tom Carleton and a contractor to discuss what we need to do to get the building in. We are looking at the following:

 1. changing the face of the service bays by rolling up the garage doors and installing a facade with windows and a door for each classroom

 2. placing a drywall to separate each classroom

 3. moving the counter from the showroom to allow better access to the student's locker area

We'll be meeting with city planner today to try to get the forms completed to get the use permit in-time for our target date of August 10th for school.

Thus far, there has been an impact study completed on traffic.

Copy of request has been sent to the Airport authority for their approval

We are looking into signage for the building and getting a permit

Cost for applying for a Use Permit is $2990.00