The president of the Arroyo Pacific Academy has denied that any of his workers destroyed "No School On Palm" signs facing his property last week.
Philip Clarke told Altadenablog that the information flyers recently distributed to the Palm Street area were delivered by a company that he had hired, and he denied that they were responsible for the destruction and removal of signs that occurred the same day.
Clarke said in a statement, "There was an unsubstantiated allegation that someone from our organization may have interfered with some neighborhood signs. We categorically deny this. Period."
Several residents of the neighborhood said that people distributing the school's information sheets -- illegally, into mailboxes -- had also removed or vandalized the signs facing the school property that Clarke acquired last year. Clarke said that he was displeased that the company responsible for distributing the flyers did so by putting them in mailboxes.
The signs have since been replaced and their number increased.
Clarke released another information update dated April 30, detailing the preparations he is making to meet the county's conditions for a conditional use permit. Among them:
Property values: claiming that a quality private school in the neighborhood actually increases property values, Clarke says that they have removed dead trees and out-of-control brush from the property, as well as cleaning the buildings in side and out. There are also no plans for new construction projects on the site other than regular maintenance. A landscape plan will also be developed to provide environmentally appropriate planting that will serve as sound mitiagation and increase privacy.
Says Clarke in the statement that "we totally respect the neighbors who are in opposition to having any kind of traditional day school on this site because of previous experiences. We hope to see 'welcome [Arroyo Pacific] to Palm St. on their signs some day, but we take no offense to their stated position and have no objection to the current signs."
The property at 183-205 Palm St. has been a sore spot for the neighborhood ever since the Sahag Mesrob Armenian school moved in without proper permits in 2008. After Los Angeles County closed down the school in 2009, the property was on the market -- and not maintained -- until Clarke purchased the property for his Arroyo Pacific Academy last November. Arroyo Pacific, which has a campus in Arcadia, is seeking to turn the Palm Street property into another campus, holding up to 250 students.
Contacted for comment, Nancy Rothwell of the Palm St. Area Residents Association (PSARA) said that "What's in this [update] document is inconsistent and in conflict with information that's in the CUP information that was submitted in January ... Because we haven't seen any of these reports that are referenced, we just can't comment on them." She declined to say what was inconsistent with the CUP documentation, but did say that PSARA has no beef with Arroyo Pacific itself -- residents are just opposed to having any day school on the property.
Arroyo Pacific's update (pdf document) is available here.
