Neighbors Press St. Matthew’s School

Claim Officials Have ‘Broken Promises’ in 2004 CUP

Nearly 30 lawn signs quoting in part the Biblical admonition “Thou shall not make false vows” were planted on front yards along Bienveneda Avenue last week.
The signs were a show of disapprobation by neighbors who are upset by St. Matthew’s School’s plans to adjust six conditions of its Conditional Use Permit (CUP), including increasing its enrollment to 384 students and expanding the number of events held on campus.
Neighbors are concerned the proposed modifications to the current CUP will bring further inconvenience and traffic to an otherwise quiet neighborhood. The school is located on Bienveneda about a half mile north of Sunset Boulevard.
During school pickup times and events, the street is inundated with heavy traffic and parking issues, such as parked cars blocking driveways and long lines at the light on Sunset.
“They made promises they never kept and they were already out of compliance when the original CUP was approved in 2004,” said Richard G. Cohen, a Bienveneda resident and former chair of the Community Council. “How can we trust them?”
Cohen said the evidence is in the school’s current application, which shows St. Matthew’s was already over the 325 enrollment cap when the first CUP was approved.  He is referring specifically to page nine of the document that reads, “At present, in its sixty-fourth school year of operation at the subject site, the St. Matthew’s Parish School is operating with 350 students (with an average of 345 students per year since 2004).”
With tuition averaging nearly $25,000 per student, Cohen estimates the school’s enrollment discrepancy has brought the institution nearly $4.5 million in additional revenue since 2004.
“I have lived on this street since 1995 and I’ve sent my own children there,” said Jeffrey Goldman, a Bienveneda resident and former St. Matthew’s School parent. “The most shocking aspect here is their failure to live up to their promises, and most egregious is that they were in violation in 2004 and they have continued to raise enrollment.”
In 2004, the school applied for permits to replace two existing one-story multi-purpose/classroom buildings with two new similar but larger two- and three-story structures. After meeting with neighbors and City officials, the school gained approval for this expansion on the basis that it abide by 36 conditions set in the CUP, six of which St. Mathew’s is now seeking to amend, including the language requiring a 325 cap in enrollment.
“I know full well how important morals and ethics are in that school; once a week the students take an ethics class,” Goldman said. “I’m just shocked by this.”
Head of School Stuart Work, who is in his third year at St. Matthew’s, told the Palisadian-Post that these changes happened before he arrived on the job. He said the reason why St. Matthew’s came forward with plans to amend the CUP is to rectify these errors.
St. Matthew’s Board of Trustee Member Jackie Ehlers previously told the Post that the school’s plan to increase enrollment is to make sure St. Matthew’s has more “flexibility. “There isn’t a line of students waiting to get in,” she said, noting that “it would take years” to get to the 384 student limit.

Work said the enrollment increase would be a buffer so that the school does not fall out of compliance again. The 384-student enrollment limit is about being realistic about future educational needs, he said, adding that “we just want move forward.”
On August 15, a team of school representatives led by James Arnone, a land-use attorney and partner with Latham & Watkins, met with neighbors at a meeting stewarded by City Councilman Mike Bonin to discuss the situation.
“The meeting was a round table where neighbors presented their concerns and the school represented its side,” Work said. “The net result is we are going to make some changes in our modification request and are getting ready to send that out to neighbors.”
Work said he would not comment on the requested changes until they are finalized sometime this week.
Before the meeting with Bonin, proposed changes by St. Matthew’s included expanding the number of special events from 12 to 16 yearly; expanding evening events from three to four yearly; allowing attendees for events with more than 300 people to park north and south of the campus on Bienveneda; reducing the number of carpool studies that must be conducted from four to two times per year; and requiring meetings with neighbors upon request instead of the mandatory two times per year as required by the current CUP.
However, at the August meeting with Bonin, St. Matthew’s offered to drop the increase of special events but maintained the biggest point of contention for neighbors: the enrollment increase to 384 students.
“Stu Work may have not been there but the board of trustees was there,” Goldman said.  “Why should we give them anything when they have proven themselves to not be trustworthy?”
Nearby neighbor Patty Adelmann said her position at this point “is that they need to go back to their 2004 agreement and then we can talk.”
“They could probably creep back down to the 325 enrollment number in five years if they wanted to,” she said.  “I think they knew darn well what they were doing.  They count their students—they know who is getting in and who is not.”
Adelmann added that the other changes the school is requesting, such as decreasing the number carpool studies from four to two a year, are laughable because “they haven’t done it anytime of the year.”
Currently, there is no hearing scheduled by the City’s zoning administrator to review the proposed amended changes to the CUP. Cohen said the St. Matthew’s application is still under environmental review by City staff.