Living and working in 18 cities the past 28 years may sound a bit extreme, but for interim pastor Charles Svendsen, it’s the lifestyle he loves. Now serving as the interim pastor of Palisades Presbyterian Church’his 16th such posting’there’s no questioning the scope of his frequent preaching miles. On Sunday, September 5, Svendsen took over the pulpit of pastor John Todd (who had retired after 18 years of service to the church), and preached his first service. He will hold the interim position for one to two years until a permanent pastor is hired. Growing up in La Canada, Svendsen wanted to become a commercial artist, but at age 19, when he lost a college friend to a hitchiking accident, he envisioned becoming a pastor. His family was also instrumental in his call to ministry’both his father and brother are pastors. In 1984, after 10 years of settled ministry in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, Svendsen opted to make the transition to serving only as an interim pastor. ‘I like to problem-solve and I enjoy traveling,’ he says. ‘I also can get bored easily in one place, so I like change.’ Svendsen, whose congregation sizes have ranged from under 250 to more than 1,000, has served as an interim pastor in Connecticut, Maine, New York, Washington, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. Since his first marriage four years ago to his wife, Catherine, his last four interim positions have been in California. He and Catherine, who has four children ages 16 to 26, have a home in Altadena and a newly rented guesthouse in the Palisades. After arriving at a new church, Svendsen goes through a process he calls ‘affirmative inquiry,’ where he visits with various groups and receives feedback about what they like or dislike about the church. In addition to performing duties that settled pastors perform (‘preaching, teaching, marrying and burying,’ as Svendsen puts it), interim pastors have specific tasks designed to ease and facilitate the congregation during the transitional period. Many jobs are perfomed during an interim period that aren’t performed during a settled ministry. These include taking inventories, researching demographics and setting new goals. ‘We build on the old goals and the old directions, because that’s who we are,’ Svendsen says. ‘But we look at where we are going and where we want to be in the next 10 to 20 years.’ Svendsen, who also assists in the training of interim pastors, says his ultimate objective is to prepare a church for the new pastor. He feels his success is directly tied to the success of the new pastor. ‘Proof of my work cannot be measured in real time. If we’ve completed all the necessary groundwork during my time and the pastor does well, then I’ve done a good job.’ Svendsen says a congregation losing their pastor is comparable to the Kubler-Ross stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), which describes the varying emotions one likely feels following the death of a loved one. ‘[Losing a pastor] is just like losing a family member or a close friend,’ he says. He adds that it’s much easier to follow a beloved pastor than one who was disliked. ‘You would think it would be easier to follow a disaster because anything you did would be good. But there are so many systematic problems in a congregation when a pastor hasn’t functioned well.’ Pastor Todd, says Svendsen, was highly revered by the congregation. ‘This church reflects John’s wonderful personality and theology.’ Recently, during a staff retreat, many wondered how Svendsen’s arrival would affect their positions. He assured them the changes he makes, if any, are implemented ‘very slowly.’ The Palisades congregation will soon organize a pastor nominating committee (usually comprising nine people), and advertise the position. Committee members will then go out and listen to each candidate preach. Once the best candidate is selected, the committee will present him or her to the congregation, who will vote up or down after hearing the candidate preach. If they vote down (which Svendsen says is a rarity), then the committee will have to bring in a new candidate. If they vote up, the pastor is offered the position. Svendsen predicts the church will receive at least 100 applications. The only drawback to being an interim pastor, Svendsen says, is ‘losing so many friends every couple of years.’ Nevertheless, at age 53, Svendsen says he hopes to fulfill five or six more interim positions before he retires. ‘I love interim ministry.’

How did Greg Schem, managing partner of the 881 Alma Real building, go in three short months from telling the Palisadian-Post how ‘pleased’ he was about working out a lease with the new Renaissance Academy to saying he wished he had never heard of the school? Schem, who has been threatened with legal action by the high school, met with RA officials on Tuesday night, after which he told the Post that ‘the termination of the lease still stands.’ (See story above). ‘The bottom line is, there is too much of a gap between what the school wants to do and what we believe is feasible in the building. We disagree on the use of the space and the number of students. Now the goal is to work together to see this year through.’ Schem’s investment group, which includes Palisadian Bill Simon, purchased the 89,671-sq.-ft. building in October 2000 for approximately $14 million. Clearly, the over $400,000 in revenue his Village Real Estate, LLC partnership would garner from the initial one-year lease on 13,600-sq.-ft. with the school (with a five-year option to renew) would greatly reduce his vacancy rate, which was ‘much higher than any landlord would want it to be in a building of that size,’ said local commercial broker Gregg Pawlik. ‘You’d also want to be careful about that kind of mix [school and commercial] and how it might or might not be a good fit.’ Schem said that by bringing in the school he did not anticipate any problems with existing tenants, the largest being the real estate firm Prudential John Aaroe on the ground floor, or with the two dozen other tenants in the building who provide a range of medical, legal and financial services. However, ‘the tenants did complain,’ Schem said, particularly about the noise of about 250 students entering and leaving the building. Nor did he anticipate the uproar in the community over leasing the space to the school. Local residents vented their rage at two raucous Community Council meetings (August 26 and September 9), and have continued to express their displeasure in telephone calls and letters to LAUSD and city officials. The lease agreement with Renaissance Academy, signed in late June, provided that the new public school would occupy 6,000-sq.-ft. on the ground floor. It was understood that no classrooms were to be built on this level’only ‘counseling rooms’ and administrative offices for the school’s 23 employees (including 20 fulltime and part-time teachers). The classrooms would be on the lower terrace level, which seemed a perfect fit on the same floor as Fancy Feet Dance Studio and Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Studio. As envisioned, Renaissance would take over the 7,500-sq.-ft. space formerly occupied by Bouquet Multimedia, a post-production company. The advantage of this lower terrace site was that it had a built-in recording studio and its own entrance at the rear of the building as well. This would help segregate the students from the other tenants, which was important to Schem, who said he was assured by founding director and principal Paul McGlothlin that ‘no more’ than 50 students would occupy the building at any one time. ‘I think having a school in here is a great idea,’ Schem said when he was interviewed by the Post in July. ‘The fact is, in the last few years this area has gradually transformed itself into a school-friendly neighborhood,’ referring to Seven Arrows Elementary School around the corner on La Cruz, the Village School annex currently under construction at the corner of La Cruz and Alma Real, and Corpus Christi Elementary School on nearby Carey. ‘I am very excited about the building,’ McGlothlin confirmed to the Post at the time. ‘I always thought it had a campus feel to it. And being so close to the village, the library and the park, it is actually perfect for us. As a community school many of our classes will be held off-campus anyway, ranging from the Palisades library to Theatre Palisades to Santa Monica College.’ McGlothlin assured the Post that even though the school expected an initial enrollment of up to 300 students, most of them from the Palisades area, ‘not all of them will occupy the Alma Real building at the same time’ and that traffic problems in an already congested neighborhood would be minimized ‘as the students will either be bused in or will walk to the building.’ When asked how many students would occupy the Alma Real building at any one time, McGlothlin said he ‘could not say, exactly.’ In early August, as soon as building permits were issued by L.A.’s Department of Building and Safety, renovations to accommodate Renaissance Academy began. On the terrace level, existing sound editing suites were converted into eight meeting rooms, four of which were permitted for classroom use, and two new restrooms were built. While a quarter of the space on the ground level was turned into offices, the rest was divided into seven ‘counseling’ rooms, each of which could clearly accommodate up to 24 students at a time.

It’s always a clear day in the illusory world of the Clearwater Mural, whose idyllic pastel panorama of the Palisades headlands wraps Sav-on’s north and west sides. The recently added section behind the loading dock, created by local artist Terri Bromberg, completes a stunning sweep of coast from east to west, taking in the Channel Islands in the distance down to the accurately rendered flora and fauna of the coastal environment. Bromberg, who created the mural in Los Liones Gateway Park depicting animal and plant life in a coastal canyon, has accurately recreated this landscape as it must have looked in the 19th century. She has not only included details such as the spider that scurries up the Sav-on dumpster, but also placed the Ysidro Reyes Adobe in the scene that today marks the intersection of Sunset and Chautauqua. For the past two months, Bromberg, along with design artist Merry Ealy, has been cleaning and touching up the original mural that Bromberg completed in 1999. The estimated cost of the entire project, $16,000, was underwritten by the Pacific Palisades Junior Women’s Club and an anonymous donor. However, according to concept producer Stuart Muller, the maintenance fund is drained, and he is seeking contributions to ‘ensure the healthy future of this magnificent community asset.’ Contributions may be sent to Palisades PRIDE (with the notation Clearwater Mural Maintenance Fund), 15330 Antioch, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272.

Renaissance Academy Charter High School had a tumultuous first week following its September 13 opening in Pacific Palisades. Last Thursday, the managing partner of the 881 Alma Real building, where the main campus of the school is located, gave Renaissance notice of termination of the lease effective June 2005. After a two-hour meeting Tuesday night at the school, both sides agreed that nothing has officially changed, though school officials remain hopeful that they will be able to reach a resolution. ‘The purpose of the meeting was to air our differences and search for constructive solutions that will allow Renaissance to continue its mission of educating local students, while addressing the valid concerns of the building owners,’ said RA board member Bill Bryan, who is also the school’s facilities coordinator and an RA parent. Paul McGlothlin, the school’s founding director and principal, as well as board member Scott Adler (an RA parent and the school’s contractor) also attended the meeting with managing partner Greg Schem and Jay Hartman, one of the building’s owners. Each side was represented by counsel. Both Bryan and McGlothlin told the Palisadian-Post Wednesday morning that they felt that the meeting was positive and productive. ‘I think we got a start on solving problems,’ said McGlothlin, who believes the next step is ‘to continue our successful efforts at building and strengthening community relationships.’ McGlothlin also said his biggest concern is ‘for the well-being of the kids’ since ‘this is a critical time in their life, and a small handful of people are forgetting that these are children and need to be treated with respect.’ By ‘a small handful,’ McGlothlin was echoing a letter he wrote to RA students and parents last Friday, within 24 hours of being notified about the lease termination. In the letter, also posted on the school’s Web site (www.rahigh.org), McGlothlin wrote that ‘…a small group of very vocal people object to our presence in the Alma Real building and the surrounding area, and are doing various things to make life hard for us. They have temporarily succeeded in convincing the city that we should only be allowed to use about half of the space we’re paying for, even though we received all of the necessary permits before we opened.’ This week, the school has been holding some of its classes in four rooms on the terrace (lowest) level of the building, which have been designated as classroom space by L.A.’s Department of Building and Safety at this time (a total of seven rooms and a recording studio exist). RA’s other leased space includes Suite 114 on the ground level, where the administrative offices plus resource and conference rooms are located. According to Schem, who notified other tenants in the building of the RA lease termination, the school was ‘using the ground floor as classrooms when it’s not leased for that.’ Schem also said he understood that the number of students occupying the leased space was to be between 30 to 50, though no specific number is documented in the lease. Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Fire Department dictated that the maximum number of students allowed on the terrace level is 90. Yesterday, Inspector John Dallas, who inspected the building a week ago, told the Post: ‘In the terrace level, we determined that the square footage of the four permitted classrooms plus the library [an additional room] allowed a total occupancy of no more than 90 students.’ His inspection followed a call from a Department of Building and Safety official, who Dallas said ‘had received complaints that there were 200 to 300 students roaming the building. We walked the premises, and we were told that the rooms on the ground floor were being used for counseling but we ascertained that they were being used for more than just counseling. We gave [the school] written notice that these rooms were to be used exclusively for counseling, and specifically for no more than three students [per room].’ Dallas’s supervisor, Captain Scott Miller, told the Post that ’40 to 50 students were observed by the Inspector upon arrival so there was no violation of the temporary Certificate of Occupancy.’ ”The initial TCO, which expired at 5 p.m. last Friday, stated that 98 students were allowed on the terrace level, while the current TCO granted by Building and Safety on Tuesday states that 89 students are allowed on the terrace level. Now, a tiny discrepancy exists between the Fire Department’s order (90) and the current TCO (89). ‘In a show of good faith we’re working with the lower number,’ Bryan said. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Renaissance called Building and Safety, and the school was granted a continued, 30-day TCO that expires October 15. Bryan also said that while Renaissance had intended for students to use some of the ground-floor rooms since that area is nearly half the school’s leased space, they are complying with Building and Safety. The school is also complying with the Fire Department, who ‘issued a notice [last Wednesday] to get a fire alarm system installed within 30 days,’ according to Captain Miller. The building already has sprinklers and the school is in the process of installing a sophisticated fire/life safety system with a strobe unit. ‘We’d like to have the option of remaining here [beyond one year],’ said Bryan, referring to the one-year lease with the option to renew for five years at the end of the first year. ‘We have a substantial dispute and as part of the resolution we hope we can reopen the issue of how long we can stay in this facility.’ Asked about the reason for the lease termination, Bryan blamed the ‘general level of acrimony and mistrust’ as precipitating Schem’s action. He said he was shocked that Schem chose to terminate the lease on ‘the third day of instruction of a new school,’ since ‘it’s not only cavalier but, from a legal standpoint, it’s not smart’we were not dealt with in good faith, or even given a fair and reasonable chance to make good use of the school.’ Bryan and Adler estimated that Renaissance has spent close to $500,000 to convert the leased space into a school, including construction and equipment costs. Since last Friday, RA students have been reporting to various temporary locations for their core classes, which include English, history and science. Some of these locations have included a rented room at the United Methodist Church, Gerry Blanck’s Martial Arts Studio, and three private homes of parents who live within walking distance of the Alma Real building. Other classes have been held at the Palisades Recreation Center’s upper and lower picnic areas. ‘We’ve committed to holding classes at the temporary locations for this week and this week alone,’ Bryan said Monday. ‘We will not operate next week the same as this week.’ Yesterday, freshmen took a field trip to Long Beach Aquarium and today, sophomores are scheduled for a field trip to the Getty Museum. On Friday, students in grades 10-12 will return to Santa Monica College’s Stewart Street campus for classes while ninth graders will report to classes in the Alma Real building and at off-campus sites. During lunch period, from noon to 1 p.m., most RA students have been buying their lunch from local vendors, which has caused numerous complaints from the community regarding an overpopulation of students in the Village each day. While about 25 students were observed eating or socializing in the park early this week, larger groups congregated in the Village Green area, across from Coffee Bean and Robek’s Juice. The school’s current enrollment is at 300 students, with 20 teachers (full and part-time) and a three-person administrative staff.