PaliHi Creates Banners Policy

In collaboration with the community, Palisades Charter High School leaders are developing a new sign policy for banners displayed on perimeter fences around campus.   School administrators have received complaints from community members about the quantity and look of the banners, which display everything from fundraisers to summer camp registrations.   For that reason, PaliHi’s Operations Manager Maisha-Cole Perri asked Pacific Palisades Community Council member Harry Sondheim to help her write a policy. She also wanted to include the input of community groups that hang their banners around campus, so she asked Matt Davidson of Kehillat Israel to join them.   ’PaliHi is a part of the community, and we want to work together to solve issues as they come up,’ Perri told the Palisadian-Post.   As a result of their meeting, the Community Council approved the sign policy at its January 28 meeting and PaliHi’s Operations, Facilities and Technology Committee followed suit on February 1. However, the PaliHi committee made one change to the policy, so Perri needs to talk to Sondheim before the motion is presented to the school’s Policy Committee for official adoption.   Sondheim requested that PaliHi not place any banners on Sunset Boulevard because it is designated as a scenic highway under the Brentwood-Pacific Palisades Community Plan. He asked that signs on Temescal Canyon Road be at least five feet from Sunset.   PaliHi’s committee agreed to forgo signs on Sunset, but wants to hang them on Temescal one foot from Sunset.   '[The committee] wanted to utilize that corner at Temescal and Sunset since there is a lot of traffic there,’ Perri said.   Other than that change, the school committee and the Council agreed that only four school-related banners would be placed on Temescal Canyon Road and El Medio Avenue.   The banners from community groups will be limited to four on Temescal and two on El Medio. School personnel will hang the banners and allow them to remain up for two to three weeks. Groups will not be allowed to put up banners more than four times during the year.   ’We wanted to limit the number and time, so one group doesn’t dominate,’ Perri said. Right now, there is no set time limit for how long a banner can be displayed.   Nonprofit organizations that pay to use the school’s facilities are allowed to put up signs to promote their events, Perri said. The administration also allows organizations that have made generous donations to the school to display their signs. For-profit companies are prohibited.   The school cannot charge any group a fee to hang a banner on campus because the Los Angeles Unified School District owns the fence, Perri said. PaliHi is an independent charter school, which rents its facilities from LAUSD.