Features

Hillside School Sale Meeting

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday October 23, 2008 - 09:53:00 AM

The Berkeley Unified School District is scheduled to hold a meeting on Oct. 30 to update the community about the status of the sale of the Hillside School. 

The Berkeley Board of Education last month unanimously approved a plan to put the historic Hillside School at 1581 Le Roy Ave. up for sale. 

Built in 1925 after the original Hillside School on Virginia Street burned down in the 1923 Berkeley fire, the building is a split-level three-story wood-frame Tudor designed by Walter Ratcliff which straddles a trace of the Hayward Fault, which makes it unsuitable for public use, district officials said. 

Lew Jones, the district’s director of facilities, said that the property was being re-appraised and had been offered for sale to public entities first, as required by law. 

Jones said that the district had so far received a response only from the parks district expressing no interest in the property. 

“It’s far too early to say if any public entity is interested right now,” Jones said. “The responses are due by the second week of December.” 

Hillside School neighbors had expressed an interest in working with the city to preserve the school’s playground as public space, Jones said. 

 

Hillside School Public Meeting: Oct. 30, Thursday, 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. BUSD’s Oregon Street facility, 1720 Oregon St. (below MLK Jr. Way).