Mill Valley preschool agrees to vacate school district building

Oct 23, 2024

After months of resisting eviction, a Mill Valley preschool has agreed to vacate a school district building where it had been operating for about eight years.

Terra Marin School will exit the campus at 70 Lomita Drive by Nov. 30, said Terry Tao, the attorney for the school’s proprietor, Wendy Xa.

The agreement does not include a monetary figure on the back rent the Mill Valley School District alleges that Xa owes, Tao said. He said attorneys agreed to discuss the issue later.

Tao said he still intends to file a suit alleging breach of contract relating to the lease. Xa wants the district to compensate her for paying off a previous tenant’s $175,360 in back rent, plus the $2.3 million she says she put into renovations, Tao said in a government claim he filed last month.

Xa said Tuesday that she has found a new Mill Valley site for the preschool. She said she is completing a lease agreement and not able to disclose the site yet.

“The renovation costs of the new location to meet code requirements could amount to as much as $300,000,” Xa said in an email. “We are urging parts of the renovations to be completed quickly so we can move in before the November 30th deadline.”

Neither district officials nor their attorneys responded to a request for comment on Xa’s departure. The district served eviction notices over the summer and into the new school year, but Xa declined to leave.

Officials also declined to respond to questions about whether the Lomita Drive building could be used for interim classrooms during the Mill Valley Middle School construction project on Sycamore Avenue.

The current middle school, which was built on a former city burn dump, would be demolished. District consultants and state and local agencies are conducting environmental reviews to make sure that new construction would not expose students to toxic materials such as lead, methane and radiation.

District consultants said last week that the project is on hold until the final environmental documents are filed, likely not until July. Even after that, it could be at least six months until final design plans could be created and then approved by state authorities, they said.

Jessica Pluskowski, who has two children in the district who are nearing middle-school age, said she would support using the Lomita Drive campus for temporary classrooms. She said it would be a healthier and safer option than portable classrooms next to the middle school campus.

“Putting the kids in portables next to a construction site is problematic from environmental and safety perspectives,” she said.