Meetings held to discuss possible closures and current budget situation

By Ashley Mackin | SDUN Editor

In response to the 2012-2013 San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) budget cuts, SDUSD was, until Thursday, Oct. 27, considering closing one school in the Uptown area and others throughout San Diego. One of the schools up for closure was Franklin Elementary School, located at 4481 Copeland Ave. in Kensington.

SDUSD Board President Richard Barrera said Thursday he would formally recommend to the school closure committee on Nov. 1 to call off plans for widespread school closures.

A SDUSD committee is assessing the best way to meet the budget demands, and meetings are being held to inform and discuss these issues with the community. However, some concerns have been raised regarding potential school closures and the timeline given to community members to come up with alternatives to closing the schools.

Phil Stover, the SDUSD Deputy Superintendent of Business, gave a presentation on Oct. 10 to parents, volunteers and community members regarding Franklin Elementary School’s possible closure.

In the presentation, Stover said the School Realignment/ Closure Committee was put together to provide recommendations to the California Board of Education related to the 2012-2013 budget deficit. The Committee was asked to provide recommendations for the closure of approximately 10 schools across San Diego for a five million dollar savings.

“Our budget deficit is anywhere from $58 to $103 [million]. I believe we will have to cut $80 [million total],” Stover said.

Early recommendations the Committee suggested are to close Franklin Elementary School and reduce the number of buses transporting students to Hoover High School.

Stover explained they have adopted a number of criterion including enrollment, capacity, Academic Performance Index scores and growth, cost per student and resident attendance, meaning how many neighborhood students go to the school and other variables.

The Hoover High School cluster—the term used by SDUSD for schools grouped by area—includes Franklin Elementary School, Adams Elementary School, Normal Heights Elementary School, Edison Elementary School, Central Elementary School, Cherokee Point Elementary School, Joyner Elementary School, Rosa Parks Elementary School, Hamilton Elementary School, Clark Middle School, Wilson Middle School and Hoover High School.

Stover asked parents and community members to “provide [the committee] input through their cluster organization. Individual input is fine,” he continued, “but is often contradictory. Suggesting alternatives is always better than simply saying don’t do this or that.”

In addition to wanting Franklin to stay open, some residents expressed concern with the timeline they were given to provide alternative solutions.

Alice Colthurst, a Kensington resident whose children went to Franklin, said, “Franklin should stay open because it is a small…neighborhood school that is working. Franklin serves a diverse population of students who are happy…. The school has strong community support.”

Regarding the recommended school closure, Kensington resident Dixie Blake, whose children also went to Franklin, said, “For the Hoover Cluster, this announcement was made Oct. 10. They met for nine months and are giving us less than eight weeks to respond.” She said prior to the Oct. 27 announcement.

Stover said he hopes cluster volunteers can come up with an alternative by the next or following meeting.

Though she said she didn’t have the time to research her alternative suggestions, retired teacher Marilyn Rivas said she has some ideas that would keep Franklin open and still help with the budget.

“Close Adams instead of Franklin,” Rivas said. “Have the students on the West of I-15 go to Normal Heights and the students on the East of I-15 attend Franklin. It is too far for the Franklin students to walk to Normal Heights or Adams and dangerous for them to be crossing I-15. Franklin does have the capacity to house six more classrooms and the District could move in more bungalows if they were needed,” she said.

Rivas also suggested turning Franklin into a Kindergarten through eighth grade school.

Blake added that closing Franklin wouldn’t, in its entirety, solve the budget problem. “Closing schools would provide only a small percentage of the money they need to make up their huge budget deficits. Yet the decisions they are making here means that schools that are closed will be gone forever,” she said, adding, “For us, that means our historic school will sit empty, or be sold, or serve as some administrative satellite….”

At a meeting on Oct. 25, Ron Bennett, president and chief executive officer of School Services of California, and Stover each gave separate presentations to the San Diego Board of Education. The presentations were open to the public and community members were given the opportunity to make comments.

Bennett’s presentation outlined the State’s involvement with the current budget situation. Stover gave an updated presentation from his Oct. 10 meeting with the Franklin parents and volunteers regarding early recommendations and reiterated that no decision would be made at the Oct. 25 meeting.

The suggestions made in Stover’s presentation included the closure of the following Elementary Schools: Cubberley, Cadman, Marvin, Cabrillo, Paradise Hills and Vista Grande. Franklin Elementary in Kensington also remains on Stover’s list for closure.

Stover said, “Some people are confused about why they [would] close school number one and number two, but not number four, but this is not just data-driven. There are factors that can not be quantified.”

80 community members signed up to make a statement and many wore colored shirts representing the different schools.

At the next meeting, the Board of Education is scheduled to read the first set of community recommendations regarding any or all of the school closures. It is scheduled for Nov. 29 at the Eugene Brucker Education Center, located at 4100 Normal St.

However, it is unclear whether the meeting on Nov. 29, as well as a Dec. 13 meeting, both scheduled so the committee may read community recommendations, will still occur.