Redwood City schools to close

In recognition of the pain felt by the school community, officials too shared their reluctance to pull the trigger on the recommendations developed after extensive deliberations and discussions.

“We know what we are doing is hurting the children and none of us feel good about it,” said Trustee Dennis McBride, choking back tears before casting a vote in favor of the recommendation from Superintendent John Baker. Following the final decision, Trustee Hilary Paulson — who was participating in her final meeting before leaving the board — also started to cry.

Under the decision, the identified schools will be merged with other campuses in an effort to move the district away from a neighborhood school system to one built around larger, comprehensive campuses.

Adelante will be folded into a similar Spanish immersion program offered at Selby Lane Elementary School; Fair Oaks will merge with Taft Elementary School; 570 Hawes students will be primarily distributed between Henry Ford and Roosevelt campuses; and Orion will be consumed by John Gill Elementary School, where Hawes students can attend as well. Should students wish to attend a school different than their newly-assigned campus, they will have a priority to enroll at different school of choice.

The variety of initiatives are designed to cut about $4 million out of a $10 million budget hole, which district officials claimed would have been addressed similarly by those at the county and state if not for the board’s decision.

For his part, Baker shared the consternation caused by the many hours spent seeking solutions to the dire financial issues long plaguing the district.

“I never, never, never thought in taking the superintendent’s position that I would have to do this,” he said.

The decision came in the face of staunch opposition from residents, many who felt the pain of school closures was unfairly concentrated in eastside communities rather than more affluent Redwood City neighborhoods.

“The only families being affected are lower-income families,” said Teresita Carlos, joining a long chorus of public speakers who shared similar sentiments over the nearly four-hour meeting held at a packed Carrington Hall on the Sequoia High School campus.

The meeting discussing the closures was the second of its kind this month, as the school community exhausted the issue for another five hours at a meeting earlier this month.

In the wake of feedback from community members at the previous session, officials agreed to back off an initial proposal to close both Fair Oaks and Taft, for fear of compounding the hardship faced by many living nearby.

But while officials considered the decision to preserve Taft a compromise, many parents felt it did not go far enough and called for school board members to postpone a decision in favor of seeking more alternatives.

Officials though pointed to a December deadline by which they need to present county officials a strategy for addressing the budget as a hurdle preventing them from taking more time.

At the heart of the district’s financial shortfall is dwindling enrollment, as the school system is allocated money according to average daily attendance which has dropped due to the rise in popularity of charter schools. Increased pension obligations have been cited as a source of ongoing financial concern as well.

The action approved at the most recent meeting will not pull the district out of the depths of its financial problems either, as officials agreed more work needs to be done in coming years plotting the future of the district’s composition, as well as sites such as North Star Academy, which accommodates high performing students from across the district.

In the face of the passionate and occasionally angry expressions from residents, officials encouraged parents to direct their energy to state legislators who hold the purse straps in allocating public school funding. McBride offered the phone numbers of state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, and Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, from the dais, while telling parents to take action.

But such direction came under the looming acknowledgment that any decision related to state school funding would come down the road, much too late to reverse the fate sealed for the identified campuses.

With a feeling that officials had nowhere else left to turn, McBride attempted to illustrate the pain felt by trustees in casting their vote.

“This is the worst possible thing you can do as a school board member,” he said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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