San Bruno gives OK to school sale

San Bruno education officials approved putting up for a sale a recently-shuttered school campus, despite concerns raised by one trustee who harbors deep reservations over a planned facilities overhaul.

The San Bruno Park Elementary School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1, with President Jennifer Blanco dissenting, to sell El Crystal Elementary School during a meeting Wednesday, Sept. 12.

The decision is a key piece of a larger initiative, in which officials are seeking to close and sell small, neighborhood schools in pursuit of the operational efficiency offered by larger, centralized campuses.

Officials hope the move from a neighborhood school system will help in the effort to better manage a limited budget which has hamstrung the district.

But Blanco disagrees with the vision authored by Superintendent Stella Kemp, claiming the decision to close El Crystal Elementary School occurred too promptly, without adequate consideration of the community’s perspective.

“I voted no because I didn’t believe in closing the school in the first place,” she said. “El Crystal was a gem in our school district.”

Under the board’s decision, the district will issue a request for proposals which are slated to be returned in November. Officials will then interview interested buyers, with an eye on reaching a sales agreement in December. Should terms be reached, officials expect escrow will close by summer 2020.

Ultimately, officials are hopeful the revenue generated will help pay toward the reconstruction of existing facilities which need to be revamped and improved to accommodate more students.

Trustee Kevin Martinez expressed his support for the facility strategy.

“The district’s long-term plan is very clear. And this is the first, important step in an investment in the next generation of schools,” he said.

The El Crystal Elementary School site is not the only property on the sales block, as officials agreed earlier this year Rollingwood Elementary School would also be shuttered and sold. The timeline for the campus is yet to be determined though.

Beyond the property sales, officials are hoping a forthcoming bond measure on the fall ballot will pass, as the revenue from the $79 million initiative could help shore up the district’s finances as well.

Blanco said she does not agree with the bond measure either, and she would have preferred a parcel tax be floated to voters instead, adding closing schools is not a preferred tax campaign platform.

“People are still upset and have trust issues because of the way the closures happened,” said Blanco, referring to both El Crystal and Rollingwood. “The whole process that we went through to identify the schools that were to be closed, we pissed off those two communities.”

Rather the follow a directive from administrators to close and sell the schools, Blanco said she believes more community feedback should have been sought from San Bruno residents.

“We need to hear from the community and we need to listen to the community and we need to take direction from the community,” she said. “Not the superintendent.”

Martinez disagreed and said he believes the district went through a thorough and immersive community outreach process in advance of pursuing the plan to sell the campuses.

“It pulled together people from all over the community with expertise in all areas to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the conditions and the needs of the district than I think we normally would have,” he said.

Meanwhile, with doubts that the bond will pass, Blanco said she believes it is vital officials establish contingency plans to get the district back to financial solvency.

“A lot of things are up in the air,” she said. “We can’t have things up in the air, we need to be grounded.”

To establish a more certain path forward, Blanco said she encouraged open and transparent communications with residents to assure they support any future decisions the board makes.

“For me, we need to go back to the community and have those conversations with them,” she said.

But Martinez harbored a more optimistic perspective in his support of the district’s plan — the reconstruction generally, and the El Crystal Elementary School sale specifically.

“All in all, I don’t think we have anything to apologize for. It’s a step forward that we should do when we are investing in our schools,” he said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

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