District officials may be forced to close at least one
elementary school but have declined to confirm likely candidates,
saying they have just begun to look at their options for the
2009/10 year, which promises to be the most financially challenging
in recent memory.
Morgan Hill
District officials may be forced to close at least one elementary school but have declined to confirm likely candidates, saying they have just begun to look at their options for the 2009/10 year, which promises to be the most financially challenging in recent memory.
The school board has already cut $3 million that resulted in 17 layoffs, mostly custodians and other support staff. There’s talk of mid-year cuts, which Superintendent Alan Nishino estimates to be between $2.6 million and $5.2 million. But these are mere prelude to the next school year, he said.
“There will be deeper cuts to each department as well as classroom teachers,” Nishino said in a form letter being distributed to parents.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Bonnie Tognazzini said she is much more concerned about next year than this year.
“This is a frightening time, but we’re already halfway through it,” Tognazzini said.
Which is why such large scale measures as closing one or more schools are being looked at, she said.
“Some of these things have to be considered because of the size of resources that have to be saved. We could cut all of one program and still not end up with enough money to keep yourself solvent. How schools operate, and how many, those are the big dollars.”
Board President Don Moody said closing a school is just one of many options the board is looking at to tighten the district’s belt.
“We have no idea if we will save enough money for it to be worthwhile to do that, to put our students and families through that,” he said. “It’s premature for families to start getting emotional about it.”
In a letter to state legislators, Nishino urges them to settle the state budget quickly and keep education a top priority. Nishino said the district expects to look at “closing at least one school,” “increasing class size at all grade levels,” and “eliminating or reducing programs for students such as athletics, music or libraries.
“Depending on the extent of revenue loss for next year, we could be reduced to a basic education program for our students, with large class sizes and very few extra-curricular activities.”
There are several factors to consider when looking at closing a campus, Tognazzini said. They include: size, enrollment, operation costs like electricity and water, and location, which could affect transportation costs.
A look at this data reveals that the top contender of such a drastic move – forced on the district by an increasingly constricted state budget, which is billions of dollars behind – could be Burnett Elementary School. Burnett is the smallest of nine elementary schools, with a capacity of just 475, including two portables. And it’s the third oldest, having been built in 1961. Enrollment is low, with 342 students attending this year.
The school with the second lowest enrollment number is P.A. Walsh Elementary School, with 365 students. The capacity of the school, which has no portables, is 600. Built in 1952, Walsh is also the oldest of the elementary schools.
Walsh Principal Natalie Gioco said to comment on the subject would be “premature.”
“It’s too early to make any sort of guess at what’s going to happen,” Gioco said.
Burnett Principal Barbara Neal was similarly tight-lipped.
“I haven’t entertained the thought,” Neal said. “I haven’t even gone there, haven’t gone down that road. I have maintained the school’s focus on the students.”
Neal commented little on the effects of such a move.
“We have excellent teachers and administration,” Neal said. “Any school in the district would provide the same rigorous academics as we are here. All of the administrators focus on that. Any student in Morgan Hill will get excellent academics from any of our schools.”
Burnett parent Claudia Delria, whose second grader is in her second year at the school, said her daughter is established at Burnett and it would be hard to leave.
“It’s excellent,” Delria said. “To go anywhere else would be too far. And she has friends here. It would be a difficult change, with different teachers and friends.”
Bob Scherp, whose son is in third grade at the school, has a high school-age daughter whose Blossom Valley elementary school closed, and she had to re-enroll elsewhere.
“It was a little bit rough, with transportation, everyone was dispersed, losing friends,” he said of the effects. “But in school, she did OK. It’s tough because you get hooked up with the teachers and build a report.”
But, overall, it was a change she adjusted to, Scherp said. His bigger concern was the logistics: both he and his wife work in San Jose, and have already adjusted to Burnett’s schedule.
Walsh parent Gielanie Hatch praised the school’s teachers and community.
“The kids are doing well. I’d hate for that to be interrupted,” she said. She has two children at the school. “Both are doing well. They challenge kids to do better, and they love the friends they’ve made here. But fortunately, we have a lot of good schools (in Morgan Hill).”
Hatch did have a concern that closing a school would mean crowded classes in the remaining schools, which could affect the quality, she said.
South San Jose’s Los Paseos Elementary School, with its relatively high enrollment, would be unlikely to close, based on the data: it could cost more to transport Morgan Hill Unified’s northernmost students south to another school.
Geographically, Morgan Hill Unified is one of the largest school districts in the state, with Los Paseos the northernmost and San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School the southernmost.
Nordstrom Elementary School, a popular school based on the large number of transfer requests each year, sits on 10 acres and has a capacity of 700, with enrollment at 690. Tognazzini noted that the maximum capacities are calculated based on every classroom loaded with 30 students in every room, which is the state standard. But Morgan Hill participates in a state program to keep kindergarten through third grades at 20 students per teacher, so the enrollment numbers appear lower than the capacity, she said. There are very few vacant classrooms in the district, she said.
Board Trustee Peter Mandel said the ironic thing was that enrollment in the district overall is up.
“With the current configuration of schools, we may need an additional school,” Mandel said, referring to the K-3 class size reduction program. “That is completely opposite to another scenario – we can’t afford that, the general fund wouldn’t support it, and we’ll have to find ways to contract and not to expand.”
Closing a school would almost have to go hand-in-hand with increases in class size in the K-3 classrooms. But Nishino said perhaps not.
“The savings would be in classified staff,” he said. “The kids would go somewhere, and the teachers would follow the students, but the administration) would not. The secretaries and clerks would not follow. The custodians may, but with cut hours.”
But, Nishino stressed that the district doesn’t know what it will do for next year yet, since the state is still grappling with this year and has yet to tackle next year’s budget.
“We’re looking at every single scenario that’s out there. California districts are all looking at the same thing,” Nishino said. “There’s only so much you can do. We can’t generate more revenue, so we look at what we’re going to eliminate.”
Tognazzini said that if a school did close, they would have to maintain the grounds so it didn’t become an abandoned building.
“Even if we had to close a school, it would only be on a temporary basis, not a permanent basis,” she said. “We will be past this crisis. We have to be very careful that we can unwind what we’ve done. That is critical to the district. If you do go away from a site, you’re not going away forever. Whatever you put there, you have to find a place for.”
Tognazzini said she’s not hanging her hat on any revenue-building moves like renting out an emptied school, noting the high amount of commercial lease space available around town already.
Tognazzini said there would be plenty of community discussion as district officials study the options. There would be community workshops and public hearings, she said.
A timeline has not yet been set as the district is just beginning to study the possibilities for next year, Nishino said.