The families and neighbors that consider themselves the Machado
community found out Thursday night that although there won
’t be students on the school campus when school starts back in
August, a newly remodeled school will likely reopen the following
year.
The families and neighbors that consider themselves the Machado community found out Thursday night that although there won’t be students on the school campus when school starts back in August, a newly remodeled school will likely reopen the following year.
As a part of a motion on budget cuts at Thursday’s board meeting, trustees unanimously approved the “temporary suspension” of operations at Machado, with the intent that the money from the facilities fund will be used to match available state funds to replace the current classroom building.
The school, located at 15130 Sycamore Ave. in the foothills west of the city, is the district’s oldest school at more than 100 years and has had students on the campus all those years.
“Please do not be the first school board in the history of Morgan Hill to close down this school,” Machado parent Susan Gabbard said Thursday. “Keep Machado open, modernize it and if it has to be out of operation temporarily, don’t use the “C” word – close.”
There have been no students on the campus since Jan. 31. Forty first- and second-grade students were pulled out of the school, their teachers hurriedly stripping their classroom over the weekend and transforming two portables on the Paradise Valley campus into temporary homes.
The well pump was the reason for the sudden move: after weeks of working sluggishly, it suddenly stopped altogether. With no working bathrooms, the students and teachers, who had been drinking only bottled water for weeks, could not stay on the campus.
The Machado Heritage Society and its president Paul Ward immediately stepped forward, pledging support and financial help in getting the well operational again. A new well and pump – costing approximately $13,500 – were donated by Augie Guardino and other local businessmen and installed two weeks ago.
But in checking into the water problem, other problems surfaced.
“It’s like peeling an onion,” Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Branco said during the March 24 board meeting. “There are so many layers, so many things coming to light as we go further into this.”
There are the pipes, first of all, which carry the water into the “modern” – circa 1967 – classroom building and restroom building on the Machado site. They are copper with lead solder and need to be replaced.
Then there’s the classroom building itself: it’s doubtful if it is safe for students and teachers as it stands, with serious dry rot in the floor and walls.
The roof leaks, and there are termite problems.
The school is eligible for approximately $113,000 in renovation money from the state; it must be matched by School District funds in an 80/20 match and used only to renovate Machado, or the money reverts back to the state.
The district’s share of this amount would be $28,416. But the financially strapped district has approximately $30,000 left in a capital facilities fund. The district has until June 18, 2004, to award a construction contract in order to keep the state funding for the project.
Then there’s the problem of who actually owns the property. As the district looked into fixing the well, they researched the ownership and came up with the information that the district only owns the historic schoolhouse and playground area, but not the current classroom building, the pump house, the garden, the bathroom or the parking lot.
Ward, who thought his father had deeded the property to the district, actually owns most of it. A neighbor owns the parking lot. Both are working with the district to clear up the problem: Ward to deed the land to the district and the neighbor to formally give the district the right to use the parking lot.
