EDITOR: Last week the Morgan Hill School District Board approved
the modernization of Machado School. A new portable classroom will
be installed at the historic school site. This timely approval
allows the district to leverage over $100,000 in state school
modernization funds.
EDITOR:
Last week the Morgan Hill School District Board approved the modernization of Machado School. A new portable classroom will be installed at the historic school site. This timely approval allows the district to leverage over $100,000 in state school modernization funds.
Over the past year, trustees have worked with parents, alumni, the community, district staff and the Machado School Heritage Society to address numerous issues including safe water, land ownership and the deteriorating status of the aging portable classroom. The result will be new, safe Machado classrooms.
Many thanks are due to Bonnie Tognazzini and Al Solis of the district well as the board of the Machado School Heritage Society especially Paul Ward, Jan Strahan, Anthony Goularte, Bob Sass, Lisa Balsch and the late Henk Marselis for hammering out a viable plan for accomplishing this in the face of the district’s daunting budget crisis.
The current work plan calls for the district to purchase the portable using 80 percent state monies and 20 percent district funds. The Machado School Heritage Society is to provide for demolition, utility infrastructure and other systems related to installation.
Local contractors, the Heritage Society and community volunteers and donors are contributing time and materials accounting for more than $67,000 of the original budget. I want to thank all of them for this great spirit and important contribution to students past and future.
In a time when there has been much strife at board meetings, I would like to commend the collaborative and respectful process that has saved this historic school. My son, then a first grader, was one of the children displaced from Machado last year. In the face of an outpouring of anger and frustration over the school closing, I explained to him that his parents were taking the high road and that we would engage the school board in a positive and respectful manner. We hoped to instill in him that this was how grown-ups solved problems. I was one of several parents who began meeting with district officials and attending board meetings lobbying for the reopening of Machado.
Through months of meetings, difficult compromises were worked out. We were unable to return students to Machado and school operations were suspended but the school was not officially closed. This year, a plan was worked out to modernize the school. Last Monday night the school board honored the completion of this process with its vote funding the modernization plan.
There is still much work needed to return students to Machado. An educational plan must be developed and operational funding and issues addressed. I am hopeful that this positive collaboration will succeed in that effort as well so that Morgan Hill children can again enjoy this unique educational opportunity.
Susan Gabbard, Morgan Hill
