Students and staff at the Charter School of Morgan Hill might
have to wait another year to move their campus, a situation they
can live with as long as the school district makes repairs to the
decrepit facilities at the school’s current location.
Students and staff at the Charter School of Morgan Hill might have to wait another year to move their campus, a situation they can live with as long as the school district makes repairs to the decrepit facilities at the school’s current location.
Morgan Hill Unified School District trustees prefer to keep the school where it is and immediately begin assessing the damages, including a dry-rotten canopy outside a classroom building that has been fenced off for more than a year for safety reasons.
Charter School officials asked the district in December 2009 to allow them to move their campus to the former site of Burnett Elementary, on Tilton Avenue, which the district closed for financial reasons last summer. Tuesday night, the board of trustees unanimously decided not to move the Charter School into the vacant campus.
The board thought such a move for the 2010-2011 school year would be premature, and more consideration should be given for the costs, repairs at both campuses and other options for the Burnett site.
As part of the Tuesday vote, the trustees rejected a proposal to move the district’s bus yard to the Charter School’s Encinal campus if the students were to move. Now, the district pays rent to the city of Morgan Hill to use space at its public works yard on Edes Court.
Trustee Michael Hickey said the district should be cautious about financial uncertainties and deep spending cuts likely for next year.
“I’d rather take my time,” Hickey said. “We don’t have to move this year. Financially, we’ll be better off leaving transportation where it is.”
Trustee Peter Mandel said the extra fuel and staff costs of moving the transportation facility to the Encinal campus, which is about eight miles north of Edes Court, plus building repairs would be prohibitive. Those costs would add up to more than $500,000, based on a staff report presented at the meeting. Mandel noted the district saved about $400,000 by closing Burnett for one year.
“It’s not really financially viable in this economic time to use Encinal in that way,” Mandel said Thursday.
A full cost analysis of a Charter School move has not been completed. Trustees indicated they would like to see such a thorough assessment by district staff.
But Mandel’s other concern is not financial. He thinks new Superintendent Wesley Smith – who officially started Nov. 3 – should be given more time to examine all possible options for the Burnett and Encinal campuses. He added that he will continue to support alternative learning options within the district such as that offered by the Charter School.
Charter School Principal Paige Cisewski said her primary concern is “basic safety” for the students. Since July 2008, a walkway covered by a plywood canopy, with a heating and air-conditioning unit on top has been fenced off to foot traffic. Cisewski said she discovered the canopy’s plywood roof was rotten when she noticed it was sagging. Now the roof is dotted with holes through which daylight seeps.
The walkway serves a classroom building on the campus, and students enter class through the back doors.
The district has made temporary repairs to prevent a collapse of the canopy. Now that school district officials anticipate the Charter School will remain at Encinal for at least one more year, they will immediately begin the process of assessing the damage and making the repairs, according to trustees.
Other damages at the Encinal campus include a leaky roof in the front office, and portable classrooms are on “life support,” Cisewski said.
Under state law, the school district has to offer the Charter School “equivalent space” to that of other schools, board President Bart Fisher noted.
The Charter School’s board of directors has until March 1 to respond to the school district’s offer. The trustees will have until April 1 to make their decision final.
Cisewski said she does not yet know how the Charter School will formally respond to the board’s decision.
About 520 students attend the Charter School, which serves grades kindergarten through eighth.
Another key reason the Charter School wanted to move closer to the city limits is that such a location would be more fulfilling of the school’s mission.
“The biggest pro is the Burnett location. The site gets us closer to the Morgan Hill community. Part of our mission has always been to foster community involvement,” Cisewski said at the board meeting.
The Charter School has been criticized by trustees in the past because its demographics, particularly its proportion of Hispanic students, do not match those of the rest of the district. Students enroll in the Charter School by entering a lottery at the beginning of each school year.
