The meeting was well attended. A roll call for Committee Members was executed using a spreadsheet of names reviewed by principals. Elections were executed for officers. Phil Stover presented information regarding a plan to close Crown Point Elementary in AY 2011/12 and move the academic and music program to the Bayview Terrace campus. The plan included combining PBMS with MBHS on the MBHS campus during a future, undetermined academic year.
Chair's Presentation for MB Cluster Meeting
110919 Meeting
Meeting Minutes
110919 Meeting Minutes (BC)
Phil Stover's presentation regarding the School Realignment Committee's findings
School Realignment Mission Bay
Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/sep/14/sd-unified-begins-looking-at-school-closures/
SAN DIEGO — They have laid off teachers, cut bus routes and eliminated education programs.
Now San Diego Unified School District officials are laying the groundwork for potetial school closures to cope with an ongoing fiscal crisis.
The board of education on Tuesday authorized protocols that will start with a series of community meetings and could lead to the closure of ten schools. Trustees want parents and teachers to have a voice in the daunting decision of which campuses could be closed next fall.
About 30 of 200 schools meet a majority of closure criteria in ten of the district’s 16 high school clusters: Clairemont, Crawford, Henry, Hoover, Kearny, Madison, Morse, Point Loma, Serra and a cluster of atypical schools — including language academies and alternative campuses.
A cluster is a group of elementary and middle schools that feed into a high schools.
For every school that is closed or consolidated, administrators say the district would save up to $500,000, putting the total savings at about $5 million. Additional savings would come over time in the way of canceled Proposition S construction projects.
Shuttering schools is an emotional issue for parents, many of who chose their homes based on the neighborhood campus or attended it themselves.
“This is going to be an extremely difficult conversation,” said trustee Shelia Jackson.
Administrators have been meeting since January to identify schools that meet district closure criteria, including low or falling enrollment, an inability to draw neighborhood students, and poor or dropping academic performance.
Trustees want to consider other factors. For example, board President Richard Barrera wants to examine the proximity of charter and private schools to a campus slated for closure to prevent a loss of district enrollment. He also wants to consider academic progress and a school’s ability to close the achievement gap between ethnic groups.
San Diego Unified has threatened to close schools in the past, only to cancel those plans. North Park Elementary School, which shut its doors at the end of the 2008-09 academic year, is the only campus to be closed in recent memory.
Every time the issue comes up, it takes a toll on schools, said Amy Monroe, a parent at Crown Point Junior Music Academy.
“We lose families year after year because of rumors of closure,” she told trustees on Tuesday. “So if you are going to do this, do this.”
Phil Stover, deputy superintendent of business, declined to release the list of 30 schools that meet the district’s closure criteria. The San Diego Union-Tribune has filed a public records act request to get the information.
Closing schools will save the district money as it anticipates years of budget problems. A deficit of $57 million is projected for the $1.057 billion operating budget in the 2012-13 year; and a deficit of $65 million is forecast for the following year. The district could face midyear budget cuts this school year of up to $30 million.
That said, closing schools is more than a budget cut, it is also a way for the district to “right size itself,” said trustee Scott Barnett. Shutting down a school might be better than chipping away a the programs of all campuses, he said.
“I don’t believe we should say we’re looking at closing schools to solve next year’s budget problem,” Barnett said. “We need to look at right-sizing the district to meet our goals.”
The first school closure meeting will be held on Monday with the Mission Bay High School cluster. Others will be scheduled in the coming weeks and months. The school board could vote on school closures in November or December.