District Names Schools for Possible Closure

District Names Schools for Possible Closure
11.07.05
By Nicole Achs Freeling
GreatSchools.net Correspondent

Nineteen schools, including Dream Schools, small schools, and schools for newly-arrived foreign students, will be considered for possible closure next year based on low enrollment and under-utilization of their facilities.

Grappling with a growing budget crisis and falling enrollment, the district, which has lost 1,000 students since last year, expects to close some schools at the end of this school year, although it does not yet know how many. At a meeting Monday of the Board of Education as a Committee of the Whole, school district staff presented a list of 12 elementary schools, five secondary schools and two high schools as candidates for closure or merger with another school. District staff reminded parents that inclusion on the list did not mean their school would be closed. Over the next two months, the schools will be evaluated across a range of criteria to select a few to close or merge.

Staff formulated its initial list based on two criteria: total enrollment and the ratio of enrollment to the size of the building. The list of elementary schools included all those with fewer than 250 students that were operating at less than 70 percent of the capacity of the building. For secondary schools, the list included those with fewer than 350 students operating at less than 70 percent capacity.

The schools on the list are:

• Cabrillo Elementary
• Chinese Education Center (elementary)
• John Muir Elementary
• John Swett Elementary
• John Ortega Elementary
• Malcolm X Academy (elementary)
• McKinley Elementary
• New Traditions Elementary
• Rosa Parks Elementary
• Sheridan Elementary
• Treasure Island Elementary
• Starr King Elementary
• Gloria R. Davis Middle School
• Enola D. Maxwell Middle
• Aim High Academy Middle School
• Luther Burbank Middle School
• Willie L. Brown, Jr. (middle school)
• June Jordan School For Equity (high school)
• Newcomer High School

Chief of Policy and Planning Myong Leigh said that staff had included every school that fell outside the capacity and enrollment criteria in an effort to let Board members make the decisions from there. "Our intent was to not prejudge whether commissioners felt this school or that school should continue to be considered," he said. The schools on the list will now be evaluated according to additional criteria, including academic performance, proximity to other schools, estimated savings in shutting the school, and continued availability of similar curricular programs.

The district will hold community meetings in November and December at each of the affected schools to gather input from the public. According to the proposed timeline, the district would make its final announcement about the closures in early January, enabling children in affected schools to participate in Round One of the enrollment lottery, for which applications are due January 13.

The district has made it a goal to explore consolidating and merging schools when possible, enabling the student body to be transferred en masse to another school rather than be dispersed throughout the system. As for the rest of the process, much has yet to be determined -- for example, whether to involve an advisory committee made up of members of the public and whether to remove any schools from the list before a final decision is made. Board member Jill Wynns noted that, as the Governor's budget figures will not be released until January, the district does not even know how many schools it will need to close to stay within its means.

Rick Reynolds, Vice President of the district Parent Advisory Council, asked the district to set up a community advisory committee to gather input from the public and make recommendations to the Board. Several parents and board members alike expressed concern about the appearance on the list of Aim High, June Jordan and other schools that are part of the small schools movement. These schools, which deliberately cap enrollment in order to offer more personalized learning, had many more students apply than the schools were able to accept.

Commissioner Eric Mar said he thought Jordan and Aim High should be removed from the list "because they are consciously small. When you look at the total requests for enrollment, you see these schools are highly sought after." But Commissioner Jill Wynns said evaluating these schools was part of the hard choices the district had to make. "Small schools were designed that way. The question is whether we can afford them."

Email comments to sfschoolnotes@greatschools.net