Close, shrink or keep? Fate of Paso Robles elementary school may be decided this week
It has been more than a year since hackles were first raised over the prospect of the treasured Georgia Brown Elementary School campus being closed down, as the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District weighed how it would escape financial downfall.
And a lot has changed since then.
Namely, the school district is in much better fiscal health than it was back in the winter of 2020 — and the district is now looking to revise its cost-cutting strategies.
Now, the closure of Georgia Brown — or any elementary school campus for that matter — seems to be off the table.
Instead, the district is looking to revise its elementary school attendance boundaries and possibly move the Spanish-English dual immersion program to a different campus.
On Tuesday, the school board is set to advise the district on how to move forward during its meeting, which is scheduled to begin at about 6 p.m.
“It has been a very long, arduous road,” district Superintendent Curt Dubost said in an interview with The Tribune. “I hope that people will accept that we did do our darndest to be fully transparent. ... Yes, we made some mistakes, I hope people can afford us a little grace knowing that most of us were new to the district, we’re dealing with COVID and trying to clean up a mess that wasn’t our doing.”
In the year since a district committee suggested the district shutter Georgia Brown to cut costs by around $700,000 annually, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the district largely for its alleged discrimination against Latino and Spanish-speaking community members during the committee’s decision-making process.
The application for that committee was posted only in English, and all of its meeting notices, agendas and minutes were also only posted in English — despite about 35% of the district’s population being English-language learners whose primary language is Spanish.
Public schools in California with 15% or more of their population who speak a primary language other than English are required by law to provide all “notices, reports, statements or records” in that language to parents or guardians.
District now has money to keep all elementary schools open
The big shift in the district’s financial health is due to many factors — including a new administration that worked to dramatically cut expenses and one-time monies from the federal government for COVID-19-related costs. But perhaps the largest contributing factor is the increase in the number of unduplicated students in the district from about 53% to 64% this year.
Unduplicated students are English-language learners, qualify for free and reduced-price meals or are foster youth. Though the school receives a set amount of funding for each student that attends its schools, the district receives larger grants for each unduplicated student.
That translates into an additional annual revenue of roughly $1.5 to $1.7 million, according to Brad Pawlowski, the Paso Robles district’s chief business officer.
The district saw the jump in the number of unduplicated students because for the first time, parents were given the option to state their household income when filling out their kids’ school registration forms. Pawlowski said that illuminated a more accurate population of the district who fell under the low-income bracket.
So now the board is faced with two options that will redefine the district’s elementary school attendance boundaries and determine where the English-Spanish-language dual immersion program resides.
Two options for elementary schools
In short, option “A” would move the dual immersion program to the Glen Speck Elementary School campus and shrink the size of Georgia Brown Elementary School to about 317 students. Glen Speck’s population would grow from about 336 students to 642 students.
Option “B” would keep the dual immersion program at Georgia Brown Elementary School, and keep the school’s population at its current size of about 642 students.
Glen Speck and Georgia Brown elementary schools are about 1.5 miles away from each other on the west side of Paso Robles.
Both options involve huge remodels of the two schools funded under the Measure M voter-approved bond monies. Option “A” is estimated to total about $23 to $28 million and option “B” is estimated to cost about $25 to $30 million, the larger cost associated with a larger remodel required at Georgia Brown.
The district has about $30 million total left of Measure M bond funds available, according to Pawlowski, with other projects remaining such as the long-awaited aquatic complex, new roofing at Lewis Middle and Winifred Pifer Elementary schools, and painting and installing playgrounds.
Under option “A,” Glen Speck would no longer have an attendance boundary — meaning all students in the district would have the option to attend the school. Georgia Brown would absorb most of the school’s boundaries.
The opposite would be true under option “B.”
District staff, community split on two options
Which option the board will choose on Tuesday is unclear, and they could choose to modify the options as well.
The district staff is recommending the board choose option “A” largely because it cuts down the number of classrooms at Georgia Brown Elementary School and saves money on renovations.
The Paso Robles district currently has space in its elementary schools for nearly 4,800 students, even though it only has about 2,700 elementary students. That means there are many empty classrooms as the district’s enrollment continues to decline.
Some community members, however, are in favor of option “B” primarily because they fear the first option is unfair to Glen Speck Elementary School students as it keeps those students in portable classrooms until 2024 while they wait for the two campuses to be remodeled. Those students have been in portable classrooms for about three years already as the Glen Speck campus has been remodeled.
About 70% of Glen Speck students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, according to 2020-21 data from the California Department of Education. That’s the highest portion of low-income students at any Paso Robles school, the data show.
“Where’s the equity?” asked Glen Speck Elementary School teacher Terri Pearl at a board meeting on Feb. 5. “This has created the most (division) I’ve ever seen since I’ve been working for you guys for 32 years. Our staffs are competing against each other for a site; the west side’s communities are torn apart.”
“We’ve been there (in portable classrooms) three years, we have overcome every obstacle to create an environment where our kids learn and thrive,” Pearl continued.
Pearl and others called for the board to find a compromise between the two plans: Perhaps a way for the students at Glen Speck Elementary School to move into permanent classrooms as soon as their campus’s remodel is finished.
Whether the board chooses option “A,” “B” or some modification of the two will likely have long-lasting impacts on the community the district serves.
“This is the district’s chance to restore community trust,” said Yessenia Echevarria, founder of Mujeres de Acción and a co-founder of Paso People’s Action, who indicated she’s in favor of option “B.”
How to watch, participate in Paso Robles school board meeting
Community members can attend the Paso Robles school board meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at 800 Niblick Road.
All attendees must wear a face mask to avoid transmission of COVID-19.
You may present public comment during the meeting while in person, or phone into the district at 805-608-4230. Written public comments can be emailed to the district at info@pasoschools.org and must be 450 words or less.
The board meeting will also be live streamed on the district’s YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/3guPu1r.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 12:22 PM.
