San Jose education leaders delay decision on school closures

The leaders of a local school district are postponing a decision to close a handful of schools.

The Franklin-McKinley School District board of trustees voted 3-2 Tuesday to delay deciding which schools will close by two weeks. Board President George Sanchez and Trustees Rudy Rodriguez and Marc Cooper voted to delay the decision, while Vice President Steven Sanchez and Trustee Hong Ha Hoang voted against it. The struggling school district faces declining enrollment and an almost $23 million budget shortfall. Enrollment has decreased since the 2011-12 school year from 9,673 to 5,766 students, according to the district.

“This has been an extremely difficult time,” Steven Sanchez said at the meeting. “Over the past months, we have reviewed hundreds of pages of information. We’ve evaluated the budget numerous times. We have sought financial assistance. We’ve looked at other options. We still have lost 40% of our enrollment since 2010. Over half of our schools are 50% used or less. That is not sustainable.”

The district’s consolidation advisory committee has recommended closing three of the district’s 16 schools: Los Arboles Literacy & Technology Academy, Ramblewood Elementary and McKinley Elementary. The committee didn’t reach consensus on closing Captain Jason M. Dahl, Santee and R. F. Kennedy elementary schools.

Trustee Rudy Rodriguez said he’d never support closing schools and urged alternative plans.

“We’re placing undo anxiety and stress on those children and those parents by even talking about closing those schools,” he said.

Holding signs saying, “Let our kids grow close to home,” and “Please don’t close our school. We are a family,” Franklin-McKinley Education Association members, students and families rallied before the meeting. They urged board members to find alternative funding rather than close the schools.

Teacher Celeste Dolezal said the board doesn’t have sufficient information to make a decision.

“If the board is able to gather more complete information, they might be able to make more reasoned recommendations that might not lead to as many school closures or school closures at all,” she told San José Spotlight.

Public schools across the state are experiencing declining enrollment. Locally, the Berryessa Union School District and Alum Rock Union School District are closing multiple campuses.

George Sanchez said he’d like to speak with state Sen. Dave Cortese before deciding how many schools to close. Cortese emailed the board ahead of the meeting to encourage trustees to delay their decision until after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget revision is released — when there may be $1.8 billion in funding available to provide immediate relief to local school districts.

“I believe it’s worth putting off a final decision if there is a way to pursue additional funding with the help of Sen. Cortese,” he told San José Spotlight. “I believe we owe it to our students and their parents.”

But Superintendent Juan Cruz said he doubted Cortese could confirm the amount the district would receive within two weeks, when the board will weigh which schools to close. Cruz said if the district closed five schools it would save about $5 million.

To parent Leticia Padilla, keeping schools open is crucial to students’ well-being.

“The schools they’re planning to close are in low-income communities,” Padilla told San José Spotlight. “To have these children …  some had their parents; some are dealing with the ICE crisis. Now to have their schools and teachers ripped away from under them, it’s another blow these children don’t deserve.”

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].