School closure decisions could come soon School closure decisions could come soon (September 10, 2004)

Task force will begin meetings again in October

By Julie O'Shea

Some concrete decisions over which one of the district's nine campuses may close next year will be made soon, said newly appointed Mountain View-Whisman Superintendent Eleanor Yick.

Yick said she will reconvene the school closure task force next month and hopes to make a final recommendation to the school board by January.

Despite passing a $1.6-million parcel tax in March, district officials say the extra money may not be enough to keep all nine campuses open. Closing a school could be the only way to balance the 2005-2006 budget.

"It's an involved process," said Yick, who sat on the district's school closure task force. "It's not a simple decision to make. It's not a simple decision to carry out."

Rebecca Wright, the district's finance chief, said Mountain View-Whisman trustees will need to decide at the beginning of 2005 whether to move forward with a school closure.

"Closing a school is quite an expensive process," Wright said. "You need to have some lead time."

Wright told the school board that if it closes a school and then rents out the property, the district could raise between $300,000 to $500,000 annually.

However, Yick added, if the district enrolls 100 to 150 new students, for example, then "we would not close a school." Early enrollment figures for this year show a slight decline of what officials estimated last spring. Enrollment for the entire district is currently around 4,300 students.

Declining enrollment, Wright said, has been a problem school districts across the state have faced over the last few years.

"You lose 200 or 300 kids, and that's a school," Wright said.

If the board does decide to close a school, displaced students will be enrolled at two or three of the district's other campuses. Teachers will also be dispersed, Yick said, but the principal will likely be let go.

It will be a new school board that will make the final decision. On Nov. 2, voters will usher in at least two new trustees. Rose Filicetti and Carol Fisher will both retire from the board at the end of this year. Incumbent Gloria Higgins, Juan Aranda, Michael Kelly, Rose Mary Roquero and Fiona Walter are campaigning for a seat in this fall's election.

The school district formed a school closure task force last fall after voters rejected the district's first parcel tax bid of $2.5 million.

The task force did not name any specific campus, but rather offered a set of criteria that board trustees could use if they did need to close a campus. Some of the issues looked at by the group included academic achievement, cultural, ethnic and language diversity, alternative programs, and health and safety issues.

The process of closing a school is a task Yick is familiar with since she's had to do it once before.

Yick was the superintendent of the Whisman School District the year before it merged with the bigger Mountain View School District in 2001. Due to declining enrollment, Yick ultimately decided to close Whisman School, where she had once worked as a principal for eight years.

"It was a different kind of dynamic than we will face this time around," Yick said. "I think we have to be pretty open and pretty honest. This is really a necessity."

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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