Castro community faces closure debate Castro community faces closure debate (March 11, 2005)

Parents, teaches to voice concerns

By Julie O'Shea

Starting this week, Castro Elementary parents, teachers and students will get a chance to formally address the school board since learning that their campus is being considered for closure in June.

Community forums will be held at Castro School on March 10 and March 16. And the school board is scheduled to vote on the proposal March 22.

Board President Ellen Wheeler shocked the school community earlier this month when she abruptly put forth a plan to close Castro and move the campus' English and Spanish dual immersion to Landels Elementary. Wheeler's proposal came nearly a month into the school closer debate, which had been focused on Slater Elementary.

Wheeler said her decision to look at Castro instead came after Slater parents pleaded for weeks to keep their Gladys Avenue campus open. Castro had been the second choice of the school closure task force. And Wheeler said she thought it was time to look at this possibility.

The proposal received support from trustees Gloria Higgins and Fiona Walter at the Feb. 16 board meeting. If the support holds, Wheeler's plan would be approved March 22, and the school district would begin the process of shutting the Escuela Avenue campus down and getting it ready to rent out.

District officials said that a combination of declining enrollment and revenue is forcing them to close a school this year. Leasing out a school site could bring the district an additional $400,000 a year.

Castro Principal Carla Tarazi said that teachers and administrators have been meeting with parents, many of whom do not speak English, to make sure they understand the proposal on the table.

Tarazi said that many of them are prepared to voice their concerns to the school board this week and next.

When the school board was considering closing Slater, the plan had called for moving the school's parent participation program over to Castro. And Castro's dual immersion program would have been moved to Landels.

A few Castro parents had complained during the Slater debate that if dual immersion moved across town to Landels, they won't be able to follow the program. Many Castro parents live in the apartment complexes surrounding the campus and most walk their children to school because they don't own cars.

The district is required by law to provide bus services to children displaced in a school closure.

Castro is located at 505 Escuela Ave. The community forums on March 10 and 16 both start at 6 p.m.

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

E-mail a friend a link to this story.