The pressing question on Slater’s playground last week was: “Where will you be next year?”
One fourth grade girl clutched her friend’s arm and asked, “You’re going to Landels, right?”
The response: “No, I’m going to Huff.”
Last Wednesday marked Slater’s last day of school for at least the next five years. Staff, teachers and parents worked to make Slater’s final year memorable for all 364 students, who will be split up between the remaining six elementary schools in the Mountain View Whisman School District next fall.
For the most part, students appeared antsy with typical last-day-of-school energy, but they also knew that when they walked away from Slater that afternoon, they would be saying farewell to their school and to some of their classmates and teachers.
Teacher Bonnie Malouf’s classroom was completely packed up in boxes last Wednesday, with half the room as storage and half as floor space for the kids to sit. For her last class, she had students take turns standing up on a chair in the front of the room and talking about what they’d miss about their school.
“We can bring a little bit of Slater School with us, wherever we go,” one student read.
Second grade teacher Sally Topete wanted to wait until after her kids left to pack up most of her supplies before the movers came on June 20. Most of all, she said, she’ll miss working with her Slater colleagues. She is the only teacher moving to Monta Loma School in the fall.
“We built such friendships, such a way of working here,” Topete said.
Her second graders had mixed feelings about leaving Slater to move to their new schools. Claudia Sanchez, 7, will head to Monta Loma next year and said, “My school is bigger. It’s like high school. It’s this big,” as she stretched her arms out as far as they would go.
“I’m going to cry. I like this school,” said second grader Alondra Salazar, who will move to Landels in the fall.
For fourth graders in Linda Carrillo’s class, last Wednesday was very emotional.
“I want to cry so bad,” said red-eyed Heidi Melgar, who will attend Landels next year. “I thought they weren’t going to close it. I thought we were going to finish fifth grade here but I guess we’re not.”
Carrillo said she’ll be sad to leave the school where she began her teaching career four years ago.
“That is the tragedy for me,” she said. “I feel so supported here. I don’t think there will be another place like Slater.”
Teachers and students are not the only ones who will relocate in the fall. Morning custodian Abe Farias has worked at Slater for 19 years, and like the teachers, he’s gotten to know many students and will miss them.
Farias said he’s “excited but nervous” about moving to Theuerkauf, but he said, “I went to the school and it’s nice. I like it.”
Throughout the school year, Principal Nicki Smith, teachers and parents planned activities to prepare students for Slater’s closure. The Parent-Teacher Association funded a memory book that has pictures of all students and lists where everyone will be next year. The school developed a timeline of Slater’s history for its 50th birthday and gave every student a library book for their new school.
Parent volunteers helped plant a commemorative crabapple tree while kids crowded around to watch. The tree will have a plaque that reads: “In honor of the Slater community who called this school ‘Home’ from 1956 to 2006.”
At the end of the day, Smith stood at the front of the school while hoards of children approached her to give her hugs, notes and gifts.
After parting ways with her students at noon on Wednesday, Smith said she thought the school did a good job of easing the transition for the kids.
“They’ll do fine wherever they go and that’s what matters.”
But then, holding back tears, she said quietly, “But this day is the hardest.”
Where will they go?
Principal Nicki Smith will leave the district to head a charter school in East Palo Alto, and Slater teachers already know where they will move in the fall.Five teachers will go to Bubb School, four to Landels, and Huff, Theuerkauf and Monta Loma will each receive one new Slater teacher. Seven teachers will shift to Castro School along with the PACT (Parent-Child-Teacher) program.
Due to Slater closing, the district’s average elementary school size will increase from 417 to 504, according to an enrollment report given at the May 18 board meeting. Of Slater’s 364 students from the 2005-06 school who are not either leaving the district or attending middle school in the fall, 45 percent, or 135 students, will go to Landels; 32 percent to Castro; 7 percent to Monta Loma, 6 percent to Bubb; 5 percent to Theuerkauf; and 3 percent to Huff.
This past year, the district spent $25,000 on transition costs, including moving expenses, planning for the transition, and a celebration for Slater, according to Chief Financial Officer Rebecca Wright.
But Wright said that with Slater closed, the district will save a yearly amount of $334,000 from the parcel tax and receive $650,000 from Google each year for the next five years while the company leases the site.
One concern with Slater’s closure has been transporting neighborhood kids to their new schools. The district will not purchase additional buses, but is currently working on designing new routes, including two more bus stops to the route at Devonshire Park, at Devonshire Avenue near Whisman Road, and Creekside Park, at Easy Street and Gladys Avenue.
“We’re hoping we can operate smarter and manage to get everybody on the buses without having to add a bunch more buses,” Wright said.
Also, the city will spend $400,000 to improve the tricky Whisman Road-Dana Street intersection so kids can walk to Landels safely, said Tim Ko, assistant public works director for the city. The project will be completed by fall.
E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com
