January 27, 2011
Revised recommendations for school closures in the Mt. Diablo district have brought a sense of relief to four schools while leaving three others fearing the worst.
"If you guys do decide to close Glenbrook, I want you to go to the neighborhood and tell them why," Glenbrook Middle School eighth-grader Miriam Zazueta told trustees Tuesday. "I’m not only asking, but I’m begging you to keep Glenbrook open."
After this and many other impassioned pleas from students, parents and teachers, Superintendent Steven Lawrence recommended narrowing the list of possible schools to close from seven to three, with the ultimate goal of closing two. He suggested closing Glenbrook Middle School, along with either Wren Avenue or Holbrook elementary schools in Concord.
He removed four schools from a list of recommendations developed by an advisory committee: Monte Gardens and Silverbrook elementary schools in Concord, as well as Sequoia Elementary and Sequoia Middle schools in Pleasant Hill.
"That’s awesome," Silverwood parent Gavin O’Connor said Wednesday. "Hopefully, they’ll do that. I’ll be very happy if that happens."
Still, he said, he was sad for the parents and students at schools still targeted for closure. He had been so concerned about the school closure process that he wrote a letter to the board questioning the makeup of the advisory committee.
Two committee members, he wrote, were employees of Dianne Adair day care
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centers, which operate on nine district campuses. He said that the presence of Todd Porter and Debbie Trimmel on the closure committee presented a conflict of interest that could have skewed the voting toward sites without their facilities.
A friend of O’Connor’s read the letter during the board meeting. Trimmel and Porter told the Times that they disclosed their employer to the committee and that the process was fair.
"(Porter) didn’t know what I voted, I didn’t know what he voted," Trimmel said. "To be totally honest, I don’t remember how I voted. It was a private ballot. Nobody put their names on it."
Porter wrote in an e-mail that one scenario included two schools where Dianne Adair day care centers operate: Monte Gardens and Sequoia elementaries.
"My individual votes had zero impact on the final three scenarios that were presented to the board," he wrote.
Others expressed different concerns about the closure recommendation.
Glenbrook parent Mindy Dokken told the board she has filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights arguing that the district is targeting low-income schools with diverse student populations. The district has received a $1.7 million grant to "transfor m" Glenbrook from a low-performing school over three years, but it could lose nearly $1.2 million of that if the school closes.
Lawrence did not say why he removed Silverwood from the list of recommendations, although he noted that County Connection buses do not run near the school. He said it would cost about $3.5 million to build additional classrooms for Monte Gardens and Sequoia students if those campuses were closed.
Although the district initially expected to close three schools to save $1.5 million a year due to state budget cuts, Lawrence estimated the district could instead close two schools and consolidate the Crossroads, Summit/TLC/Nueva Vista small necessary high school programs on the closed elementary site.
The district could save additional money by locating a special education program on the closed Glenbrook site, along with office space for Measure C staff, he said. Finally, he said the district could save $91,000 by redrawing boundaries around Meadow Homes Elementary in Concord to eliminate the need to bus overflow students to other sites.
Lawrence said the district would work with County Connection to try to ensure that buses would be available for students displaced by school closures.