March 11, 2004

SJUSD board votes to close three elementary
schools in emotionally charged meeting
Erikson, Hammer and Hester will shut their doors
after June 2004

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

During a board meeting the night of March 4, the San Jose Unified School District board of trustees voted 3 to 2 to close Erikson, Hammer and Hester Elementary Schools at the end of the school year.

“The district is facing serious financial problems,” noted trustee Richard Garcia. “In spite of deep and painful cuts, the growing deficit and significant decline in student enrollment has caused us to consider school consolidation.”

Garcia sympathized with those who would be affected by this decision. “The closing of a school forces children to a new campus, to a new neighborhood, to have a new teacher and to lose old friends,” he said. “Some programs that have been very successful will end, and teachers will be forced to abandon the classrooms they have put their hearts and souls into preparing for their students.”

Now or later
Associate Superintendent Gerald Matranga noted that if the board didn't make the decision to close the schools now, they'd be faced with the same situation next year and would have spent their reserve money, requiring future cuts in structural programs.

“District revenue has declined by $6 million over the last three years,” he stated. “The state today owes us $8 million, which we probably won't see for another three or four years, if at all.”

In moving testimonies, parents, students, teachers and principals poured their hearts out, asking the board of trustees to spare their schools.

“Our children are more than numbers!” declared Hammer parent Tamsen McGinley. “These are our children, and I ask you, what would you do if they were your children? How would you respond if your children were faced with what you're asking our children to do? You are uprooting them. You are destroying the community that we have created, and that they love. You're asking us to give too much.”

Mexican American Political Association member Danny Garza supported postponing the vote on school closings until there was a meeting of the minds between parents and the school district. In response, Superintendent Linda Murray noted that while delaying their decision would allow more time for discussion, in order to provide a smooth transition for children changing schools, they must begin now.

“We will begin kindergarten enrollment the first of April,” Murray said. “The time has come to make the decision, whatever that decision is.”

Broken hearts
Student Zindia Solorio said that to her, Hester felt like home. “When I heard about Hester closing, I cried. My heart was broken,” she said. “If you close Hester, my dreams won't come true. Please don't close Hester. I want my school. I want my teachers. It is almost my birthday and my present would be not to close Hester.”

“The kids are talking to you. You have to open your hearts and ears and listen to them,” Hester parent Laurie Acosta urged the board of trustees. She expressed her concern that transferring southern Latino students to the northern side would result in gang conflict.

“Are you ready to have all that chaos?” she questioned. “You're going to send our children to that environment when we have a strong community. You're going to destroy our children. You're going to destroy our families,” she warned. “Let us help you make the right choice.”

Teacher Robi McClure affirmed that although Erikson faced the challenges of socioeconomic hardship and second-language learners, it still managed to meet the API and AYP goals year after year. “At a time when political leaders wonder how to attract and retain qualified teachers to the schools facing these challenges, Erikson's teachers are not looking to move,” she affirmed. “We are where we want to be. Together we've built a teaching team that is a model of real reform and closing the achievement gap. We urge the board to consider all of the alternatives. It's not too late to do the right thing.”

Outpouring of support
Diane Hemmes, principal at Hammer School, the district's Montessori magnet expressed her appreciation for the caring members of the Hammer community. “At Hammer, I've witnessed it firsthand as we collaborate to maintain the best educational experience possible,” she said. “Anyone associated with Hammer is proud of the academic and social achievements of the students. The outpouring of support for this school...has been truly overwhelming.”

Hester principal Erin Green observed that Hester is a fantastic school made up of caring teachers, staff members, students and parents. “Hester's success has not been by chance, but is the direct result of a long, deliberate, committed process,” she said. “If Hester is to close, I have the utmost confidence that its staff, community, students and myself will carry on all of Hester's strengths and be a benefit to whatever school and community we may become a part of.”

Resident Tony Macias urged the board to reconsider. “Ask yourselves, before you vote, if we've done everything we could to avoid this difficult decision,” Macias asked. “It comes down to one thing: whether or not you think this plan should be accepted. Do you have problems with any aspects of the plan as it is? I doubt all board members are 100 percent convinced that this is the only way to cure our financial woes as a district.”

“Despite what my wife says, I don't believe all of you are ogres. I believe you all got into this education field for the same reason as myself, to help the kids. If even one thing about this whole process makes you doubt, do not accept this plan,” he continued. “I tell my son all the time to live an honorable life, to do what you know is right, because there's nothing like looking in the mirror and being at ease with what you see. I'm asking the same thing of the board.”

Prior to voting, the board members took a moment to respond to public commentary and to reflect and discuss their positions on closing the three schools.

“Throughout this process, I remained open to all of the material presented to the board,” trustee Richard Garcia said. “The motion before us to close three elementary schools is the most difficult decision I will have to make as a trustee. From the very beginning, I knew I would support the recommendation of the committee, and the superintendent, unless I believed that the process established by this board had not been followed or was seriously flawed. It is my opinion that the process was followed and that the board recommendation reflects the criteria approved by the board. Therefore, I will be supporting the superintendent's recommendation.”

Trustee Jorge Gonzalez revealed that he was experiencing a full range of emotions, including anger. “I'm very angry that we are all here [making] this decision," he said. “At the same time, I feel sad and very proud. We have a tremendous community—that is why it is so difficult to make this decision. I joined the board because I wanted to create a situation where all children would get an equal opportunity...to get to the same level because of education. I'm committed to this effort and to the children.”

“Here we have the sixth largest economy in the world, and we are nickel and diming our kids. That is what I'm angry about,” he continued. “We haven't, as a community, taken our state representatives to task. We are in this situation because of the state budget and because of the economy.”

Gonzalez noted that the alternative plan also called for the closure of three, although different, schools. “So some schools need to be closed. The issue right now is which schools, and we are all saying, ‘not my school.' I wish I could tell you that I'm going to vote against it, but I'm going to vote for it,” he noted. “I don't do it happily. It's really hard, but I'd like to tell everybody that we're going to get through this, because we have gone through worse.”

Magnet versus neighborhood
Trustee Carol Myers paused while closely examining enrollment figures of district schools. “Some schools have lower enrollment than others, and they become the ones we have to look at to close, but if only a percentage of the children in that boundary are attending, where are they going?” she asked. Myers asserted that 60 percent or less of northern and central school students attended their neighborhood schools; she held magnet schools responsible.

“The real dilemma we have come across with these magnet programs is they're drawing neighborhood children away. We need to get back to neighborhood schools in this district...or we're going to be back here in two years having to close more schools,” said Myers, who stated that if the neighborhood schools were not up to par, it was the school board's responsibility to improve them.

“Erikson is a nice neighborhood school and has quite a diversified population,” she said. “However, it was losing enrollment because neighborhood families were going elsewhere. I don't think it's fair...to say we put magnet programs surrounding you, and people chose to go there, therefore we're going to close your school. The bottom line is, we're going to have to close schools and sadly, sooner than later.”

“This is not a pleasant event at all,” school board President Gary Rummelhoff said. “It really is about the money, but it's about tradeoffs, too. It's a difficult situation, but if we don't close [elementary] schools, the alternative may be to go back to looking at cutting sixth period [electives] of middle schools. That has a very direct impact on the classroom.”

On the positive side, Rummelhoff noted that there are other good schools in the district, and the teachers and staff might seed new thoughts for new programs at their new schools.

“If we postpone the decision and spend another $1.6 million for the next year to keep these schools open, we'd probably have to close another school,” he commented. “In some respects, it's less painful to do it sooner.”

Keep Erikson alive
In a last-minute effort, trustee Veronica Grijalva Lewis asked the board to amend the motion on the table to remove Erikson from the list of schools considered for closure. “I apologize to my fellow board members,” she said. “I've listened to every one of you, but it doesn't change my gut feeling about what I need to do in asking for your consideration for one school. I believe that Erikson shouldn't be considered because they are a small school...because of where they are located, and that is exactly the reason they were chosen rather than other schools.”

Unfortunately for Grijalva Lewis, the vote failed 3-2, with trustee Myers being the only other supporter of the proposed amendment to save Erikson. Following this pattern, the board of trustees voted 3-2 to close all three schools, with Rummelhoff, Garcia and Gonzalez in favor of the motion, and Grijalva Lewis and Myers against.

In the 2004-05 school year, Erikson students will attend Allen or Terrell. The Montessori Program, currently at Hammer, will transfer to Galarza, and Hammer students may continue to attend it there, or return to their neighborhood schools. Hester students will attend Cory, Grant, Horace Mann, or Trace elementaries.