The closure of one school within the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District has been a conversation that has lingered for quite some time, as some district staff members indicate.
The proposed plan coincides with the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District's five-year struggle with declining enrollment. We're still awaiting detailed figures on the extent of their financial losses.
Brad Pawlowski, assistant superintendent at the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District said that declining enrollment does lead to a reduction in the "amount of revenue that we receive.”
In response to the challenges, the board of trustees took action back in September by establishing a District Advisory Committee, or DAC, tasked with reviewing enrollment projections, district capacity and the future of the Dual Immersion program — a program that gives students an opportunity to become bilingual and bi-literate, according to the district's webpage detailing the program.
The DAC's primary goal is to provide the board of trustees with a recommendation on the potential closure of a school and the growth of the Dual Immersion program.
To date, they have held three meetings, with the most recent one taking place just this Thursday. At these gatherings, concerned parents have voiced their opinions, expressing how displacing over 400 students to different schools may impact their children.
“If they got like split up and put at different schools or even a different teacher, I think it would have probably a huge effect on him,” Allie Deline says of his son who’s a student at Winifred Pifer Elementary School.
Another parent, who came by the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District with her children for a free flu shot Thursday tells me she was unaware of this proposed action, Her daughter, Layla Jewell, shared that it would be a difficult situation if her school were to close.
“I’d be a little scared and sad, a little bit of both,” Jewell says.
However, there is currently only one school under consideration for closure, Georgia Brown Elementary School, according to Pawlowski.
The school currently requires an estimated $15 million in modernization costs. Closing it would free up funds to be invested in other schools in the area, potentially leading to expanded programs and extracurricular options.
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“We're able to with a greater student body, we're able to offer more programs, could be anything from more club options to more after-school sport options,” Pawlowski said,
However, locals like Jill Berry., an elementary school teacher and mother of two Georgia Brown students, hope for a plan from the district that has the least impact on their neighborhoods and students
“Is there a way to keep all schools open and still stay solvent?" Berry asked at the public hearing on Thursday. "If there is, shouldn’t that be the only solution we are considering if we’re truly here for the students?”
During past meetings, Pawlowski says that he has gotten to understand residents’ viewpoints and concerns.
“I completely understand that is emotional and there's a lot of feelings around that.”
