Some big changes are on the horizon for a couple of the elementary schools in Paso Robles following a recent school board meeting.
For 14 months, Paso People’s Action has been rallying to keep Georgia Brown Elementary School open.
“We accomplished that so that was a huge win,” said Yessenia Echevarria, Paso People’s Action Community Organizer/Co-Founder.
During the meeting on February 8, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District’s Board of Trustees determined the Dual Immersion Spanish Language Magnet Program’s fate: to keep it open and later renovate the school.
“We feel there is an urgent need up in that end of town to have its own neighborhood school up there,” said Christopher Arend, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees President.
The board also decided that the students from Georgia Brown Elementary School will ultimately swap schools with students at Glen Speck Elementary, for good.
Construction is nearly complete on Glen Speck, paid for through Measure M funds. During construction, students have been in portables.
“The language in Measure M was that these children get a brand new school and will get to go back,” Echevarria said. “That language was not honored so those families feel disenfranchised. Those families do not feel heard or seen.”
The board says the swap is because it’ll better fit the number of those enrolled at each with a capacity of 650 at the future dual immersion and reduced capacity to about 400 at the other campus on 36th Street.
“And save some money on not building such a large campus and devote that campus to really servicing the neighborhood on that end of town,” Arend concluded.
This topic is expected to be discussed again during the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting on February 22.
Paso People’s Action also filed several complaints to the Office of Civil Rights related to the possible closure of Georgia Brown.
