On Tuesday night, emotions ran high as the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District voted on a major decision affecting the two middle schools in the city: Daniel Lewis Middle School and George H. Flamson Middle School.
In a 5-2 decision, the district opted to merge the Georgia Brown Dual Immersion school kids into Daniel Lewis Middle School, converting it into a K-6 grade school while Flamson Middle School would absorb the 7th and 8th grade kids from Lewis.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Brad Pawlowski, the decision came down to two factors: facilities and cost.
“The facility side really kind of helped drive some of that decision," Pawlowski said.
Flamson was built originally as a high school and subsequently became a middle school while Lewis was originally built to accommodate an elementary school, meaning it was deemed by staff and the majority of board members that Lewis would be able to adjust to becoming a K-6 school more so than Flamson.
Cost also played into the decision.
“When you look at the cost to improve facilities, the cost in option two was lower,” Pawlowski added.
It was quite a bit lower. The proposed facility changes were drastically different with the estimated costs in option one to move Georgia Brown kids to Flamson at $27,555,500, while the agreed upon option two cost estimates were far less at $9,692,500.
Regardless of those two points, for some, the verdict was a tough pill to swallow.
“There’s a number of teachers whose assignments are going to change drastically, and that's a little bit unnerving,” said longtime Lewis Middle School science and robotics teacher Justin Ward. "But at the same time, there's a lot of opportunity coming from this change."
There were still many other factors at play, some of which were emotionally charged and now, parents and teachers at Lewis are forced to embrace change.
“This has been a real family for me and for others over almost the past decade," Ward said. "That is something that is going to be difficult to let go of.”
Flamson Principal Audra Carr attended Tuesday's school board meeting and despite the move going in her school's favor, meaning they'll only need to adjust for the incoming 7th and 8th graders from Lewis, she recognized that the changes required will be difficult for Lewis Middle School staff, parents and children.
“It's going to be really hard for them to have to uproot," Carr admitted. "I know that there was just a lot of mixed feelings that everybody had.”
But now begins the hard work of logistical planning for the new kids that will join Lewis and Flamson as well as the inevitable staff changes that will have certain teachers making moves to different facilities.
“We're really just trying to focus on bringing everybody together and making it a unified, welcoming family that we've had here at Flamson for the last five years," Carr said.
With the remainder of the Measure M Bond funds, an estimated $31 million, the two main action items from Tuesday evening's meeting, which included the Georgia Brown relocation and the Paso High School aquatic center, were both settled.
“I think ultimately, you look back at the campuses, you look back at the centralized location of a magnet program, Lewis really became the right decision," Pawlowski stated. "Going the way that it did last night did allow for additional projects to be able to take place and one of those is the pool."
