The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to close Georgia Brown Elementary at a meeting Tuesday night.
The decision was made after the board received a recommendation from the District Advisory Committee that the campus was not safe.
The main safety hazard cited by the board was a “seismic anomaly” found during a geological study last May in which a potential fault line was detected beneath the campus.
Board Trustee, Joel Peterson said, “The anomaly changed the entire conversation.”
One Georgia Brown parent, Leanna Rostro, verbalized other safety concerns including overcrowding and pests in classrooms.
“We are overcrowded and our buildings are unsafe. The pest situation is so bad that my son and niece composed a song about befriending their classroom cockroaches,” Rostro said.
While some parents spoke up at the board meeting, many parents declined to comment regarding the school’s closure.
PRJUSD released a statement detailing their plan for Georgia Brown’s closure and redistribution of students.
They stated:
Last September, the Board of Trustees formed a District Advisory Committee (DAC), as recommended by the state Department of Education, to explore options for the relocation of the district’s Dual Immersion (DI) program currently housed at Georgia Brown Elementary School at 36th St. That site was to have been under major reconstruction, but the discovery of a “seismic anomaly” under it made that option unworkable.
The plan includes the following key points:
- All elementary schools will offer grades TK-6 next year to accommodate the redistributed Georgia Brown students.
- They determined to relocate their Dual Immersion program to either Lewis Middle School or Flamson Middle School.
- The Board will decide which middle school to relocate its middle school students to at the next board meeting on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.
- They will also cease construction/remodeling at the 36th St Georgia Brown site.
