Officials scrap disputed plans to close a school
In a dramatic turnaround after weeks of community protests, Novato Unified School District officials said they are abandoning plans to close an elementary school in the near future.
Superintendent Kris Cosca, addressing the board of trustees on Tuesday, said the district “should take a pause.”
“I believe our No. 1 priority needs to be the safe and full reopening of our schools in the 2021-22 school year and the enrollment of new and returning students into our system,” Cosca said. “This needs to be our focus without the distraction of school closure.”
Mary Jane Burke, the county superintendent of schools, told trustees she was stepping in to help stabilize district finances. The district faces a $2.8 million budget deficit by 2022-23 and has lost more than 300 students in the last few years — but Burke said it was not the right time to close a school in order to save approximately $400,000.
“All schools are facing unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Burke told the trustees. “In addition, NUSD is also dealing with several significant issues related to staff transitions, budget shortfalls, personnel issues and the significant community unrest caused by the potential for a school closure.”
Burke asked trustees for three volunteers to serve on an ad hoc advisory committee to meet weekly with her and her staff to address other solutions for the district’s budget issues and enrollment declines.
Trustees Derek Knell, Julie Jacobson and Diane Gasson were chosen for the committee, which will meet on Friday mornings.
“We are thrilled that NUSD has decided to put a stop to the closure of Lu Sutton, but are also very realistic that the fight to keep our schools open is not over,” Lu Sutton parent Michael Seville, one of dozens to rally against the school closures in recent weeks, said Wednesday in an email.
Seville and scores of other parents have said the school closure selection process that occurred over the last few months through a district committee was unfair.
“The involvement of the Marin County Office of Education and Mary Jane Burke is welcomed and, quite frankly, needed,” Seville said.
Lu Sutton Elementary School, which the committee decided to recommend for closure, consists of more than 60% Latino students, and similarly high numbers of youths from low-income families and those who are English learners. Parents said trustees who would approve Lu Sutton for closure should publicly rescind their adoption of the district’s “equity imperative declaration” in 2018.
“Our community stood strong and this is a great example to the community, and especially to the students within NUSD, that change is possible if you stand up and speak out,” Seville said. “The hard work of fighting for equity and transparency continues, but last night was a great first step.”
Burke said her office would also conduct an “independent investigation of personnel matters and assisting with an analysis of the financial stability of the district and the steps that will be needed to insure stability into the future.”
On Wednesday, Burke declined to give any details on the personnel issues, except to say there were “potential allegations of a hostile work environment, but not specific to any one office.” She said she was not aware of any complaints that had been filed or any lawsuits.
“We’ll be investigating all that,” she said.
Bob Henry, a lawyer for the county office, sat in on the trustees’ meeting and will work with the ad hoc committee.
Lu Sutton parent Mary Gembowski-Williams she and others at the school appreciate Burke’s involvement.
“We are extremely grateful that she recognizes that this is a huge issue and is listening to the community,” Gembowski-Williams said.
She and a crowd of other parents rallied outside the district office Tuesday before the board meeting. The focus of the rally — and of public comments during the board meeting — was equity.
Parents said during public comment Tuesday that all eight district elementary schools should have received equal scrutiny at the beginning of the closure review process. Instead, the volunteer committee didn’t set up the top five review criteria until they were down to three schools — all three with large diverse student populations — near the end of the process, parents said.
“We had a strong show of support at our rally last night,” Gembowski-Williams said Wednesday. “Several speakers during the meeting were asking the board to uphold their equity imperative that they adopted not so long ago.”
Burke told trustees that she has previously stepped in to help Marin school districts eight other times over the decades since 1994 that she has served as county superintendent.
“All dynamic organizations and school districts go through periods of challenge and adversity,” Burke said. “The key is how you deal with the challenge and adversity. The leaders of the Novato Unified School District are dealing with their challenges head on and we are here to support them every step of the way.”