MPUSD considers closing school
SEASIDE >> Despite rumors to the contrary, Highland Elementary School is not set to close in the coming days according to a message Principal Hecate Rosewood wrote to the school community Friday.
“We understand that there are rumors spreading that Highland Elementary is closing next week. We are not sure where families are receiving this information, but we wanted to let you know that this is NOT TRUE,” Rosewood said in the message.
The message came three days after the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District board decided to schedule more stakeholder meetings in Seaside as the district looks at closing a school amid declining enrollment. According to MPUSD Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh, the board asked him last spring to look at the future of the school district.
The Vision 2025+ Task Force
— made up of community leaders, parents, staff members and heads of the collective bargaining groups — was created in August to look at historical enrollment data, future enrollment predictions, student achievement data and the size of the schools to come up with recommendations for the board to consider moving forward.
Districtwide enrollment projections show a consistent decline, continuing as enrollment goes under 9,000 by 2025 before the numbers start to rebound in 2029.
One of the proposals to combat declining enrollment would be to close Highland Elementary School, located at 1650 Sonoma Ave. in Seaside, as soon as the 2020-2021 school year.
“It’s certainly something that’s really hard on a community, so we want to make sure we’re engaging transparently and getting people’s input,” Diffenbaugh said. “It’s tough, but I think a lot of districts across California — particularly coastal districts or high cost-of-living districts — are experiencing declining enrollment and we’re no different.”
If the district went ahead with closing Highland Elementary, part of the plan would be to move the Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula to the campus.
“One consideration is that currently the majority of students who attend (the
Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula) live within the Highland, King, Ord Terrace zone, so we’d actually be moving the school closer to where the kids currently are and we’re solving an issue we’ve been hearing for some time of families having to cross federal land in order to get to (the Dual Language Academy),” Diffenbaugh said. “Given the heightened concern of this administration and the attitude towards undocumented individuals, that’s certainly a concern that’s in the community that we’d like to address.”
The current site of the Dual Language Academy, 225 Normandy Road in Seaside, would shift to a swing campus where schools could temporarily relocate for a year while their permanent campuses undergo renovation.
“Instead of doing the work while the kids are there, we could for a year’s time move them to (the current site of the Dual Language Academy) and get the modernization done faster and less expensively and then move them back,” Diffenbaugh said.
After 15 stakeholder engagement meetings and a districtwide survey, the task force found enthusiasm for one of the proposals: moving sixth grade to the elementary level, leaving smaller middle schools with only seventh and eighth grades. The potential closure of Highland Elementary was among the concerns listed in the feedback the task force heard.
In a message sent to all MPUSD families the day after last week’s board meeting, the district emphasized no changes have been made.
“At this time no decisions have been made on a particular learning model or about any school consolidations,” it read. “The district will continue engaging the community to gather additional input.”
In the message from the Highland Elementary principal to parents, Rosewood said the school will keep families, staff and community members informed throughout the entire process.
“There is NO NEED to worry about transferring your child to a different school for the next school year,” Rosewood said in the letter. “If a decision is made, we will let families know and allow for time to submit a transfer request.”
After holding more meetings, the task force will return to the MPUSD board with more input and the trustees will decide if the changes will be implemented.
“We don’t want to rush a decision, but at the same time we don’t want to drag this out into the summer where people don’t know the plans for next year,” Diffenbaugh said.