Cupertino district hits pause on school closures
The Cupertino Union School District has paused discussion on possible school closures in the wake of public outcry from parents and students in affected school communities.
At a special meeting last week, the district’s board opted to pursue other avenues to close a $5 million-$7 million budget deficit, including a parcel tax.
“School closures can only be taken off the table with the passage and implementation of this parcel tax,” the district warned Thursday in an email to staff and families. “If the board votes to move forward with a parcel tax measure and the (tax) fails to pass in May 2021, then the board will be forced to move forward on a contingency plan, which would include school closures.”
The board’s move comes less than a month after the district’s Citizens Advisory Committee presented six possible scenarios for school closures. Among the schools variously proposed for closure or consolidation were Blue Hills Elementary in Saratoga, West Valley Elementary in Sunnyvale, and Meyerholz, De Vargas, Dilworth and Muir elementary schools and Miller Middle School, all in West San Jose.
In response to the proposed closures, parents formed a “Save All Schools” committee made up of family members from all impacted school communities. Parents and students held three rallies and gathered more than 5,000 signatures on an online petition asking the district to hold off on school closures until after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kelly Crosby, a Regnart Elementary School parent and co-founder of the “Save All Schools” campaign, said she believes many parents in the district will support a parcel tax. Regnart was one of the schools in Cupertino named in the closure scenarios.
“Understandably, many parents want more information, which we are looking to the board to provide in this process as they make their decision,” Crosby wrote in an email to this newspaper. “However, it is our hope that many parents, community members and all stakeholders in CUSD will vote yes on this measure because it will be vital to solving the fiscal solvency dilemma that we have been experiencing.”
The board plans to discuss the amount and type of parcel tax the district would place on the ballot at a meeting Thursday.
One resident who lives within district boundaries recalled when the Cupertino Union School District closed five schools in a year in the late 1970s.
“A disproportionate part of the action was in the Sunnyvale section of the district,” Sunnyvale resident Eleanor Field wrote in an email to this news organization. “Soon after the schools were closed … empty schools were rented out as private educational facilities for many years afterward. Our children froze all winter in portable classrooms.”
Field added that the district should redraw its attendance boundaries instead of relying on enrollment projections when considering school closures.