Study Session Raises More Questions on School Closures

Questions, questions, questions – that’s what the Mount Diablo school board and many of the 300 audience members had Tuesday night at a study session about the proposal to close Concord’s Westwood Elementary and turn it into a school for sixth-graders from Glenbrook and El Dorado middle schools.

• What would happen to millions in funding grants for students at Glenbrook Middle School when the students moved?
• What would happen to the district’s deaf and hard-of-hearing student program at Westwood?
• What would happen to the district’s five Necessary Small High Schools and the program for teen mothers if they are moved or consolidated to closed school sites?
• Could the district sell the Willow Creek Center, which houses administrative programs and the district’s school for expelled students?

Westwood and Silverwood school supporters filled the Glenbrook gym as Mount Diablo school trustees discussed the implications of trustee Gary Eberhart’s Feb. 8 proposal to close Westwood as an elementary school to accommodate the overflow of middle-schoolers when all Glenbrook students moved to El Dorado Middle School.

Superintendent Steven Lawrence and his staff attempted to answer the board’s questions asked at last week’s meeting and this one, but didn’t have all the answers – especially whether funding for lunch programs and school-improvement grants would follow the Glenbrook students.

Lawrence said he had informal discussions with the office of the State Superintendent of Schools about whether the funds could move.

“Is this definitive or are we just guessing?” asked trustee Cheryl Hansen.

“Until we submit something in writing, they’re not saying anything definitive,” Lawrence said.

“So it’s still a question,” Hansen replied.

Some members of the School Closure Committee returned to answer why Westwood never made the list of schools to close.

“The implication [of the committee’s directive] was to cut $1.5 million with as little disruption as possible," said committee member John Ferrante. ”We think we did that. With Westwood, the implications are large – traffic, neighborhoods splitting up.”

Splitting Glenbrook students among three schools made more sense from a student viewpoint, said committee member Jonathan Roselin.

“Where would students migrate to if [Glenbrook] closed? There are [schools] a lot closer than El Dorado,” he said.

Audience members also had many questions for the board.

About 21 of the 397 children at Westwood attend the district’s deaf and hard-of-hearing program. Those students go on to El Dorado and Concord High School, all within a block of each other.

This was why Meredith Wakeman, a mother of a deaf third-grader at Westwood, wants the program to stay where it is.

“Do you know that in California most deaf children leave high school with a fifth-grade reading level?” she asked the board. “But last year in the Mount Diablo district, 100 percent of our deaf went to college. That’s because of the proximity of the three schools, which mentor and tutor and offer role models for our deaf children.”

Shirley Clifton, a deaf mother whose deaf daughter attends Westwood, spoke through an interpreter. “I went to Westwood and my husband, who is deaf, went to Westwood and this is why we sent our daughter. Sarah works very hard there. Please find it in your heart to keep Westwood open.”

Toby Randolph, a Westwood parent, said he was concerned about changing the demographics of the schools from elementary-school students to more teenagers.

“What about the increase in crime? What impact on the Concord Police Department for additional police presence?”

One parent noted that some students from Glenbrook taking public transportation to El Dorado would spend more than an hour on a bus or BART, and could spend as much as $5.75 each day – or spend more than an hour walking each way.

Karen Benlinder had questions about afterschool daycare if Westwood students move to Mountain View Elementary School.

“The YMCA cap is 50 students and would cost $225 more [than Westwood’s] program,” she said. “There’s no homework assistance.”

Parent John Polley spoke up for Silverwood Elementary School, whose fate is unknown. “Silverwood is ethnically diverse. To split up the student body into three pieces and destroy what’s been built is terrible. Please keep Silverwood intact.”

The board also had discussed moving or consolidating Gateway, Crossroads, Summit, TLC and Nueva Vista Necessary Small High School programs to the soon-to-be-closed Holbrook Elementary School.

Sterling Stevenson of Bay Point pleaded with the board not to close Gateway.

“It’s the only high school in Bay Point and it has a 85 percent graduation rate,” he said. “The [student] population is at great risk of dropping out.”

At the request of trustee Hansen, the board will discuss whether to sell the Willow Creek Center at its meeting Tuesday. According to Superintendent Lawrence, it is now possible to sell district facilities and use the money for one-time purchases, such as books or equipment.

Eberhart said the board would vote at the Tuesday meeting on further school closures. The meeting site will be announced on the district website.