At a past school board meeting, the Oceanside school district reported a decline in their enrollments. Cuts, they said, were needed to balance the budget.
As a solution, two proposals were presented to the public on Sept. 28.
Both of them would result in a school being placed in “asset management” for closure and sale. In one proposal, it would be Surfside Academy, a K-12 school. In the other option, Reynolds Elementary would be shut down.
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But the Oceanside Board of Education met Tuesday night and decided to not make a decision.
“We will not move forward with consolidation of schools at this time, and we start the process of rebuilding Reynolds elementary and modernizing Surfside Academy,” said school board president Stacy Begin, as she presented a new motion, which was followed by an affirmative vote.
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Prior to the meeting, parents, teachers and students rallied before the district meeting in hopes of getting the school board to shut down the idea of closing and combining schools. Board members seemed like they got the message.
Objections to the plan for Oceanside schools came from many parts of the community.
Nataly Sanchez is a parent at Libby Lake Elementary and the president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.
Libby Lake is targeted in the plan to receive many of the displaced students, in one case from Reynolds Elementary, in another case from Del Rio Elementary.
Sanchez said parents felt blindsided because the district didn’t consult them about the possible changes.
“Anytime there's been a cut, a financial cut, they’ve come after our school so we do feel like Libby is the stepchild of the district. We’re the furthest brown school from the district so it's easier to target,” she said.
Sanchez said the changes impact a large number of low-income families of color. Many of the parents work 2 or 3 jobs, don’t speak English, and rely on their kids walking to their nearby school. She said a change like this needed more consultation with the families impacted by the change.
The shuffling of students from one campus to another is meant to allow the district to close unneeded schools and rebuild the one they see as the future.
Some of the schools being considered in the proposals are located in areas of Oceanside where gangs have a history of rivalry, and that’s a concern for youth advocates.
Jimmy Figueroa is the program manager of Resilience, a non-profit that mentors at-risk youth on probation. He said shuffling students around to a new area and a new school could result in gang violence or students dropping out of school.
“Anytime there's been a cut, a financial cut, they’ve come after our school so we do feel like Libby (Lake Elementary) is the stepchild of the district. We’re the furthest brown school from the district so it's easier to target.”Nataly Sanchez, Libby Lake Elementary parent
“I don't think everyone on the board understands Oceanside to this depth or understands a lot of our marginalized low income communities of color to this depth,” said Figueroa. “And if they did, they would have never considered it. And if they do, then that's even more egregious, because it shows that they don't care.”
The district released an online survey to collect input. Knowing that many parents wouldn’t have access to the survey, Nataly Sanchez took it on herself to print the survey to distribute to parents who were unaware of the district's plans or the survey
“Our parents aren’t very vocal, we have a lot of parents that don’t speak English, aren't very high techy, so we’re easier to target,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez has also planned rallies against the district’s proposals and is helping parents submit their comments during the board meetings.
The Oceanside Unified school board declined our request for an interview about the plans.
