School Board Votes Against Closing Schools

The San Bruno Park School Board voted 4-1 Wednesday to oppose closing any schools following hours of passionate pleas from residents.

Schools trustee Kevin Martinez was the only dissenting vote.

The special board meeting was called after last week's meeting to take action on the school closures issue, which has been lingering since the beginning of the school year. Late last week, Superintendent David Hutt released a report ahead of the meeting recommending that Crestmoor and El Crystal elementary schools be closed.

His recommendation, which he said was based on findings from consulting firm Total School Solutions, was based on the fact that those two schools would be left with the smallest school populations once sixth graders move to Parkside Intermediate next year. That El Crystal was suddenly thrown into the school closure discussion came as a shock to many people, and they brought their frustrations—along with others—to the meeting.

In addition to taking a vote on school closures, the board decided to move forward with exploring whether to put a parcel tax on the November ballot. Schools trustee Jennifer Blanco also proposed creating a committee comprised of officials, teachers and residents that would look at how to prevent all future school closures.

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