Committee to Meet to Start School Closure Discussions

School closures are back on the table.

This time, there will be no doubt that the San Bruno Park School District is considering the issue.

The committee that was originally tasked with discussing what should happen with the schools in the district once sixth graders move to Parkside Intermediate next year is being called back again to hold discussions about the district’s next steps.

The will be at 7 p.m. today, and Superintendent David Hutt said one main topic would be discussed.

“The committee is going to be taking a serious look at school closures,” Hutt said.

The issue of whether the school district might look at closing schools came up earlier in the school year when for maintaining similar enrollment at each elementary school once the sixth graders move. The study suggested different scenarios for how the school boundaries could change. The possibility of closing one or more schools was also proposed as an option. 

While many parents honed in on the school closure study, the committee and school district didn’t talk much about the issue throughout the first set of talks. Before the year ended, the school board by voting to keep elementary school attendance boundaries and transfer policies the same. However, the board also agreed to open up discussions about possibly closing a school, which many have reluctantly been waiting for the district to address.

Hutt said the district would be holding open meetings about the issue where the committee will be discussing what recommendation to make to the board.

Similar to before, the committee will be comprised of the same members with representatives from each school. The only change is that former school board member Russ Hanley has been brought in to help the committee and schools trustee Dr. Henry Sanchez will be replacing trustee Jim Prescott as a school board member representative on the committee. Trustee Skip Henderson will remain on the committee.

At today’s meeting, the committee will be selecting a new co-chairperson and figuring out how its meetings will be handled.

Each committee member will also be tasked with providing regular updates about the meetings to their school’s PTAs and PTOs, Hutt said.

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