Committee Turns Focus Back on Boundary Study

The controversial boundary study that first sparked debate about school closures in the San Bruno Park School District will be up for discussion at a meeting today.

The committee tasked with making a recommendation to the school board about possibly closing a school next year will be looking into whether to ask the firm that completed the study for the district, Total School Solutions, to explore more criteria when determining how school enrollment might change.

Initially, Total School Solutions laid out several options for maintaining similar enrollment at each elementary school once the sixth graders move to Parkside Intermediate next year. 

Taking into consideration the loss of sixth grade students, distance, safety and projected increases in students in the coming years, 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. 

Now that the school board has decided to keep the boundaries the same, the committee is looking back on the previous criteria to see if it can help with making a recommendation.

Parents and residents have also lambasted the school district for not considering the socio-economic status and demographics of the students at a school, as well as a school’s academic performance and funding resources, when looking at school closures. The committee now wants to add socio-economic status and demographics as factors to the discussions.

Additionally, Superintendent David Hutt is expected to report back to the committee on several questions residents raised at the Feb. 7 meeting.

The questions were:

• How would closing a school affect homeowners and their property values? And could the district face legal action from homeowners if their property values were affected?
• What are the actual per-pupil costs at each of the schools, taking into consideration all staffing and all sources of funding?

Some residents were upset that the committee was being asked to consider each school’s operating costs without taking into consideration the cost of teachers and staff. Comparing costs without talking about salaries would be meaningless, some said.

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