Q&A: Superintendent Addresses School Boundary Issues

An advisory committee has been in the San Bruno Park School District once sixth graders move to Parkside Intermediate next year.

As of the committee's last meeting Tuesday, it still hasn't made a recommendation to the school board. But each of the committee members have been charged to go back to their schools and get parents' input on changing school boundaries and leaving the district's transfer policies the same. The committee will meet next on Nov. 29 at .

I caught up with Superintendent David Hutt last week for a Q&A about the topic and to address the issues many parents have raised about the school boundary discussions.

San Bruno Patch: Where are we in the process with this boundary study?

David Hutt: The district development advisory committee met four times and is currently addressing the task statement given to them by the school board. And that task statement was to look at the school attendance boundaries at the elementary level with the sixth graders being moved up to Parkside and consider if boundaries could be equalized between the seven elementary schools, and could that enrollment reduce the number of combination classes. 

So the committee has received a report that was commissioned by the school district. But it’s not the board’s report. It’s really just a committee reference. And the committee met and came up with five choices. They ruled those five choices down to two.

One is to leave things status quo, which is the current boundaries remain current for the school district’s seven elementary schools and the district’s transfer policies would remain the same. The other one would be to change boundaries. Within that report, there was a model to equalize enrollment. It would also leave the same transfer policies in effect. 

Patch: How did the committee get set up?

Hutt: Because it is a district advisory committee, the board felt there should be a representative from each school. Each principal was canvassed and asked to designate a school representative. For some schools it was a PTA officer. At other schools it was a school site council officer. That was really designated out to each respective school to make that decision. 

Patch: What’s the school district going to look like if one of those options is implemented?

Hutt: Let me back up and say all of the schools will be smaller because sixth graders will be going to Parkside. That’s roughly 280 kids districtwide that will be going to Parkside. Generally, some of the larger schools like Belle Air and Allen will be sending more kids (to Parkside) than maybe a class at Portola that may be sending one class. 

Then, the question becomes who is the incoming kindergarten class. And they aren’t here yet. We can make estimates about who is going to be here, and then say after that the first graders through the fifth graders. How many do we believe are going to be in the group?

Then take a look and say, “Is that a big enough school? Or is that school going to be larger because people want to transfer into that school?” And people don’t have to put in an application until May. 

So status quo says these are kids coming from those existing boundaries and each school is this size. We haven’t put anything on the table in terms of closing a school or anything else. We’re just saying this is the size the school will be if the boundaries are in place. And there will be small schools and big schools. 

The number of combination classes will depend on how many schools in a particular grade there are. So if we think each school will be same size, then the number of combination classes now in place could be the same number of combination classes next year. 

If we use the other option where we balance numbers, it does mean kids are moving to a school different than where they had been going to school. Because there are more students, it is possible that the number of combination classes would go down.

If the district is going to maintain same number of staff, then staff goes where the kids are. So it isn’t that the boundary changes are going to create less jobs. It is the enrollment that creates jobs. 

Patch: A lot of people have been pointing to the fact that schools aren’t and won’t be operating at full capacity. How does San Bruno Park compare with other schools districts in the area in terms of capacity?

Hutt: Within San Mateo County, the county itself has declining enrollment. There are some districts where there have been housing developments started that have been attractive to families with small children. So that gives them a bump up.

In an ideal situation, to have classes at 100 percent of capacity, that’s probably the starting point because then you’re using all your resources and assets to their fullest amount. But kids don’t necessarily come in that increment and school districts usually don’t go there.

So with having 25 to 27 kids, that class is going to run, even if it’s a combination class. 

So how does that compare with other districts? A, I don’t know. But I venture that we are at about 85 percent capacity.

Again, we have seats. It’s kind of like the hotel business. Is a hotel full every night to capacity? Probably not. For any hotel, how many rooms can they have vacant every night and not get in trouble on the business side because they’re not making their money? That’s for someone in the hotel business to answer more accurately.

For us, it has always been important to maintain the same level of teaching staff positions for this year for at least one more year. Next year will be a different year. 

Patch: I think what people see is, “Is this whole school full? Is every classroom being used?” And I remember that meeting I went to a while ago and you were saying that there were 20-something classrooms that were empty. So when people think about that they think, “If there are fewer classrooms being used, then the district should have more money to use for students.” 

Hutt: I would like to get my hands wrapped around how that logic works. So I have an empty room and I don’t have the expense of a teacher. But I don’t have the revenue coming in that comes with the kids in the class either. So I may not be spending any money but the organization hasn’t received any money either. The room isn’t having to be cleaned. Principals aren’t having to visit that room. Utilities are off. A lot of expenses are not running. But, on the other side, the revenue that the district would get isn’t present either. 

Patch: I know that you said that this committee has no authority over school closures. They’re just making a recommendation. But the study was done. And the school board could look at that if they decided to do that down the road. So if it comes down to that situation and we’re looking at a possible school closure, and we’re looking at a school like Crestmoor, which has consistently had some of the highest test scores in the district, would that realistically be a possibility? 

Hutt: Closing schools in a lot of school districts isn’t a first choice. But it is a choice that is used. So with the committee giving advice to the board, there is a second task statement that the board gave dealing with school closures. At the December meeting, the board will make a recommendation back out to the committee and have them follow through with giving that advice or they’ll thank the committee very much for their hard work and be done with it.

Should that work go back out to the committee, the committee would have their report to use as a reference, but the district already has a criteria to consider for closing schools.

So we would go to that criteria and then use that criteria as a process along with what the committee report generated and then say, “All right, what’s your advice?” And they could start from one of the scenarios in the study or say status quo and then give that advice to the school board.

Process wise, the board wanted to have that advice no later than March 2012 so that it could be—not saying it would be—used for the 2012-13 school year.