Q&A: Superintendent Answers Criticism About School Closure Talks

The discussions about a possible school closure in San Bruno have reached a peak now that the San Bruno Park School Board has called a meeting for this week to make a final decision on the issue.

At times, the discussions have been heated. Parents have even begun to band together to prevent what seems to many like the inevitable.

But the school district has maintained that closing a school would be necessary next year because of declining enrollment, inadequate state funding and a desire to reduce the number of combination classes at each school. With all sixth graders moving to Parkside Intermediate, that would leave most of the elementary schools with a significantly reduced school population.

So before the school board meets on Wednesday to take a vote on whether to move forward with school closures for next year, San Bruno Patch caught up with Superintendent David Hutt for a Q&A about the issue.

San Bruno Patch: Now that a decision about a possible school closure is in the board’s hands, what’s your sense of where this discussion is at? And why do you think people are so convinced that a school will be closed? 

David Hutt: The choice of keeping all schools open has been something present in the district probably for the last three to five years, and it has not necessarily had as much importance applied to it until this year simply because there have been other tools used. The district has used the proceeds from the Sandburg sale to help make sure there is enough money to pay for the programs that people in San Bruno have come to expect. Even with that, programs like art and P.E. have had to be supported by the PTAs and PTOs.

In looking at the impact that moving sixth graders to Parkside would have, that’s a significant new piece to the conversation because it makes all of the elementary schools smaller by that one grade. I don’t know if, in looking at the big picture with all of the things being faced by the district, individuals of the community are aware of that.

It doesn’t mean that they have to because they elect a board to do that. The board holds the staff accountable with bringing the best information to them so they can make an informed decision. But right now that slice of the school district operation that is related to school closure has gotten a lot of attention, and maybe people are not necessarily taking a look at the rest of the picture. 

Patch: It’s almost kind of like you’re saying the school district has been talking about the financial issues the district has been facing, and all those issues were alluding to the fact that a school could be closed, and it’s just that people haven’t been paying attention until just now.

Hutt: I’m not going to sit there and say the community of San Bruno hasn’t been paying attention to their schools, because they do. But what I do want to reemphasize is that this isn’t the first tool we’ve looked at in terms of being able to provide for the 2,600 kids that are in the school district. Because of circumstances that continue to worsen, the board gave direction last year. The board reaffirmed that direction earlier this year to have a committee come back and say what are their recommendations from the community on this particular issue.

That group finished their work. They were supported by their families who came out about every two weeks to meet for two hours. Not only that, but generally they went back to their school communities and updated their school communities in terms of what the committee was talking about.

So the advice has been released and now the board has directed staff to prepare an action item on the subject and present it to the community again.

Patch: I’m going to ask another tough question. I know you can’t specifically say school closure because the board hasn’t decided that yet. But why not just let folks know ahead of time? Why not send out a letter last fall saying this year there is a possibility that we might be looking at a school closure. Why does it seem like the district is being so vague about this issue? 

Hutt: When the school board came out and issued that task statement to the advisory committee, there were two things that the committee was asked to do. One was to take a look at boundaries and the other one was to take a look at school consolidation, and they asked for a specific timeline to be followed.

Realizing we don’t have a public information office, and we don’t have as large of a district as other districts might have, we’ve been relying on school newsletters and principals speaking at PTA meetings as the vehicle for getting that information out to the community.

When the school board met in December and the school board was asked very directly by staff, “Do you want this second task statement to be referred back to the committee?” that was a televised meeting. That was a (4-1 vote to move forward) that the board provided to staff. 

Patch: Do you think all of the options have realistically been exhausted? Here’s a situation where you a have a school that could be closed that could change the makeup of an entire neighborhood. It’s a pretty big decision that you’re faced with. So why not try to be even more creative to prevent a school closure from happening? As several school board members have already said, they don’t want to see that happen. 

Hutt: We have had a district financial advisory team, and they generally have offered their advice as the budget is developed from one year to the next. In terms of having an outlet for ideas that may be out of the box, every single meeting that the school board has met there is a time on the agenda for the hearing of individuals and delegates to speak on an item that is not on the agenda.

Those ideas coming from people in the community—whether they have kids in a school or are just interested in the quality of their community schools—that opportunity to provide those out-of-the-box ideas continues to be out there.

Patch: So that means there is a possibility that if someone has a grand idea that no one has brought up yet, they could present it at the next meeting and it could change the direction of this discussion?

Hutt: If there are some ideas that people in the community believe need to surface—because we are all focused, as adults, on the quality of schools that are provided to kids in this community—then they can bring them up.

The special school board meeting this week will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Crestmoor Elementary School.

For more news about San Bruno, follow San Bruno Patch on Twitter and "like" us on Facebook. Got Patch in your inbox? Sign up for our newsletter.

Correction: Superintendent David Hutt made a mistatement with one of his answers in the Q&A. He initially said that the school board voted unanimously to have the advisory committee discuss school closures when the board met in December. The board actually voted 4-1, with schools trustee Jennifer Blanco dissenting, to move forward with the school closure talks. The change has been made to the story.