Though the simple financial logic behind a staff recommendation
to build the next Gilroy elementary school at the old Las Animas
School site on Wren Avenue is understandable, the long-term logic
is baffling.
1. Wouldn’t rebuilding on old school site violate the geographic plan?
Though the simple financial logic behind a staff recommendation to build the next Gilroy elementary school at the old Las Animas School site on Wren Avenue is understandable, the long-term logic is baffling.
The logic behind tearing down the Las Animas Wren Avenue school was that it didn’t fit in with the adopted philosophical return to neighborhood schools – too many schools were clustered in one geographic area. What’s changed?
The drumbeats have, of course. The official word is that Las Animas would have needed to be torn down anyway. Truth is, there isn’t an estimate on what a major remodel would have cost.
2. Economics have changed, but what’s best for the long term?
Economics have changed.
The Gilroy Unified School District had hoped to make a pile of dough to finance other needed capital projects by turning the Wren Avenue site into a housing development. Clearly, that plan is out the window, at least on a short-term basis, which leads us back to the issue of what the district’s plan is long term and whether building a new school on the old Las Animas site is the wisest course of action.
It’s tough to view it as anything but reactionary, and even tougher to see how that site fits in with the overall neighborhood school philosophy intended to yield more parental involvement and connection with the surrounding community.
School trustees should, in poker world vernacular, slow play this hand. Demographic projections should be carefully scrutinized. Trustees should press hard for as close to real-time numbers as possible. Given this economy, what’s true now could be very different from what was true six months ago.
3. Options should be explored: What about a school at Eagle Ridge?
Creative options that honestly fit in with the neighborhood school philosophy should be explored. Is there a possibility, for example, to put an elementary school in Eagle Ridge? Wouldn’t that make sense – to put a school where the students are within walking distance?
Gilroy should be building new schools within the context of its philosophy. If there’s short-term pain – like enduring more portable classrooms – in order to achieve long-term goals, then so be it.
The district has been rightfully criticized in the past for reacting this way and that to every new circumstance. The voters have passed a huge $170 million bond, the philosophy of neighborhood schools has been sold. To abandon that direction now when there’s not a clear compelling reason to do so seems like more of the same.
Take it slow trustees. Make the right call.
