Though the school board did not finalize a plan for
accommodating the elementary schools’ unexpected 4 percent student
growth as planned, they did manage to strike one hotly debated
option
– building a $20 million elementary on Wren Avenue at the old
Las Animas school site – from the list of possibilities.
Though the school board did not finalize a plan for accommodating the elementary schools’ unexpected 4 percent student growth as planned, they did manage to strike one hotly debated option – building a $20 million elementary on Wren Avenue at the old Las Animas school site – from the list of possibilities.
Though the Wren Avenue option topped the list prepared by district staff, trustees balked at the idea of building a school where they already decided they didn’t need one.
They will further deliberate on the remaining options – building a new school on a raw tract of land near Miller Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard in southwest Gilroy or increasing class sizes or modernizing current facilities to add capacity – at a Feb. 26 board meeting.
Trustees couldn’t come to a consensus regarding a solution even though they did decide that the answer will be some combination of the three remaining possibilities. But the majority agreed that, while building on the Wren site might be convenient, it’s not logical.
“We know that in five years we’re going to need a school where the Grove is,” Trustee Denise Apuzzo said of the district-owned land near Miller and Santa Teresa. “We’re absolutely certain of it and now we’ll have spent $20 million on a school in the wrong spot. We need to learn: stop putting schools where we don’t need the schools.”
“Put the schools where we need them,” she added to the clapping of several teachers in the audience.
When the district knocked down the old Las Animas, it poured money into planning a housing development for the parcel in the hopes of selling it to turn a handsome profit. Although it won’t sell in today’s market, Apuzzo was hopeful that the district could hold off and sell when the economy recovers.
“In three or five years maybe we’ll get a lot of money for that land,” Apuzzo said. “I don’t think the answer to a bad real estate market is to build a school there. I just think that’s poor planning.”
By the end of the debate, trustees decided to cross the Wren Avenue item off the list. But they advocated for the remaining three options, the most unsavory being increasing class sizes, with varying amounts of enthusiasm.
“I just don’t see what the pros are of increasing class sizes,” Trustee Fred Tovar said.
Several agreed that once class sizes are increased, as tradition would have it, they won’t go back.
“Once we do it, we’re stuck with it forever,” Apuzzo said.
No matter how much they don’t like it, however, trustees may have no choice but to bump up class sizes. Full modernization of the existing elementary schools would take 24 months to complete, according to district documents, and building a new school near the future Glen Loma development would take 18 months. And the district needs capacity now, enrollment records show.
But trustees were receptive to the idea of increasing capacity at existing schools by adding new classrooms.
“I don’t mind large schools with the caveat that we would add extra support,” Trustee Rhoda Bress said over the grousing of several teachers in the audience.
When Trustee Tom Bundros made a motion to bundle the options of increasing class sizes temporarily and adding classrooms while planning on a ninth district elementary school in a few years, he was answered with five opposing votes. Only Bundros and Trustee Mark Good voted yes.
“It needs more consideration,” Trustee Francisco Dominguez said.
