The Paso District is looking to add a third option for schools in the district which will save around $1.2 million, and it’s time to decide whether or not you want your child in this new school.
The “new times slo classifieds” is a new newspaper that is available in the city of Paso. The paper offers an alternative to the two newspapers that are already present in the city, and it’s even more affordable.
To avoid potential Brown Act conflicts, I’m sharing my thoughts as a private citizen, as a former Dual Immersion (DI) parent at both Georgia Brown Elementary and Flamson Middle School, and as someone who finally sees a clear path to building the long-awaited Aquatic Complex, including a way to pay for its upkeep. My opinions are not necessarily those of the school board.
Curt Dubost, Superintendent of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD), and Assistant Superintendent of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD)
Brad Pawlowski, Superintendent of Business Services, sponsored a Community Meeting in November.
School Attendance Boundaries and Possible School Closure will be discussed at 10 a.m. I admire the initiative.
We’re going to get through this together, Atascadero
Superintendents for admitting the District’s General Fund situation and the prospect for a deficit.
The Measure M funds are now overdrawn.
Mr. Pawlowski said that the General Fund, which is comprised of
Due to decreased enrollment and a sharp drop in ADA/Average Daily Attendance, PRJUSD may be forced to revert to deficit spending if substantial changes, such as the closure of a campus, are not implemented. The remaining Measure M projects, such as Georgia Brown and the Aquatic Complex, will need around $30 million. If the estimated $11 million in cost overruns at the Temporary School Site, Marie Bauer, and Glen Speck, plus an extra $6 million to construct Speck’s Multi-Purpose Building, are realized,
If the district’s M16 funds are any indicator, the district will not be able to repair Georgia Brown, much alone any other projects. Georgia Brown’s initial $13.5 million budget, in retrospect, was never going to be adequate to update it. The estimated cost for next year is closer to $30 million.
Two proposals were presented by the superintendents to address the shortage.
Option 1: Georgia Brown will be closed, and the Dual Immersion program will be moved to Winfred Pifer School.
Pifer presently has 431 students enrolled. Georgia Brown’s present student body of 667 students has the potential to grow.
Stay on the west side by enrolling at Glen Speck until the school’s 625-student maximum is reached. At Glen Speck, there are now 434 pupils enrolled. Option 1 accomplishes the goal of closing a school, but it does so at the expense of some of the district’s most vulnerable pupils.
Without having to travel 4.7 miles across town, they may attend a local school that best fulfills their important requirements.
Option 2 recommends that Georgia Brown and Glen Speck switch places. Glen Speck would make a change.
Georgia Brown from its temporary location Students and instructors at Glen Speck would be required to
stay in the temporary location for up to three years while Georgia Brown is being restored
saving $600,000 on a supposedly decreased estimate of $12.9 million. This cost decrease does not seem to be feasible. This bait-and-switch tactic is unethical. Exile and delays have been tolerated by Glen Speck students, parents, and staff for far too long. They have earned the right to return home as quickly as possible. Worse, Option 2 fails to shutter a school location, leaving no alternative.
savings.
There is, however, a third possibility. Consolidate Lewis’ two middle schools, then hand them to Georgia.
Brown takes over the abandoned Flamson Middle School and transforms it into a K-8 Dual Immersion school.
school. This third alternative is both rational and practical since it reduces both current and long-term expenses.
inexpensive and accomplishes a number of objectives:
- Closes a school, saving $750,000 or more each year.
- On the west side, two neighborhood primary schools are kept open.
- Allows Dual Immersion capacity to be doubled by adding 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade classrooms—creating a complete K-8 Dual Immersion magnet school with superior matriculation to PRHS’s Dual Immersion curriculum for 8th students.
- Allows for the construction of a second magnet school, The Arts Academy at Bauer Speck, and restores the Measure M budget’s integrity, enabling the Aquatic Complex to be completed in its original two-pool plan.
- Pool upkeep is paid for using part of the savings generated by consolidation.
What must take place:
1. Our middle schools are being consolidated.
2. Allow 5th graders (Class of 2029) to continue one year longer at their existing primary schools before becoming 6th graders in 2022-23. This is something that can be done.
3. Flamson and Lewis Middle Schools will be renamed 7-8 Middle Schools, and the district will spend $3.5 million of Georgia Brown’s $13.5 million Measure M funds to construct a new classroom wing at Lewis to accommodate all 7 and 8 grade students in one central location.
4. Convert Flamson’s new ten-classroom structure into a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten wing.
$1 million of Georgia Brown’s $13.5 million Measure M Funds
4. In 2023, move the 7th and 8th classes from Flamson to Lewis.
5. In 2023, relocate Georgia Brown a quarter-mile to the now-vacant Flamson campus (saving $750,000).
per year)
6. Supplement the remaining $3.6 million for the Aquatic Complex with the remaining $9 million from Georgia Brown’s Measure M monies. This leaves $12.6 million to start work on the Aquatic Complex right now.
7. After initially presenting it as excess property, sell the now-vacant GB as surplus property.
to a prospective new charter school or, better yet, to create affordable housing for our struggling teachers that includes houses with rentals that are below market rate.
Option 3 does not appeal to everyone, and I am not aware of any such strategy. Option 3, which is still open to debate and amendment, causes the least amount of disturbance while restoring a feeling of optimism and promise that PRJUSD can return to being a destination district for children, teachers, classified staff parents, and our community in the long term. When the Board of Directors makes a decision,
Let us hope that the staff decides to propose Option 3 before the school board next year. Meanwhile, if you believe that preserving neighborhood schools is critical to student success, that improving Dual Immersion is important to you, that restoring an Arts Academy is important to you, that attracting, paying, and retaining the best teachers is critical, and that you have waited far too long for PRJUSD to meet its obligations,
Contact Superintendent Dubost and Assistant Superintendent Business Services Pawlowski about the promise of an Aquatic Complex. Request that they convey Option 3 to the general public.
Paso Robles’ Chris Bausch
As an example:
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