More than 150 parents filled the Anderson Middle School gym during Wednesday night’s board meeting. Emotions ran high as parents repeatedly told Cascade Union Elementary School District trustees not to close Verde Vale Elementary School.
After listening to public comment, Leila Dunmore proposed amending the motion to closing Verde Vale, but getting parent, staff and community input on how to reconfigure the district. The motion passed unanimously.
“Verde Vale will be vacated (at the end of the school year) and we will be seeking input from the community, parents and teachers,” said Jeff Carr, board president. “We believe by moving to grade level centers we can bring back people who have gone to Happy Valley, Pacheco and Cottonwood. They have those kinds of schools.”
Carr added that parents in Cottonwood enjoy having the younger students at one school site and that it has worked there for years.
According to Cottonwood Superintendent Bob Lowden, the district has preschool through second grades at East Cottonwood, third through fifth grades at North Cottonwood and sixth through eighth grades at West Cottonwood.
“All our school sites start around 8 (a.m.) East gets out at 2 (p.m.) and so does third grade at North. The rest get out at 3 (p.m.). Our buses get all our kids where they need to be,” said Lowden.
According to Harley North, interim-superintendent for Cascade, the closing of Verde Vale could bring the district a savings of $300,000.
He added that there could be additional savings with the elimination of support programs due to a reduction in district school sites.
North had proposed putting kindergarten through second at Meadow Lane, third and fourth grades at Anderson Heights and fifth through eighth grades at Anderson Middle School.
North added the fifth and sixth graders would attend class on the north said of the middle school, while seventh and eighth graders attended class in the southwestern classrooms. Both groups would have separate lunch and recess times.
Another hot button issue on the agenda was a petition for a new charter school, which board trustees approved 3-1. The Green Valley School of Academics will offer kindergarten through third classes next year.
According to Tim Brace, principal of Anderson Heights, the charter school plans to start small then add a grade level each year until it becomes a K-8 school. Brace added that students would attend class onsite for 390 minutes a day.
The Cottonwood school district also has a charter school, Cottonwood Creek Charter, which is an independent study charter.
According to Lowden, the charter school rents space from the district and have kindergarten through fourth at the East Cottonwood campus and fifth through eighth at the West Cottonwood campus.
Lowden said the charter school has been easy to work with and that the two entities have worked out a scheduled that makes it easy to avoid conflict and serves both the district’s and charter school’s needs.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 2
educator writes:
I was at that meeting and there was no motion to close Verde Vale. The motion was to reconfigure the district with grade levels and sites to be determined following further input from the community. Was this report written from information presented at the meeting or from a conversation with board members after the meeting? It would be nice to know if this is an error on your part or an action of the board.
CatLover writes:
Based upon educator's comment above, the board may have violated the Brown Act which forbids secret meetings except under special circumstances that do not appear to be present. see wikipedia on the Brown Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Act
School Districts are subject to the Brown Act:
"... The Brown Act was designed to facilitate public participation in local governmental decisions and to curb misuse of the democratic process by secret legislation. (Boyle v. City of Redondo Beach (1999) 70 Cal. App.4th 1109, 1116, 83 Cal.Rptr.2d 164; Fischer v. Los Angeles Unified School Dist, supra, 70 Cal.App.4th at p. 95, 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 452.)
Because VUSD's [Vista Unified School District] Board is a "legislative body" of a "local agency" subject to the Brown Act (§§ 54951, 54952), it must conduct its meetings in open session unless a statutory exception authorizes a closed or executive session (§ 54962; Fischer v. Los Angeles Unified School Dist, supra, 70 Cal.App.4th at p. 95, 82 Cal.Rptr.2d 452)."
see the full case on google scholar >> http://tinyurl.com/7uontap
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