The members of Facilities Re-use/7-11 Committee left their three-hour meeting having reached enough consensuses to fill a PowerPoint presentation for the Sacramento City Unified School District’s Board of Education.

On Wednesday, June 17, 11 community members met for the third time at the Serna Center to discuss potential re-uses for six school sites within the Sacramento City District that have been closed due to dilapidated enrollment and budget shortfalls.

The meeting was facilitated by Sacramento Mediation Center Director Ellen Taylor and UC Davis Mediator and Facilitator Mary Madison. The committee was founded with the intent of advising the Board of Education’s decision based on a community perspective.

The final verdict for the re-use of the recently closed Genesis High School, Lisbon, Alice Birney, Thomas Jefferson, Marian Anderson and Bear Flag Elementary Schools will be decided by the eight members of the board.

The meeting focused on developing criteria for possible re-use, the preferred uses for the sites and potential partnerships, and a review of public requests for the spaces.

The group created a checklist of concerns involving the potential re-uses. General consent was reached on matters such as leaving the option for the site to be re-used as a school again or keeping future uses consistent with community needs. Organizations such as Parks and Recreation and Sacramento Office of Education were deemed preferred partnerships and prospective uses such as child care, fee-based adult education training, and senior care were approved as positive ways to occupy the sites.

Despite the cohesive progress made by the Committee, there was still a question hanging over the various discourses: How much impact will their efforts have on the Board of Education’s decision making processes?

According to Second Vice President Board Member Patrick Kennedy, the committee will have “a tremendous amount of impact.”

“These aren’t just school decisions, these are community decisions,” Kennedy said. “The role of a board member is to take community values and turn it into policy at the level of the board. This committee is important because it provides the voice of the values.”

Committee Member and Chairwoman of Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education Heidi McLean voiced her concern over the board’s considerations of the group’s efforts, “I just want the board to welcome input from the community. Communication is the hardest thing for the district.”

The meeting’s close, however, brought a sense of gratitude for the efforts of the dedicated community members and facilitators, as expressed by SCUSD’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Barentson.

“On behalf of the District, we are very pleased with the work of this Committee. We need this information; it is so important to the decision making process and I want to thank the public for their support,” said Barentson. 

“It has been a wonderful meeting with wonderful people,” Taylor said, “Everyone has shared ideas and has the same goal, and there have been no issues of contention.”

“I was very thankful for the mediators and facilitators,” McLean said. “The fact that they were here to move the process along allowed me to be at a sense of peace with the end product.”

More information on the Facilities Re-Use/7-11 Committee can be found on its website: www.scusd.edu/operations_support/7-11%20Re-Use.htm