School moving from old Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary

2009-11-05T03:04:47Z

It was confirmed last week California Montessori Project's Capitol Campus will move from the Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in the College Glen neighborhood.

Since August, CMP leased the Marshall School building from the Sacramento City Unified School District, which also oversees its charter. Next Thursday and Friday, the school will be closed for the move and will resume at the new campus on Nov. 16.

SCUSD superintendent Jonathan Raymond met with CMP board members, students and parents Tuesday night at the campus' new location. After stating reasons for the move, he answered questions from parents.

"The old Marshall School, although a very beautiful facility and by all appearances structurally sound, does not comply with two very important requirements," Raymond said. "No. 1, the Field Act, (which) simply relates to the ability of a building to withstand a seismic event; the other important component is this building does not meet state building codes - it is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act."

He stated that charter schools are required by Prop 39, which passed in 2005, to comply with either one of these codes, and the Marshall School does not. Raymond also took responsibility for the error, and said he looks forward to helping CMP move to the Jefferson campus, which is Field Act and ADA compliant.

"We're going to do it expeditiously, with (the) least disruption to the children and to the families of California Montessori Project, first and foremost," Raymond said to the crowd of nearly 200 gathered in the multi-purpose/lunch room.

This includes providing bus transportation to the new school site throughout the remainder of the school year. Details on the bus routes will be given in the next week, Raymond said.

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School closed at the end of the 2008-09 school year after suffering from low enrollment and loss of revenue. Although CMP Capitol Campus' enrollment is also low, in the low 200s, moving to this location is an opportunity for the school to expand and use the facility the way it should be used, Raymond said.

The school also has a new rooftop ventilation system with furnaces and thermostats added last year, said Mellissa Truitt, SCUSD Associate Superintendent of Capital Asset Management Services.

Some parents said they were still upset about leaving the downtown location so quickly in the middle of a school year. They were notified in late October about a possible move.

"The move is disappointing because we lived in the (Marshall) neighborhood," said Rachelle Barbour, parent of a first-grade student at CMP. "If it wasn't for the liability reasons [if a seismic event did occur, the district and the CMP board would be liable for any injury], it wouldn't have happened so fast."

However, Barbour said she felt "reassured" that the superintendent met with parents and will use the buses provided by the school district. She also noted that there are too few schools in the grid, and said she would like for another school to open in the downtown area.

Darrin Greer, another parent of a first-grade student, thought that the meeting was informative and answered questions.

"The superintendent was open and it helps (that) the district is committed to transportation," he said. "Moving is difficult to do in the middle of the year."

Greer said it would be interesting to see how many people will stay at CMP and how many will leave, but he expects most will stay for at least the rest of this year. He also wanted to know if any other schools in the SCUSD have ADA or Field Act compliance issues.

"This was the only one," Raymond said in an interview after the meeting. "We want to see it thrive. We want to provide whatever support we can to ensure that they do, it's important for the community."

He also said that creating downtown-area schools is a priority.

"We have people living and moving in there, and we need to provide school facilities for those children too and those families," Raymond said. "I've told the community and others in the neighborhood that's something I want to work toward."

Advisory Committee Meets to Protect Community Interest

2009-06-19T05:55:31Z

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

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School moving from old Marshall School to Thomas Jefferson Elementary

Advisory Committee Meets to Protect Community Interest