District Considers Closing Under-enrolled Schools
By
Steve Milne
Thursday, January 17, 2013
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A cost-cutting plan to close nearly a dozen campuses is on the agenda of tonight’s Sacramento City Unified School District board meeting.
Scott Smith is president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association - the labor union that represents 3,000 district teachers.
Smith expects emotions to run high at tonight's meeting, even though he says teachers understand the district's budget constraints.
"It's still going to be an emotional time because nobody likes to close their local school."
District officials say closing 11 under-enrolled elementary
schools would save about $10 million over the next four
years.
About 3,700 students will move to other nearby schools…along
with teachers.
Smith says the closures won't mean teacher
layoffs.
"Because you've still got the same number of students
throughout the district and right now the number of
teachers-to-student ratio is just at its right size. There aren't
any excess numbers of teachers. All it will be is just a
re-shuffling."
District trustees will hear about the plan tonight. They're
scheduled to take a final vote on February 21st.