Saving a neighborhood school
The concept of a neighborhood public elementary school is as American as apple pie. Neighborhood schools provide our children neighborhood friends. A neighborhood school also provides a culture similar to the culture in which our homes are located.
Further, in a neighborhood school, our children are generally closer to us — we can get to them more quickly in emergencies when we must. Finally, we can attend meetings at school more easily if our house is near to the school.
The concept of a neighborhood school is being severely tested right now in the small, rurally isolated town of Piru. Culturally, it is home to ranchers and farmers who have lived among the citrus orchards, palm trees and cactus for generations. A large Spanish-speaking population, some of them migrant, also live both in Piru and close by in a housing development called Rancho Sespe.
Piru contains one public elementary school. A sign on campus reads, “Piru Elementary School Est. 1887.” Of its 345 students, Spanish is the home language for 191 of the students, or 55 percent. The nearest elementary school outside of Piru is San Cayetano, which is also part of Fillmore Unified School District. It is 6 miles west of Piru, down busy Highway 126.
Piru has an even smaller group of tenured teachers, 9 out of 17, who work at elementary school and have filed a petition with the California Department of Education to convert the school to a charter school. What conversion means is that the school would no longer