High-school shuffle
By Cosmo Garvin
cosmog@newsreview.com
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 Jeff Cuneo, Sacramento city school board member, says it’s time for a comprehensive public high school for East Sacramento. PHOTO BY JEROME LOVE |
Should the Sacramento school district establish a new high school for families in East Sac? Should the controversial Sacramento Charter High School be moved out of its spacious campus in order to make room? What about converting a prized junior high—Sutter Middle School—into a high school?
These are all possible fixes to a problem that’s been simmering for eight years—ever since the Sacramento City Unified School District turned over the struggling Sacramento High School to Kevin Johnson’s St. Hope organization to run as a charter school.
“Parents I’ve talked to feel like this is not their local school,” said Jeff Cuneo, who was elected last year to represent East Sacramento and Midtown on the school district’s board of trustees. With St. Hope ensconced in the Sacramento High School campus in Oak Park, there’s no traditional “comprehensive” high school in the old Sac High attendance area. “And that has led to flight of students, to private schools and out of our district,” said Cuneo.
The school district will soon send out surveys to families in the area (mostly East Sacramento, Midtown and River Park) asking them what kind of high-school options they want to see in the