Committee urges Sacramento city schools not to sell closed campus sites without further review
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2014 - 9:08 pm
A committee for the Sacramento City Unified School District has finalized recommendations for the future use of seven elementary campuses closed last year due to falling enrollment – urging that none be sold without further evaluation.
The nine members of the 7/11 Committee, a combination of educators, parents and community group members, said at their final meeting on Tuesday night that they will recommend to the district trustees at their March 6 meeting that all the campuses be used for district programs and by community groups, with priority given to ideas and requests from neighborhood residents.
The district last year closed the seven schools due to falling enrollment. Most are in low-income and predominantly minority neighborhoods: Clayton B. Wire and Maple, Washington, Collis P. Huntington, Fruit Ridge, Joseph Bonnheim and Mark Hopkins. About 2,300 students were relocated.
Committee members made their recommendations following 15 public meetings held since September. Members said they were reluctant to find any school sites “surplus” to the district.
“None of us feel comfortable with getting rid of properties that could have a use in the future,” Michael Minnick, committee vice chairman, said before the meeting started.
“At no point during this process has there been a lot of energy around the idea of selling,” he said. “That’s a very permanent solution to what may be a very temporary problem of under-enrollment.”
When asked the district’s perspective on sale of the campuses, district spokesman Gabe Ross said any answer would be premature.
“That is the purpose of the 7/11 committee,” Ross said. “The district will have that discussion when the committee presents its recommendations in March.”
Committee members also said they they chose not to prioritize re-use ideas because they could not vet specific proposals or properly investigate whether the agencies were prepared to implement their plans.
Among the larger proposals: a community or a parent resource center, sites for groups such as Legal Services of Northern California, a satellite office for a Sacramento County Office of