School Closures

By Stephen Samuel Winkler

The Closure of Bouquet Canyon Elementary

On 16 June 2008, the Garvey School District closed Margaret Duff Elementary School due to a vote in favor to close the school taken on 15 May 2008 by the governing school board.

I'm reminded of the closure of Bouquet Canyon Elementary School by the Saugus Union School District. The Saugus Union District, like the Garvey School District, is also constantly investigating the possibility of closing other schools.

Now I know all the reasons for the closure of Bouquet Canyon Elementary School. There were problems with water, sewage, and electricity. The classrooms were small, old, and beyond their fifteen-year life expectancy. The school district did not have the funding for modernization and there were problems with obtaining the building permits. The classrooms were portable ones; incidentally, I have taught in those portable classrooms for LAUSD.

The district saved between $600,000 to $700,000 by the closure of the school.

If elected to the school board, I would never vote for school closure, unless the school enrollment drops below three hundred students. It is not cost effective to keep a school open below the three hundred level.

However, Bouquet Canyon Elementary School had a student enrollment of 540 students, so it was cost effective to keep the school open.

With that single exception, keep our schools open! When you close a school to save money, the following happens: (1)teachers lose their jobs; (2)students lose their schools; (3)the school district loses some of the students; (4)the children lose their friends; (5)other school employees, such as school custodians, also lose their employment; (6)everybody loses and nobody gains.

To me, closing a school, because of the budget problems is similiar to dropping an atomic bomb to win a war. Incidentally, we did that once, because at the time, it was our only solution. However, we never did it again, because it is a great example of a bad idea.

So may I say, that none of the solutions are outstanding, when we examine them. Reduction of the school year, increase of classroom size, giving teachers more days off without pay, cancellation of vital programs, the list goes on. However, the worst solution is the closure of a school.