The Future of Wood Middle School

Dear Alameda Community,

Topic: The Future of Wood Middle School

Your Wood PTA would like to update you on a very important issue facing Wood Middle School.

The charter middle/high school Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) requires a new location beginning the 2013 -2014 school year.

In its search for a new location, ACLC has chosen to relocate to the Wood Middle School campus, to take over some of the facility to house their charter school.

There are other options for the relocation of ACLC and we believe they should be considering those options.

Alameda passed the Measure A parcel tax on the knowledge that Wood Middle School would be allowed to continue to remain open.  The decision of the voters indicates the belief that the east end and the west end of Alameda should have a traditional public middle school. 

Allowing a charter school to move to the Wood Middle School campus would lead to the exact result outlined in the Master Plan Scenario B that the passing of the Measure A parcel tax promised to avoid.

The current scenario:

There are currently 2 traditional public middle schools in Alameda.  These are Wood Middle School and Lincoln Middle School. 

There are a number of charter/magnet schools that are drawing enrollment away from the public middle schools and may or may not be an option for many students.

As ACLC grows, they will increasingly require more of the Wood campus.  The AUSD administration is counting on Wood declining enrollment to enable ACLC to grow and cause the complete elimination of Wood Middle School as a public school option.  That would mean that the east end of Alameda would have Lincoln Middle School and the west end would have no public middle school, leaving only one traditional middle school in Alameda.

Although the Superintendent says that she is “not recommending the closure of Wood Middle School, Wood is in imminent danger of eventual closure if ACLC is allowed to relocate to the Wood campus.  We believe the superintendent is fully aware of this.

What we plan to do:

We believe the AUSD School Board is set to vote on whether or not to allow ACLC to move it’s school to share space at the Wood Middle School campus.  We believe this may occur at the Tues January 29, 2013 School Board Meeting.

We are asking concerned friends and parents to send an email and/or call the Superintendent and School Board members urging them to vote “No” on letting ACLC move to the Wood campus.  In addition, please consider attending the January 29, 2013 School Board Meeting where this important issue will be discussed.

For your convenience, you may cut and paste the following wording into your email to the Superintendent and School Board:

”I am a supporter of the fact that Alameda must have at least 2 traditional middle schools.    I ask that you vote “No” on allowing ACLC to move onto the Wood Middle School campus.  I believe that this will lead to the facility eventually being given completely over to the charter school making inevitable the closure of Wood Middle School as a public school option for the west end students of Alameda against the implications of the existing Measure A parcel tax.”

Please send your emails and calls to the following:

Alameda Unified School District - 510-337-7000 School Board Members -  510-337-7060 Superintendent Vital and all 5 school board members - ausdboe@teentechs.org.

or individually at:

Superintendent – Kristen Vital - kvital@alameda.k12.ca.us

AUSD School Board – Neil Tam - ntam@alameda.k12.ca.us

Trish Spencer - tspencer@alameda.k12.ca.us

Mike McMahon - mmcmahon@alameda.k12.ca.us

Barbara Kahn - bkahn@alameda.k12.ca.us

Margie Sherratt - msherratt@alameda.k12.ca.us

We are doing what we can to keep the Wood community up to date on the issues surrounding our school. 

Thank you for your support.

Your Wood Middle School PTA