Meeting Friday on Future of Lum Elementary

ALAMEDA, CA — A special School Board meeting will be held Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Wood Middle School, regarding the future of Lum Elementary. Alameda Unified School District staff will recommend that Lum be closed at the end of this school year because of an engineering report that basically deems the school unsafe in a major earthquake. The soil beneath the school would be subject to liquefaction, the report found, a process by which sandy or silty soils lose their strength during strong ground shaking and behave like a liquid. As a result, the safety of students and staff would be at risk.

A vote on the closure will come May 9.

“I know this is terrible news to hear,” Superintendent Sean McPhetridge said. “Our schools are our communities, and Lum Elementary School is a fabulous community. But as staff we will be recommending closing the site in 2017-18 due to our concern for the safety of students and staff.”
Other elementary schools within the district have the capacity to absorb the students and teachers of Lum.

Some parents have expressed concern about other local schools. According to the district, "Geotechnical engineers have tested the soil at several other AUSD campuses and found that earthquake-induced settlements do not pose safety concerns at those sites."
The district has set up a website with more detailed information on the issue here and will be adding to it over the next several weeks.

-Image via Google Street View