School Board Tonight: Future Cuts and Consolidations

In a series of community meetings starting Tuesday night and running through November, the Alameda Unified School District will look at scenarios that will allow it to adjust to post-Measure E failure and to continuing cuts to state funding.

AUSD plans, released over the weekend, detail several possible plans for the future, all of which call for closing and consolidating schools.

Under one scenario, for example, both Encinal and Alameda High Schools would be converted to serve students in grades 7-12 and elementary schools would be closed and consolidated and serve students in K-6.

Another plan calls for leaving Alameda High open, converting Encinal into a large middle school (closing Wood and Lincoln), and closing and consolidating several elementary schools.

"If there's no funding, there's going to be school closures," said school board trustee Mike McMahon. "It's a simple matter of economics."

At a Sept. 21 meeting, says McMahon, the board will consider the structure of a new parcel tax likely to be placed on the ballot in March. There are a number of possibilities. Existing parcel taxes in Alameda and other California communities are flat per parcel taxes, taxes based on square footage, or 'split roll' taxes, in which commercial properties are taxed at a different rate than residential properties. After it determines a structure for a new tax, then the school board will determine the size of the task—what property owners will be asked to pay. 

"It's a strange new world of public education in California, where you're paying more and getting less," said McMahon. State dollars dwindle, costs rise—and so even with increased local funding, says McMahon, there is no certainty that a certain parcel tax will maintain a desired level of class or school size.

By the end of November, says McMahon, the board will have committed to one of the school closure plans that will be implemented if funding is not increased.