School Board Votes to Keep Shannon Open Next Year

It appears that will avert closure for at least a year, as the school board unanimously voted Wednesday to keep it open for the 2011-12 academic year.

Earlier this year the board voted to close the school in June and send its remaining students to Tara Hills, Montalvin and Collins schools as part of its school closure policy to handle declining enrollment across the district.

Since that decision, the West Contra Costa Unified School District board learned that it would cost $1.3 million to locate portable buildings at the three other schools to house the transferred students. For that amount, the district could afford to keep Shannon open for about three years.

State trustee Linda Grundhoffer, who is overseeing fiscal decisions in the district, has said she would rescind any decision to keep Shannon open beyond 2012.

A crowd of Shannon parents and students, holding signs, joined Pinole Mayor Roy Swearingen and Pinole City Councilwoman Debbie Long in an appeal to give the school a reprieve. Long told the board that Pinole has financed and maintained sports fields and landscaping at the school and that Pinole residents rely on the facility for non-school athletic activities.

"This is the first time we've been asked to do things that are good for for kids," said board member Tony Thurmond. "From my perspective, that's the easiest question in history. So let's get on with it. Let's keep the school open."

Board member Charles Ramsey said the district hadn't assessed the costs associated with moving students to new schools.

"There's not a dime in the budget for school consolidation," Ramsey said.

In previous cases in which the district has closed schools because of declining enrollment, it did not put portables on campuses to which students were transferred, Ramsey said. Noting that state trustee Grundhoffer is overseeing the issue of closure, he said his intent is to keep the campus open beyond 2012, but encouraged the gathering to be "vigilant" in their support of keeping the school open.