FCUSD Eyes Closure of Cordova Lane and Riverview Elementary Schools
FCUSD Superintendent Pat Godwin addressed concerns over the fate of two elementary schools to the Cordova Community Council today and said the district has scheduled two public hearing meetings for the community to weigh in on the matter.
The district’s board members discussed the possibility of closing Cordova Lane and Riverview Elementary Schools on Oct. 15 to save the district nearly $600,000 for the 2010-2011 academic year. The district had already cut $20 million from its budget before schools opened for the 2009-2010 school year, and Godwin said they are expecting to cut $10 million more for the coming school year.
Godwin said they were originally looking at closing one school, but a study done in the area led them to think otherwise.
“We were very, very surprised,” he said. “What we found out is that there are 832 fewer kindergarten to 6th grade students that live north of Folsom Boulevard than we thought. Where we thought we were looking at probably closing one school, suddenly we had to confront the fact that we might have to take a look at closing two schools.”
He also said they used a long list of criteria to determine which schools could be destined for closure, such as classroom size, the quality of the facility and the number of students the facility could handle. The closures, though, are not set in stone yet.
“This is not a done deal; however, it is our best thinking at this time,” Godwin said. “We will consider other options.”
The district will be holding two public forums at Mills Middle School, located at 10439 Coloma Road, regarding the budget crisis and alternative cost-saving ideas. The first forum will be held Monday, Oct. 19 from 6 to 8 p.m.; the second will be held Monday, Nov. 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. Final recommendations from staff will be made to the FCUSD board on Nov. 19.
As for the future of the two schools, Godwin said they will not remain vacant or become an eyesore.
“We will never sell those schools,” he said. ”We want these schools, even if we’re not using them, to be an asset to the community… they could become things like senior centers, teen centers, branch libraries, a preschool. We’ll work with the community, the city and the parks department to make sure they remain an asset to the neighborhood, that they do not get vandalized, that they do not get boarded up so they become targets for misuse.”
He also said there is a possibility the schools could reopen in the future. “At some point in time, 15 or 20 years down the road, we might need to reopen one or both of these schools,” he said.
Godwin explained that the school board understands how valuable the schools are to the community.
“People are very passionate about their schools,” he said. ”It’s not that we don’t understand the passion, it’s not that we don’t understand the connections that people have to schools. It’s about what’s wrong with the state budget – that’s what’s forcing us to make this kind of move.”
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WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE CORDOVA LANE KEPT OPEN, BUT IF IT IS NOT POSSIBLE WE PREFER TO NOT HAVE A TEEN CENTER THERE. SEEMS THAT CORDOVA HIGH SCHOOL IS A BETTER OPTION FOR THAT PURPOSE. THERE ARE MANY OLDER PEOPLE WHO LIVE CLOSE BY AND WHO WALK BY THE SCHOOL OFTEN AND SO A SENIOR CENTER MAKES MORE SENSE TO US.
THANKS
I was at the meeting tonight. The costs savings are not that great! Parents of all elementary schools in Rancho should be concerned about these closures. This will impact your class sizes as well. Same amount of teachers over 600 more students. Everyone in Rancho should be fighting this. The anaylsis was only for Rancho schools NOT all Folsom … Read MoreCordova! I believe the thought process was not there. Plus Rancho is a growing community with many homes sellings to many young families with children. If they close these schools where will these children go. It will increase class sizes even more! Rancho we need to fight again these closures!!!
I was at the meeting tonight. The costs savings are not that great! Parents of all elementary schools in Rancho should be concerned about these closures. This will impact your class sizes as well. Same amount of teachers over 600 more students. Everyone in Rancho should be fighting this. The anaylsis was only for Rancho schools NOT all Folsom Cordova! I believe the thought process was not there. Plus Rancho is a growing community with many homes sellings to many young families with children. If they close these schools where will these children go. It will increase class sizes even more! Rancho we need to fight again these closures!!!
Hi all,
From what I understand, there are 5 board members who serve Folsom Cordova Unified School District. 3 are from the Folsom area, 1 is from Mather and 1 is from Rancho Cordova. There will be 3 seats up for election in November of next year due to term limits. Here is our chance as a community to get more involved in the decision making of our children’s futures. If you know of anyone here in the Rancho Cordova Community who would be interested in running for a seat on this board, please urge them to get involved and be that voice for our Rancho Cordova students.
Ed Short-President (Mather, Ca.) term ends 12/2010.
Teresa Stanley-V.P (Folsom) term ends 12/2012.
Joanne Reinking-clerk (Folsom) term ends 12/2012.
Richard Shaw-member (Folsom) term ends 12/2010.
Roger Benton-member (Rancho Cordova) term ends 12/2010
Closing and consolidating Rancho Cordova schools is the right thing to do. Rancho Cordova is really a modern suburban ghetto, with high rates of children poverty and homelessness (e.g., more than 50% of Rancho students on free/subsidized school lunch program) and other endemic family challenges. Consolidating school services provides greater bang for the buck, with better use of faculty/staff and school district resources. With current Rancho Cordova homes prices only half of some nearby/adjacent communities, families still do not move to Rancho. Better to accept the reality than to see more Rancho Cordova students moving away to more family-friendly neighborhoods and cities.
I beg to differ on the modern ghetto. Yes I will agree there are bad areas in Rancho. But go to Citrus Heights or Orangevale, you will find the same good and bad areas. And yes families are moving to Rancho. The new Beazer community is still building and selling homes. As these homes fill up Navigator and Mather will not be able to hold all of these children. There are many families with young children not school age yet. Where do you propose we put all of these children? My biggest issue is the study should have been done for ALL Elementary schools in FCUSD, not just a few. If you are going to look at closing schools you look at all schools for that grade level. And even though I don’t think we have other options I don’t think this was thought out very well. I mean one of the reasons is there is a park next to the school. Someone was not thinking when they included that. Almost all schools including Rancho Cordova Elementary have parks next to it. Riverview has been talked about being closed for awhile. But I believe that Cordova Lane was targeted!!
Rancho Cordova has come a long way from the days of rampant crime. There are bad neighborhoods and good ones in almost every community in this country. I actually moved here from San Francisco 13 years ago from a low income neighborhood which some ingnorant people would consider ghetto (OZ) and have met some wonderful people here in the community. This town is far from ghetto. I bought and sold my first home here to buy another one in the same neighborhood. There is no such thing as a modern suburban ghetto. These school closures have nothing to do with ghettos and free lunches but economics and the state of our economy. These comments by OZ are very uneducated as is why he/she didnt use their name. Stay anonomys and don’t comment on something that makes you sound so ignorant.