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• WCCUSD School Closures •
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This Letter below is from State appointed Trustee to the West Contra Costa Unified School Board. Mr. Fay had said the cost is $30,000 to maintain vacant schools, Ms. Grundhoffer asked for back up. The total was $475,134 excluding fund 40 (Fund 40-Special Reserve Fund for Capital Outlay Projects), if you include the total is $779,124 to maintain these closed schools. Download PDF: schoolcosts9.3.10.pdf TO: WCC Governing Board Members FROM: Linda Grundhoffer, State Trustee DATE: September 3, 2010 SUBJECT: Correction to a misstatement At the meeting on July 7, 2010, Mr. Fay was asked the annual cost of maintaining the vacant properties that are up for consideration for sale or lease. His answer was $30,000. Some of you may have thought that was $30,000 per property or you may have thought that was the whole amount for a year. I was concerned about the answer and requested the backup that justified that number. Here is what I received: Expenses incurred for closed school sites 09-10 Adams El Sobrante Seaview Castro Gompers Moving / mothballing / board ups (fund40) $77,142 47,153 6,543 16,784 156,368 Maintenance calls 5,883 3,671 3,376 1,250 350 Utilities 24,180 24,180 24,180 24,180 24,180 Monitoring fees burg / fire 1,440 1,440 1,440 1,440 1,440 Elevator monitoring 1,500 n/a n/a n/a n/a Grounds care 8,640 8,640 5,702 5,702 4,320 Graffiti 12,000 16,000 8,000 4,000 5,000 Estimated damage from Break-ins 50,000 200,000 n/a 3,000 n/a Total $180,785 301 ,084 49,241 56,356 191,658 This total is $475,134 (excluding the dollars spent from Fund 40) - much different from $30,000. Although some of these costs were estimates at the time it was prepared, I will be asking staff to relook at the actual costs once the books are closed for 2009-10. With more Sites being closed in 11-12 these costs will do nothing but get larger. Again, my point is that we are spending a lot of General Fund money on things other than the students we are suppose to serve."		2009 Notes from School Closure Committee Members Notes from February 13, 2009 Excerpt: The WCCUSD School Board denied 31 speakers during Public Comment, 2/11/09. It seems the WCCUSD School Board was well aware of the errors in the MGT America report that artificially selected schools for closure, creating equity issues, they did not have them corrected--then used this report to base closing schools. • The WCCUSD violated the Brown Act when they voted on school closures Wednesday Feb. 11, 2009. There were 31 speakers denied their right for Public Comment. The WCCUSD School Board allowed 1 minute for each speaker for Public Comment. During Public Comment the Board President Audrey Miles, stopped Public Comment and did not allow any more speakers saying because of time. Then the Pinole representatives were invited to come and speak, the Mayor of Pinole and a Council Member were allowed to speak for over 15 minutes.     The final School Closure resolution was newly created and significantly different from previous meetings, this did not allow community members to have Public Comment on this new scenario. (Government Code 54954.3) (WCCUSD - BB 9130 Board Bylaws) • The WCCUSD violated procedure at the Wednesday Feb. 11, 2009 School Board meeting. The WCCUSD School Board amended the school closure resolution and did not follow procedure to vote the newly worded resolution. A motion to adopt the resolution should have been made and seconded. There was an amendment regarding Shannon Elementary school concerning a possible temporary bailout from Pinole. This was another significant change. • The WCCUSD School Board knowingly voted for school closures based on data they knew to be incorrect and bias. I emailed three school board members some of the errors on the MGT America school closure report before the Feb. 11, 2009 School Closure Board Meeting. The WCCUSD used this report to make recommendations for closing schools. I believe the errors were major enough that it artificially selected schools for closing, schools with Socioeconomically Disadvantaged and Non-disadvantaged students, and Students with Disabilities. Before the meeting I called a School board member (A.M.) and spoke to him about the serious errors on the MGT report. He indicated to me that the board was well aware of these errors. He thought the outcome was because of racism, I said something about that I thought it about classism. At first I felt a bit relieved knowing the Board is aware of these serious errors, but still concerned because I had read the Agenda and noticed no options in the list schools for closure, that were based on this MGT report with faulty data. I asked him if he would vote for this, he told me he had to. Then the phone disconnected. It seems the WCCUSD School Board knowingly voted for school closures based on faulty data, creating equity issues and did not request to have errors corrected. ... (excerpt)