Frustrated parents criticize South Bay Union’s private talks on school closures

The South Bay Union School District has yet to approve a plan to address its massive enrollment declines, and though officials have floated the idea of downsizing, any campus closures wouldn’t happen until at least 2025. 

But during a town hall this week to hear from the public, frustrated parents and district staff told school leaders they seemed to have already made their decision.

The meeting Wednesday — held at Mendoza Elementary, which has seen the sharpest enrollment drop in the district — was the first of several that officials are holding this month to lay out potential options for restructuring its schools. The South County district had about 6,000 students in 2011, but projects serving just 3,200 by 2025 — a loss of nearly half. Officials have blamed high housing costs, declining birth rates and a rise in alternative education options, including charter schools and homeschooling. 

Since November, a 31-member advisory committee of administrators, principals, teachers and parents has been privately meeting to narrow viable options and ultimately provide the board a recommendation. 

Among the options being discussed: 

• Close Central Elementary and distribute those students to Emory Academy, Bayside STEAM Academy and Oneonta Elementary. 
• Transfer kids from Nestor Language Academy to Mendoza Elementary. Mendoza students will be distributed to Berry Elementary, Sunnyslope Elementary, Emory Academy and Bayside STEAM Academy. 
• Conduct a swap that would move kids from Nestor Academy to Mendoza Elementary, and Mendoza students to the Nestor Academy campus. 

The options are based in part on student population, Michael Taylor, the district’s consultant, told inewsource. All options would require a major financial investment to update the facilities ranging from $9 million to as much as $25 million per site, according to previously posted district records. Officials did not discuss specific costs Wednesday.

Some community members have criticized the committee’s process, saying it initially only provided information online and in English despite the district’s many Spanish-speaking families who don’t typically look at the school website.

They also took issue with the town hall’s format, during which attendees were permitted to write their input instead of speaking during the meeting. While translation services were offered, some said they didn’t know they were available and that the town hall should have been done in primarily Spanish.  

Superintendent Jose Espinoza stressed the district has not made a decision. He said the town hall was intended to allow community members to provide feedback and to avoid a “shouting match.” 

“You have that opportunity to speak out loud, it’s just that wasn’t the right venue for it,” he said. 

Parents held back tears as they spoke to inewsource about what school closures would mean for their children. 

Angelica Buelna said her son, a third grader at Mendoza Elementary who has autism, could have trouble adjusting to a new campus surrounded by people he doesn’t know. 

Some parents at the meeting said their family has attended Mendoza for generations. Luciano Mercado’s three children have all gone to the school, with his youngest still attending. He and his wife Anai had hoped their grandchildren would go there, too. 

“We live here, this is our community,” Mercado said, adding that it feels as if the school is being taken from the neighborhood. 

South Bay Union has an operating budget of $50 million. It’s projecting a more than $5 million deficit next year and $7 million for the 2025-26 school year. 

In addition to possible school closures, the district also is considering placing a bond measure on the November ballot that would help modernize its campuses.

South Bay Union will hold two more town hall meetings this month — one at Nestor Language Academy on April 17 and the other at Central Elementary on April 24. 

Community members can also speak during public comment at a May 20 board study session and in June when the district is expected to make a final decision. 

But it may take up to August for the board to come to a decision, Espinoza said, adding members could decide that no options are good and to go back to the “drawing board” — or that the district may make no changes and continue “until the wheels fall off.”