Our fourth set of options considers what alternatives are available with the two schools in Chester.
Chester Elementary student capacity is 525, a current enrollment of 194, and an annual utility cost of $74,303.
Chester High student capacity is 513, a current enrollment 217, and an annual utility cost of $126,145.
Alternative 1 is do nothing.
Alternative 2 is to consolidate with Greenville High.
Alternative 3 is to close Chester Elementary and create K-12 at Chester High - recognizing that facility modifications would need to be made to Chester High to accommodate Elementary age students.
Alternative 3 is to close Chester Elementary and create K-12 at Chester High - recognizing that facility modifications would need to be made to Chester High to accommodate Elementary age students.
Please share with us your feedback.
Alternative 2...why is Taylorsville Elementary School still open? Chester has a larger population and they'e struggling!!!
ReplyDeleteIt would much more sense to close down Taylorsville school. they are geographically close enough to go to Greenville school.
ReplyDeleteSeems because Chester is on the far end of the county, we get the least resources and still get the cutbacks. Isn't the enrollment down in ALL of the countys schools?
I really think we need to look at the tests scores of these schools. Does Greenville Elem. even come close to the scores at Taylorsville Elem.? How many students will we loose to charter school if one of our quality schools were to close? These are all things to consider as well as the safety of the existing schools. It was said by a PUSD employee during a MVCD board meeting that the electrical system at Greenville Elem. is so bad that the teachers can not even use an electrical tea pot in their classrooms.
ReplyDeleteFor one, close Taylorsville!!
ReplyDeleteFor two, have Greenville consolidate with either Quincy or Chester seeing as they are in the middle of both; they could have a choice!
For three, making a K-12 will only push parents to pull their children out of public school and put them into alternative education programs...thus declining enrollment even farther!
If the Chester Elm. and High School combined I would put my kids in the privet school. With no question! I know alot of other parents would too. I live in lake Almanor and my drive to Chester is longer the drive from Taylorsville to Grenville. If Plumas County is going to close or combind schools Taylorsville should be the first. If the Chester schools where combined the county would loose more kids to privet, charter, or home schools then the entire enrollment of Taylorsville
ReplyDeleteWhy is alternative energy not a consideration as an option? Many school sites have changed their energy source and greatly reduced that expense. In addition to the cost of what it would take to bus Chester students to Greenville, it would mean Chester students {some who don't get off the bus until 5 pm} would be home even later, let alone leaving at before 7 am in some cases. And it would pretty much make it impossible for Chester students to participate in sports because it would be parents driving every day to pick them up. I don't know WHO is on this committe, but I think that this info needs to be easily available for ALL parent and student input. there must be some better options then what is being offered here. IF this is such a vital issue, how can there even be an option to do nothing?? something obvioulsy needs done, I personally don't feel any of these listed are feasible.
ReplyDeleteAny suggestion of a K-12 school is ludicrous. Parents won't stand for it and you will have a real problem.
ReplyDeleteI feel that with regard to the high schools it would be disruptive to the least number of students by closing Greenville High school and dispersing those students to their choice of either Quincy or Chester High School. Several students from the Greenville area are already voluntarily attending Chester High school
ReplyDeleteClosing Taylorsville will not save the PUSD. Families have been leaving rural areas across the United States in droves for the past 20 years. The only solution is to get families, with kids, back to these areas otherwise the writing is on the wall, and no bandaid efforts, including consolidation or nipping off Taylorsville, will change the inevitable outcome of too few people living in a large geographic area with an ever shrinking tax base and federal timber sale dollars....K-12 at one school is a non-starter if you are serious about the quality of your childs education, though it will save money...rural public education, as it was known in the past, no longer exists...a new model must be forged..
ReplyDeleteClosing Taylorsville may make sense but I believe that Indian Valley residents will insist upon and work to ensure that a quality K-12 education, in one form or another, remains in the valley. Most will not allow their children to be bused to either Chester or Quincy. Greenville is geographically in the middle of Plumas County and as such, could and would accept students from Chester or Quincy. Additionally, Greenville is already ADA friendly while the other schools will require expensive retrofitting to accomplish the same thing.
ReplyDeleteIt is unacceptable to consider closing schools in ANY of our geographically isolated communities; and busing our kids over additional dangerous mountain roads is un-safe. We need to consolidate schools within our communities and re-invent education. Perhaps it is time to demand the state finance all the unfunded mandates. We need our legislators to enact legislation that excludes "frontier" communities from all the refuse and blather mandated by the State Department of Mis-Education".
ReplyDeleteThere is a simple, legal and economically sensible solution. Dissolve PUSD and turn each of the communities into independent charter districts.Each "district" would recieve all of their money directly from the state based on its enrollment, each would have its own board and each could decide what room/buildings to use based on what it could afford. It would end the unions (CTA & CSEA} strangle hold on the district. All new teachers could be hired,competent teachers could be rehired, incompetent teachers fired, contracts would be void so that sensible salary and benefit schedules could be adopted. Incompetent employees and administrators could be shown the door as they would all lose "rights" to lifetime jobs. Additionally, parents could AGAIN fully participate in helping manitain thier schools due to end of these restrictive anti-community, anti-child contracts. All district functions could be eliminated. The DO, bus barn, maintence, cafeteria departments functions owuld under the authority of each local community instead of just Quincy. If the community, Chester, Greenville whichever chose to pass a local bond for ITS students it could. This plan would only require the board to approve independent charters for each community by the November board meeting and it would be fully in effect by the subsequent fall. Imagine the millions wasted at the DO and its allied funtcions sent to local communities where local decsions could be made that benefits the kids in the room, not the employees. Finally this plan is absolutly revenue neutral to the county but revenue positive to each community.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the post above regarding dissolving PUSD as being the best answer!!! However, I do not think that this will happen in the near future. PUSD needs to realize WHAT the problems are that is causing students to transfer to charter schools, switch between schools, or move away and try to remedy the issues..... Excellent teachers, a rigorous array of academic opportunities and quality elective courses, classes and sports programs are lacking in all PUSD Schools. Statistically, overall they test high, but when they get into the "real" world, the scores AREN'T so high! And Taylorsville Elementary is NOT immune! Obviously combining schools would give more options for teachers and classes, and cut cost tremendously, but I think as someone stated above, you will loose a lot of students if this were to happen to Charter. Same thing with the GHS students attending QHS or CHS! I recently moved from Plumas County to a small town with a population of 1,300 people, yet the high school (9-12 grade) has over 500+ students and is a facility that exceeds state and national standards in all capacities. And yes, we PAY to go to a public school, but with over 35 clubs and activities and excellent sports programs, it is worth it!!! Maybe PUSD should look into how other small schools that are successful are being facilitated!?! Just like our justice system, our public education system is greatly flawed! I don't know what the immediate answer is, but SOMETHING needs to be done - for the children's sake!
ReplyDeleteI just recently attended a training in Chico this last Saturday and was introduced to a school with open classrooms for K-6th grade. One of these schools reside in Chico and the other in Marin County. These schools are the lowest in all testing scores found on the data base for school scores. Why? Because families have the right to refuse the testing for their child. Many parents do not know this. But, after these children continue into high school, they ALL have straight A's. It's not the test scores that count. It's what the children are learning in the process. The children have choices and succeed when they are able to make their own choices and grow on what they are wanting to learn. An open K-6th classroom might be an option for parents to look into???
ReplyDeleteI think that the alternatives are not explained with enough specificity regarding how much money would be saved ( if any) when all the mitigating factors are taken into consideration. I certainly hope that before any recommendations are made that the committee has all the necessary cost information. It would be a true crime to disrupt the education of students and then later find out that nothing was saved. I can't believe that busing students to and from either Quincy and /or Chester can save money, what with gas costing nearly $4.00 a gallon. The committee has a difficult task, but must make sure that their recommendations will really accomplish cost savings and not just fulfill Mr. Harris' request. All the communities in PUSD need to maintain viable high schools, but not at the expense of elementary programs. I think we need to seriously approach the teacher's and other employee unions with the request for a reduction in pay, starting with the Superintendent. How much would a 10% salary reduction save the district. Everyone would keep their jobs, helping to keep the businesses open and give us time to rebuild the economy in California.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that our school district use to be one of the richest districts in the nation but because of the decline of timber sales, we have dipped to an all time low in many regards. But what I find most interesting statewide, is: As the State placed more "administrative" staff on board to "educate" our children, our education has become worse and the only threats I ever see are the closing of facilities and laying off of teachers...When are we going to start eliminating the fat on top and allow the teachers, staff and Principals to educate our children? We don't need a district office or the staff in it.
ReplyDeleteI truly wonder how much excess property does PUSD have that is costing money, and is not used for actual school use. I know the district owns a second school in Greenville, how much is spent on that building, which houses a couple of renters?? Why is the district holding on to something that can not be used for the education of our children. Why not sell these unused buildings, put the money into the buildings that are being used.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder how much is lost in maintenance mismanagement. living in Greenville I know how much the cost of water can be, and seeing broken sprinklers shooting in the air for weeks really concerns me, after seeing this happening for a couple of weeks, I got a hold of the maintenance manager at the Greenville school and told him about the broken sprinkler, and my concern with the cost, sadly that section of sprinklers was not shut off, and water was wasted for another four days. seems the managers biggest concern was how I got his phone number, NOT the cost of the water being wasted.
Close Taylorsville seems like an obvious start. Then consolidating to a k-12 to keep a local school available to the community in Greenville. Chester should remain the same as that is possible with the last resort consolidating to a k-12.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it everyone believes closing Taylorsville is a first step? Shouldn't quality of education be the priority? And really, bus the Greenville kids to either Chester or Quincy? These are not viable options. It's time to go back to the table and make some viable options that make sense, but first and foremost make quality education a priority. Maybe eliminating the Superintendent should be first on the chopping block. He appears to be dead weight!
ReplyDeleteWhat is good for one community should be implemented in all communities.... Could ALL communities be transitioned to a K-12 one site model? We could reduce our administrative and classified staff in each community. One secretary, one principal, one set of janitors, etc. If our enrollment decline is as drastic as the numbers suggest, we should use the opportunity to "unified" and all make equal concessions. After all....what is good for the goose is good for the gander....
ReplyDeleteUltimate efficiency dictates the abolition of the district. There is no justifiable advantage in having 4 geographically separate communities forced to work in some faux unified effort. Control of and responsibility for running each school, and consolidations necessary in each community should be determined by each local community. Private schools run their operations under these constraints. When will government entities learn this lesson?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine that any of these options seem logical to anyone with an education. Our enrollment number are plummeting for a reason! I have written several letters to our superintendent of schools without response. HMMM. If the leader of our district cannot recognize the voices of the parents of our students, what makes us think he really cares about our children? The district needs to fix the problems that exist, and reclaim the students in our areas. Be proactive for a change!
ReplyDelete