W. Covina District to Close 1 High School

The West Covina school board, acting on cost-cutting proposals to close up to five schools, voted Tuesday to shut down one of the district’s high schools, but deadlocked on the recommended closure of two junior high schools and two elementary schools.

Frustration was evident among school officials and about 260 community members at the meeting as nagging questions and new suggestions forced the board to postpone a decision until next Thursday.

“It was very frustrating that all of a sudden at the last minute there were brand-new questions and brand-new proposals,” said board member Karen Welts. “We needed to bring questions up before the night of the vote.”

Quoting a co-worker at the insurance company where she works, Welts said: “We need to make sure analyzation doesn’t lead to paralyzation.”

Because one school board member resigned Monday because he has moved from the district, the four members left on the board could not reach decisions on three of five proposals. Originally, the board set this week as the deadline for a decision to give district administrators time to plan the moves.

Although the board agreed to reconfigure grade levels and close one high school, the consensus broke down over which schools should be closed.

The board deferred deciding whether Edgewood High School or West Covina High School should be closed. It could not decide which elementary schools to close and whether to close both junior highs.

By a unanimous vote, the board did approve new grade configurations recommended by a special study committee in January. The district will shift from the current intermediate-school format, with grades seven and eight attending a junior high school, to a middle-school configuration starting in September.

Under the new system, kindergartners through fifth-graders will attend elementary schools, sixth- through eighth-graders will attend one or more middle schools and ninth- through 12th-graders will attend the high school.

But that configuration depends on closing one high school and two elementary schools. And board members could not agree on the School Use Planning Committee’s recommendation to convert the closed high school into a 2,000-student middle school.

In a series of votes, board members Welts and Elias Martinez supported closing one of the high schools, Hollencrest and Willowood intermediate schools, and Cortez and Merced elementary schools.

But while board President Joe Mount and William J. Brutocao agreed that one of the high schools should be closed, they voted against all other closure plans. They said they needed more information.

‘Greater Anxiety’

Martinez urged them to consider the consequences of not making a decision.

“The longer we postpone making decisions, the greater the anxiety will become,” Martinez said, adding that a vote to close any school could be amended in the future. “All we would be doing is buying ourselves an option, or adopting an option, and getting the extra time in the subsequent school year to make a more thorough assessment.”

But Mount said no decision should be made until all questions are answered.

“And we will continue to do that until we are satisfied to bring it to a vote,” Mount said.

Brutocao complained that he did not have enough information on the recommendation to create one middle school and did not agree on the elementary schools targeted for closure by the committee. He said the committee had overstepped its original authority and had not provided a full rationale for its conclusions.

The committee considered school closures and grade configuration plans as part of the district’s fiscal recovery plan.

$3.3-Million Loan

After a deficit in the 1986-87 school year, the district was forced to borrow $3.3 million from the state. As a condition of the loan, the district must repay $1.5 million next year.

On Jan. 19, the committee made its recommendation, which targeted West Covina High School, Hollencrest and Willowood junior high schools and Merced and Cortez elementary schools for closure. The West Covina High campus would become the district’s middle school, while Edgewood High School would be renamed and become the district’s only high school.

The committee estimated that the district could save a maximum of $1.7 million, less any expenses the consolidation would involve. The savings could be put toward the estimated $2.7 million that must be cut from the 1988-89 budget. Committee members and district officials have said students would be better educated in schools that are full. Currently, the high schools are operating at half capacity and the elementary schools at 70%.

Brutocao, in objecting to one middle school with 2,000 pupils, offered an alternative. He proposed using the closed high school campus and either Willowood or Hollencrest as middle schools.

“I’m not sure whether a single, consolidated middle school with an enrollment of 2,000 is in the best interests of this community,” he said. “An awful lot of people will prefer a smaller middle school.”

Curt Response

Brutocao said the district staff has not considered forming two intermediate schools.

Trustee Stanley Oswalt, who oversees district operations and finances as a condition of the state loan, had a curt response for Brutocao. He said the proposal was probably unworkable, unrelated to the crisis at hand and a waste of time for the district staff. He cautioned Brutocao against pursuing the idea.

“From my position, if I believe professionally that the establishment of (a single middle school) provides a program equal to or better than what currently exists and resolves the financial problem of the district, then I would be placed in a position of having to veto any other board action,” he said.

Welts said she was concerned about the unspecific nature of Brutocao’s proposal and the quality of education that would be offered by the smaller of the middle schools.

“I feel that some students would be shortchanged in the long run,” she said.

Mount argued that the district could at least consider the option.

“I do think the concern is valid,” he said. “I think we’ve looking at the legitimate input to determine whether it is feasible to consider before we jump of the deep end.”

Under Brutocao’s proposal, the district office would be closed and the administrative staff would share the closed high school campus with the middle school students.

Tentative Estimates

The district staff will be unlikely to respond in significant detail to Brutocao’s idea, said Supt. Jane D. Gawronski. However, the staff can come up with tentative estimates of how much it would cost to relocate the district office to a school site, she said.

Brutocao said he had reservations about closing Merced and Cortez elementary schools as recommended by the committee.

“My concern is not whether we need to close elementary schools--there’s no doubt we do need to--but identifying the particular schools to close,” he said.

Brutocao said he wondered why Merced was targeted by the committee for closure while Cameron, California and Wescove elementary schools would potentially have fewer students.

Tim Irwin, who resigned from the board Monday, said the split confirmed his decision to get off the board and avoid charges of impropriety.

“I think the fact that I was no longer a resident of the district would have impacted some people’s minds,” he said. “If anyone had any doubt as to where I live, I would prefer not to get in the way.”

Still Time

Although administrators wanted a decision by this week, a decision next Thursday will still allow time to plan for changes in the 1988-89 year, Gawronski said.

“That’s only nine days, and it’s not going to end the world for us,” she said, but noted that it may affect planning for next year. “West Covina is trying to do in months what other districts take years to do. We don’t have the luxury of that time.”

District officials are unsure how many people will be affected by the consolidations. Because contract negotiations are under way with teachers--talks which include an early retirement plan and a district proposal for increased class sizes--the actual number may not be known for some time.

But by voting for the new grade configurations and deciding to close a high school, the board has allowed the district to plan for the most difficult moves, Gawronski said.

“This gives us time to merge the two English departments, two music departments, two mathematics departments, and to begin to agree on what the curriculum is going to be,” she said about the high school plan. “Now we have to meet with teachers and others and put the differences together.”

But some at the meeting said putting off the decision makes the situation worse for students, teachers and administrators.

‘Audience Ready’

“I think (board members) made one important decision in terms of putting the two high schools together,” said Oswalt, the district trustee. “I feel the audience was certainly ready for them to make the decision. In some ways it’s difficult for me to understand why the decisions were not made (Tuesday) night.”

The superintendent also noted the toll on the community.

“The longer this stretches out for us, the more ambiguity people have to live with,” Gawronski said. “People are very anxious for the decision to be made.”