District Seeking Creative Ways To Save School

February 25, 2010

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ?  Officials feared the closure of a Natomas elementary school would be inevitable, but a new array of creative ideas may provide alternatives.

D uring a Wednesday night board workshop packed with parents, a parent’s group proposed to cut back on custodians and secretaries throughout the Natomas Unified School District as a way to avoid closing one of the three elementary schools currently threatened by the budget axe.

Custodians are currently on a "five-20" schedule: Every other day, classrooms get a quick five minute cleaning, and the next day they get a more thorough 20 minute cleaning.

Parents had mixed reactions to the idea of cutting sanitation further, especially with

Superintendent General Davie said more cuts to custodians are already in the budget balancing act and won’t save a school on its own, but another option could.

Closing Leroy Green Middle School was discussed as a possible alternative to closing an elementary school. The school has performed so low academically for the past six years that the district is about to be forced to take drastic action.

"Either close the school, replace the staff or principal," Davie said.

School officials also discussed the possibility of extending elementary school to the sixth grade, instead of ending at the fifth. More than 30 percent of students leave the Natomas District when it’s time to go to middle school, and keeping the students in the district for just a year longer means $5,000 more per student for the district in government money.