Tempers flare at meeting on Monterey's Bayview school

Dr. Shepard made an argument to close Bay View Elementary to save money, but she did not present any cost projections.
What does it is the current operating costs of Bay View and Colton?
What are the projected cost of opening Monte Vista?
What is the projected lease income available from Bay View and Colton vs Monte Vista?
How much money is Bay View losing each year as a percentage of total operating budget.
Dr. Shepard tried to pass off "optimum" school size as financial data.

I wanted to attend but could not make it. These school board meetings always tend to bring out the worst emotions in people. In my opinion, MPUSD has the best school board members that we've had in memory, but I'm not so sure about the executive leadership (superintendent and all the assistant superintendents and other "executive staff").

I would like to see Bay View remain open. The school has a reputation as being the best elementary in the district, plus, it's the only Monterey school on "the other side" of the tunnel. It adds a nice dimension to the neighborhood.

tim wrote:

Dr. Shepard made an argument to close Bay View Elementary to save money, but she did not present any cost projections.
What does it is the current operating costs of Bay View and Colton?
What are the projected cost of opening Monte Vista?
What is the projected lease income available from Bay View and Colton vs Monte Vista?
How much money is Bay View losing each year as a percentage of total operating budget.
Dr. Shepard tried to pass off "optimum" school size as financial data.

These are exactly the right questions to ask, and hopefully some answers will be forthcoming... thanks for the report.

The district made a good decision in a very difficult financial environment.

Re-opening Monte Vista brings back potentially a very outstanding educational environment. It also allows children in the Monte Regio / Skyline / Peter's Gate area to maintain a neighborhood school. The majority of parents on the downtown side of the DLI do not have to make that difficult Lighthouse commute.

The other positive is that parents with children at Monte Vista and either Colton or Monterey High School have a much shorter distance to drop of their other children.

Colton Parent wrote:

The district made a good decision in a very difficult financial environment.
Re-opening Monte Vista brings back potentially a very outstanding educational environment. It also allows children in the Monte Regio / Skyline / Peter's Gate area to maintain a neighborhood school. The majority of parents on the downtown side of the DLI do not have to make that difficult Lighthouse commute.
The other positive is that parents with children at Monte Vista and either Colton or Monterey High School have a much shorter distance to drop of their other children.

I agree, both options are a win for Colton parents. One of them is a serious loss for both Bay View parents and New Monterey. Let's not forget that Bay View is a top performing school in the district. It is not obvious how the loss of Bay View parental involvement is going to be a "win" for the district.

This is a sad and upsetting scenario for Bayview and New Monterey. We, as parents, have worked very hard for our kids and our school in the wake of all the budget cuts. This is going to be a financial burden for the families of Bayview as we can no longer walk to school (we don't like traveling on Lighthouse Ave. either!). More disturbing is all of the young Monterey kids who have been shuffled around through the years. How about some stability!

Colton Parent wrote:

The district made a good decision in a very difficult financial environment.
Re-opening Monte Vista brings back potentially a very outstanding educational environment. It also allows children in the Monte Regio / Skyline / Peter's Gate area to maintain a neighborhood school. The majority of parents on the downtown side of the DLI do not have to make that difficult Lighthouse commute.
The other positive is that parents with children at Monte Vista and either Colton or Monterey High School have a much shorter distance to drop of their other children.

Why should all the pulic schools in the Monterey area be in YOUR area? Many Colton children are transfers and if the real truth be known, less than 125 are actual Colton residents. We have over 250 children in the immediate area nearly all of whom can walk.
I pay the same taxes as you do and our children DESERVE to have this school stay open. Dr. Shepherd FINALLY admitted the costs were awash. Our children plus our transfers numbering in total around 325, would tie up congested roads creating even more problems for this city. Over 6,000 people on this side of the Presido demand nothing less!

There is much confusion on the numbers of Colton / Bay View students who live on the North and South of the DLI. The district seemed to indicate that a little over 200 live in New Monterey while around 100 Bay View students and 130 Colton students live on the other side of the DLI.

Perhaps the real challenge might be to re-prioritize the district's minimum size requirement and bring a new factor, maintaining neighborhood schools. The challenge for both Colton and Bay View parents would be to pick something to eliminate if there is a cost issue or pay extra money to maintain these schools in the short run.

I think that Dr. Shepherd would have come up with a cost, but she was affected by the emotions of last night.

My son graduated from Bayview, my daughter is now in Foothill. Although Foothill is not a bad school, Bayview out-perform Foothill in every aspect. One of the reason is Foothill seems too big. I would ask a question to all of you, isn't kids' education more important than a few ten bucks?(when average out to every family). My daughter will stay in public school for another year before we send her to private middle school, but I will 100% support for increase the tax to support our school system, in this specific case, keeping Bayview open.

What is Supt Shepherd's real agenda? Something is not passing the smell test. Bayview is the epitome of an ideal neighborhood school.
Is Bayview, a multi-cultural school with students from differing socio-economic backgrounds being punished for being successful in spite of the failure the district has been experiencing under Supt Shepherd's leadership? Is closing Bayview a way to tinker with No Child Left Behind requirements by re-establishing base test scores to avoid penalities for failure in other district schools?
Bay View is a very low-maintainance school. It has a very small footprint. The cost of re-fitting and maintaining MonteVista does not support an argument for fiscal retraint.
MonteVista students are not currently bussed out of their neighborhood-they are at Colton/MonteVista. Where are the Colton students going to be bussed to if the elementary students leave-resulting in a "too small school" at Colton?

What is the relationship between the closing of Bayview and the petitioning of a group of private special education businesses to create a charter school within the MPUSD district? Some of these businesses have worked for the Superintendent and board as highly paid private contractors, displacing regular employees. Does Dr. Shepherd stillcommute between Monterey and her home for special needs children, a business she runs in Modesto with her husband? This proposed charter is already enrolling students, and is looking for a site (Bayview perhaps?) before even being approved by the MPUSD Board. Is Bayview being closed to make room for this charter school, which will take hundreds of students away from MPUSD, resulting in even more financial problems?
Finally, if parents are transporting students downtown, many New Monterey families have the financial wherewithal to vote with their feet and keep driving to one of the many private schools in the area-further exasperating MPUSD's financial woes by the resulting loss of ADA.

One more thing-for every military dependent, the federal government generously subsidizes their education, above and beyond state funding. Do those funds go to the schools that have students generating those funds or are these funds being distributed across the district? How many military dependents attend Bayview?

The proposed Monte Vista school is probably a better alternative to any private school or charter school option.

It is still relatively close to all Monterey locations and would have the ability to retain the best of Colton and Bay View staffs.