What will happen to Georgia Brown Elementary School? Paso Robles board to discuss fate tonight

It has been more than two years since a Paso Robles school district committee suggested Georgia Brown Elementary School be shuttered.

And for the past two years, the dual immersion Spanish-English-language school’s future has been anything but clear.

After voting in February 2022 to remodel the dilapidated Georgia Brown campus and shift the dual immersion program to another campus down the street — Glen Speck Elementary School — the school district was thrown a massive curve ball.

Pre-remodel surveys in May found an unclear geologic feature beneath the Georgia Brown Elementary School campus which could be indicative of an active earthquake fault.

Now, the Paso Robles school district staff has given the school board a broad question to tackle during its Tuesday evening board meeting: What should happen next to the elementary school campus?

Community largely in support of saving Georgia Brown campus

During a special meeting held Monday evening at Paso Robles High School, community members overwhelmingly told the school board that remodeling the Georgia Brown Elementary School campus was vital.

“We’ve been more than patient, more than understanding; we’ve made it work because that’s just the community at Georgia Brown,” said Christina Olivo, a parent of five students in the Paso Robles school district, during the Monday meeting. “Now’s the time for moving Georgia Brown to a permanent, appropriately functioning, safe and healthy facility.”

Marcus Rostro, a soon-to-be fourth grader at Georgia Brown, advocated for the campus to be remodeled during the Monday evening meeting.

“I’m speaking up and asking that our voices be heard,” he said. “Georgia Brown needs a home, a permanent home, for us to succeed and thrive in our Spanish-speaking abilities and continue positively learning.”

Some speakers mentioned their support for expanding Georgia Brown from kindergarten through fifth grade into a K-8 dual-immersion Spanish-English language school.

“At the core of all these dreams, all these things, lies money,” said Alex Thompson, a parent and school counselor in the Paso Robles school district. “Georgia Brown is the single largest elementary program in the district ... and having the potential to grow into the K-8, which might be controversial, might retain more students — which, again, means more money.”

To continue with the district’s $15.5 million remodel plans for Georgia Brown Elementary School, the district would need to dig a massive trench on the campus to determine what the geologic anomaly is. One company has estimated the cost of digging the 30-foot-deep, 3-foot-wide and 150-foot-long trench could be about $294,000.

Budget concerns initiated unclear future of Georgia Brown campus

That cost of such intensive work has appeared to leave district staff wavering on their enthusiasm to remodel the Georgia Brown Elementary School campus.

District staff have long told the school board that declining student enrollment across all of its schools gives cause for concern and puts future budget predictions in the red.

Budget concerns even brought about the creation of the 11-member district committee that suggested to the board in January 2021 to shutter the aging Georgia Brown Elementary School campus. Their report to the school board noted that closing the crumbling campus could save about $700,000 annually.

That committee is now at the center of a U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigation.

According to the complaint filed with the federal agency, the district allegedly discriminated against the Latino and Spanish-speaking community during the committee’s decision-making process by not having a diverse committee and not dispersing information in Spanish.

Since the committee suggested to the school board that the Georgia Brown campus close, however, the district has found itself in better financial straights.

That’s due to new administration at the district, dramatic cuts in expenses, one-time monies from the federal government for COVID-19-related costs and an increase in unduplicated students — those who qualify for free and reduced-price meals, foster youth or English-language learners.

A jump in the known number of those students in the Paso Robles school district resulted in a budget boost of more than $1.5 million during the 2021-22 school year, according to Brad Pawlowski, the Paso Robles district’s chief business officer.

With its financial situation looking up, the school board voted during a February 2022 meeting to use Measure M bond money to remodel Georgia Brown Elementary School instead of tearing it down.

Bond money set aside for Georgia Brown campus remodel

Voters approved Measure M, a $95 million bond measure, in 2016. Of that, $13.85 million was set aside for Georgia Brown.

The funds were supposed to pay for 10 new classrooms, a cafeteria upgrade and major modernization of the campus, among other things. But none of that happened, even though construction was originally scheduled to begin in June 2020.

Now, the district has a little more than $30 million left in Measure M funds, according to Pawlowski.

During the February 2022 meeting, the board voted to spend $15.5 million of that to remodel the Georgia Brown campus into a smaller school. With that vote, enrollment would go from 642 students to 317, according to district projections.

The board also voted to move the dual immersion program to the Glen Speck Elementary School campus, which would be expanded to fit 642 students, up from its current enrollment of 336 students.

But the discovery of the geologic anomaly has thrown a wrench in those plans and could require the district to spend hundreds of thousands of unbudgeted money on a Georgia Brown campus remodel.

Options for future of Georgia Brown campus unclear

School district staff have not given the board specific options to choose from as it discusses the future of the school Tuesday night, though they were asking for direction on how to move forward.

The board could choose to move forward with funding the necessary geologic anomaly survey to continue forward with the potential remodel — or it could explore not funding the survey.

Some members of the community during the Monday meeting at Paso Robles High School said there was not enough clear information for the board to make a decision on the future of the Georgia Brown Elementary School campus at this time.

“It’s premature to make any big decisions now,” parent Tracy Dauterman said during the Monday meeting. “There’s too much to learn, too many possibilities we haven’t even considered.”

Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the Paso Robles school board room at 800 Niblick Road.