After holding the first two of four planned community meetings on the question of consolidating schools, Ocean View School District officials are postponing the discussion of campuses being closed next school year.
In a letter to the district community released Thursday, school board President Patricia Singer wrote, “I will not agendize any board action regarding potential school consolidation or school closure for the 2023-2024 school year.”
She said district leadership has been “intently listening” to parents who have contacted the district online as well as attended the first two community meetings held in recent days at Circle View and Village View elementary schools. They got the message, she said, that parents felt they should have additional opportunities to participate in the discussion, more options should be evaluated and the impacts of recent distance learning during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns looked at.
“I have taken these sentiments to heart and agree that the process for evaluating school consolidation is moving too fast,” Singer wrote.
She later said she did not have a timeline for the slowed-down process, but she has “asked the superintendent to work with his staff and with parents and the community to develop a range of future options for the board to consider.”
Superintendent Michael Conroy and his executive staff initially recommended the school board consider repurposing Spring View Middle School as an elementary school, with its students moved to other campuses, and Circle View, Village View and Golden View elementary schools be closed and their students relocated.
School officials have emphasized since the consolidation recommendations were made at the board’s Feb. 14 meeting that the discussion was just preliminary and no decisions had been made. Singer reiterated that Friday, saying, “This was the listening phase This was step one. This was one proposal.”
Enrollment in the district has been declining the…
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