Some parents said they were concerned about the potential lack of transportation if O.B. Whaley is closed.
Jennifer Rubalcaba lives a block away from East San Jose’s O.B. Whaley Elementary. Every weekday, Rubalcaba’s father walks his nine-year-old granddaughter Elysa to school.
More than a dozen parents, students, community members and former employees of Evergreen School District rallied outside O.B. Whaley Thursday to demand the district keep the school open, stressing the important role it plays in their neighborhood. Interim Superintendent Steve Betando is expected to make a recommendation on which school to close to the school board sometime in April or May.
The Evergreen School District, which consists of 16 schools serving kindergarten through eighth grade students, had a peak enrollment of 13,400 students during the 2005-06 school year, numbers dwindled down to about 11,794 in 2017 and 9,789 by 2021, costing the district state funding, according to district figures. It costs about $500,000 a year to keep a school open, according to the district.
“To raise a young family and to be able to afford to live in San Jose….We’re losing that in virtually every district, losing families as the cost of living keeps going up,” Betando said. “That’s the challenge. Can we do anything about that? We can’t but our charge is to serve the students in the best way possible.”
Lack of transportation remains at the top of parents’ fears about the potential closure, something Betando said district leaders are taking into consideration during its ongoing assessment of which school to close. Betando said district leaders are also weighing what to do with the closed school sites, including providing a coding academy, a STEM school or digital arts school, among other options.
Rubalcaba also emphasized the emotional toll the school closure could have on the students. She was planning on sending her five-year-old daughter Esmeralda to O.B. Whaley next year but Rubalcaba fears more school transfers would put her child through too much stress and anxiety. Students from the now-shuttered Dove Hill Elementary, who now attend O.B. Whaley, were crying at the last community meeting about the potential closure, she said.
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