The End of the Neighborhood School, from The Atlantic Cities, provides some national data and perspective on school closures. He article references two studies from The Pew Charitable Trusts that talk about the challenges of sale or reuse, and the small savings from closures.
Category: livability
Washington School meeting tonight
The meeting on the closure of Washington Elementary School in midtown Sacramento is this evening (Wednesday, February 13) from 6:00 to 9:00PM, at the school. Though all of the eleven schools proposed to be closed are important, I’m highlighting this one because it is my neighborhood school – I live in midtown. If this school closes, there will be no schools left in midtown.
The Sacramento Press had an article yesterday (Use your voice – input needed on Washington Elementary School closure, 2013-02-12).
I posted earlier on school closures.
The district’s website has information on closures. While I believe the district’s approach of basing closure solely on “economic criteria” – meaning excess capacity – is seriously flawed, nevertheless, here is the capacity report on Washington. If the portable classrooms (X, Y, Z) with a capacity of 132 were removed, the overall capacity would then be 574 rather than 706. The school would then be 39% of capacity rather than the district’s number of 31%. Still very low. I suspect that a similar analysis of the other schools to be closed would show a similar bias against schools where the district added portables and is now counting these against the school, no matter what condition or life expectancy they have.
The Sacramento Bee has also had a number of articles: Video: Kindergartener asks board not to close his school; Why sacrifice high-performing neighborhood schools?; Large crowd lobbies against planned Sacramento City school closures; True to their school; SCUSD’s Community Meeting at Mark Hopkins Elementary School; Sacramento school closings will hurt neighborhoods; Jonathan Raymond pads pay of his chief of staff, closes schools; Sacramento schools will hold meetings on closures; Education blog tracks school closures, more; Editorial: Time to match city schools with enrollment; Parents question Sacramento City district school closure plans at emotional meeting; Sacramento school closures meeting; Joseph Bonnheim Elementary serves English learners; Consider community fabric with school closures; Sacramento City Unified considers closing 11 elementary schools; Report Card: Sac City Unified identifies schools considered for closure; 11 elementary schools could be shuttered in Sacramento City Unified district; Under-enrolled Sacramento district may close multiple city schools; School closures, enrollment losses are top concerns in Sacramento City Unified Area 3 race
School closures
Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) is considering the closure of 10 elementary schools which are well below capacity due to declining enrollment, in order to save money on facilities and staff. While I certainly sympathize with the need to reduce costs in the face of declining enrollment, I think that SCUSD is failing to consider several factors in making this decision. Let me say that many school districts are facing the same challenge; SCUSD is just the current example, and I am not trying to pick on them. I live within SCUSD but work in another school district; I do not have children, but have been an education professional for much of the last 39 years.
There have been a number of articles in the local media about the closures, but the SacBee article on Sunday, January 27 provides a level of detail and addresses several of the challenges.
Why is this a transportation issue? Closure of these schools will eliminate 10 neighborhood schools, which children can by and large now walk or bicycle to. True, many of the students don’t, but they could. In most cases they will not be able to walk and bike to their new school, due to increased distance and the need to cross busy arterial streets. The change will therefore greatly increase the rate of parents driving their children to school at the remaining schools. More congestion and air pollution, and less safety for the students who do walk and bike. I will clearly state two premises:
- Right-sized neighborhood schools have a strong social value that must be weighed along with other considerations.
- All children should be able to walk and bike to school, at least at the elementary level.
San Francisco Sunday Streets
Bicyclists, walkers, skaters, families, bands, food, fun physical activity, welcoming businesses, community organizations, craziness! And no cars. What more could you ask for?
It was my pleasure to find myself in San Francisco on Sunday, July 1, for Sunday Streets. I was in the bay area to visit friends, and just happened to notice on Streetsblog that there was a Sunday Streets event. I’ve heard about these but never participated, and really looked forward to it. At 11AM, not too much was happening, a few people wandering and many people setting up, but by 1PM, that place was hopping, with so many people that it was sometimes difficult to keep moving. But that isn’t a bad thing. The 11 blocks of Valencia Street and 12 blocks of 24th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco (south of downtown) were blocked off to car traffic, though some cross-streets were open to cars.
Win-Win Transportation Solutions with Todd Litman
WALKSacramento cordially invites you to hear one of the best minds and voices in sustainableplanning today, Todd Litman, founder and leader of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute: (http://www.vtpi.org/). As our region moves forward on implementing the Sustainable Communities Strategy, we need to identify proven “win-win” solutions to the challenges facing us. Please come and hear a fresh, practical yet still visionary perspective.
There are two events on Wednesday, June 13:
- Noon-1:30 p.m. at SACOG. This event is focused on the transportation and planning professional community, but all are welcome. Go here: http://toddlitman.eventbrite.com/ to register.
- 6 – 7:30 p.m. at REI. This event is for the community at large and focuses on action for the individual. Register for the evening event at: http://tinyurl.com/ToddLitman
Transit Score
Walk Score/Transit Score offers an assessment of the transit access of any location. It is available in any browser at https://www.redfin.com/how-walk-score-works. The Redfin app shows walk score, bike score and transit score for each listing (scroll way down). Walk Score is based on the distance to the places people want to go, such as grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, movie theaters, schools, parks, libraries, bookstores, fitness locations, drug stores, hardware stores, and clothing & music.
I previously wrote about Walk Score and its use in Sacramento, and now the Walk Score company has released Transit Score. Sacramento ranks 22 out of 25 cities, with a Transit Score of 32 (of 100), in the category of “some transit.” The categories are rider’s paradise, excellent transit, good transit, some transit, and minimal transit. It is worth noting that if all the major cities had provided their transit information, Sacramento would probably have not been on the list at all, because with a population of just under a half million, it is not in the usual top 25 but would show up in a top 50.
Walk Score notes “The Transit Score algorithm calculates a score for a specific point by summing the relative ‘usefulness’ of nearby routes. We define usefulness as the distance to the nearest stop on the route, the frequency of the route, and type of route.” As pointed out in the recent Streetsblog post, it does not including information about where you can go once you’ve gotten onto the transit, which also of course affects the usefulness of the transit.
Read More »Two-waying streets in SF
StreetsBlog San Francisco had an interesting article yesterday about the conversion of one-way streets to two-way streets, SFMTA Brings Humane, Two-Way Traffic Back to Ellis and Eddy. This is an idea I’ve mentioned before for midtown, but haven’t posted any details yet, and still am not ready yet. But this article builds the justification. The […]
Sprawl
This week’s Sacramento News and Review (Thursday, April 29, 2012) has a feature story titled “Onward, Sprawl,” highlighting the impacts of the passion for growth of Sacramento County, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, and Elk Grove. I highly recommend a read. The Sacramento Bee has a short article in the Wednesday, April 18 edition titled “County kicks […]
Portland
I have been in Oregon City, Oregon, for the last few days visiting my friend Tim, as well as Patti who came over to join us from Idaho. We worked together in the Superstition Wilderness in Arizona many years ago. Monday I spent in Portland while Tim was working. Since I don’t have my bike […]
Co-op relocation
The Sacramento Natural Foods Coop is considering relocation to 28th and R streets. As a coop member, I’m interested in how the new location addresses transportation. Though plans are preliminary and vague, here is my reaction to what is available so far on the website at http://www.sacfoodcoop.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1726:store-relocation-update. Given the stated mission of the co-op, “…consumer-owned […]
Getting Around Sacramento 