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Palomar Mountain Residents Fight to Save School

Posted on: Friday, 7 April 2006, 15:01 CDT

By Paul Eakins, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Apr. 7--PALOMAR MOUNTAIN ---- In this isolated, sparsely populated mountain community, where much of life centers on the famed Palomar Observatory, the one small school doesn't just educate children.

It plays a much larger role of unifying the community, residents say.

Now, the community is trying to find a way to save the one-room Palomar Mountain School, which Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District officials say they may have to close at the end of the school year because of low enrollment.

With only five students expected to attend the K-8 school in the fall, district officials say it will lose almost $70,000 if it stays open in its current form.

About a dozen residents gathered Wednesday evening at Palomar Mountain's only restaurant, Mother's Kitchen, to discuss how to keep the school open. There they said the school is a center of social activity and pride in the community, as can be seen by the numerous school fundraisers and other events held there each year.

"This is the only place that you come and pay $225 for a pie," said Lola Graves, a retired resident who said she has never had children who attended the school. "People want to support their children. They want to support the school."

But the community would have to sell a lot of pies to keep the schoolhouse doors open.

Superintendent Lou Obermeyer said in recent interviews that she doesn't want to see the school close, but that in a district with declining enrollment and a $500,000 budget shortfall, options are limited. The district has a 2005-06 budget of $3.5 million.

"We're in a district with a declining enrollment," Obermeyer said. "So when you're looking at this, you really have to be careful with your budget, and we are going through a process to reduce expenditures."

This school year, Palomar Mountain School will bring in about $56,313 in state funds based on the average daily attendance of its 11 students, Obermeyer said. The operating cost of the school, including expenses such as the salaries of the one full-time teacher and a classroom aide, utilities, and school supplies, was $95,716 this school year, she said.

In 2006-07, district officials estimate $26,813 would be received for the five students expected to attend the school, Obermeyer said. But the operating cost would increase to $97,038, she said.

Obermeyer said several solutions are being considered that would at least reduce the cost of keeping the school open.

One is to have a part-time teacher who would teach core classes, such as English and math, and an instructional aide on-site the rest of the day. Such an option would cost about $76,412, Obermeyer said.

Another possibility would be to reduce the aide's hours and have the local Boys & Girls Club provide afternoon activities, she said. The total cost would be $68,517, Obermeyer said.

The least desirable option, closing the school, would still entail costs to bus the students off the mountain to Valley Center schools.

Although students could ride the bus that already takes high school students from Palomar Mountain to Valley Center High each morning, the district would need to spend $43,329 to bus elementary and middle school students home in the afternoon because they get out of class at a different time.

Community members at Wednesday's meeting said none of these proposals was acceptable. Besides, enrollment will rise again on Palomar Mountain, they predicted.

"If they were to cut back on the school day or plain just close the school, the odds of it coming back would be pretty small," said Scott Kardel, public affairs coordinator for the observatory and father of last year's only eighth-grader to graduate from the school.

Pam Thompson, an administrative secretary at the observatory whose daughter is a sixth-grader at the school, said making young children take a two-hour round-trip bus ride on winding and often snowy roads is unsafe and unfair.

Residents are looking at other funding options, such as federal and private grants and even legislation that would increase the flow of more state money to the school.

Until the Pauma and Valley Center school districts unified in 2000, Palomar Mountain School received an extra $40,000 annually in state aid targeted at small schools in small districts. The school had been part of the Pauma district, which only had two schools.

Since the Valley Center and Pauma districts unified, the new nine-campus district doesn't qualify for the money. But residents say they've learned some schools have been granted exceptions to the law.

Obermeyer said she has been in contact with a lobbyist who will try to convince local legislators to sponsor a bill allowing Palomar Mountain School to receive the small-school funding.

Tom Cunningham, a mountain resident who has never had children at the school but is leading the effort to save it, said Thursday the community hopes to raise money as well, but that the district has a responsibility to the Palomar families.

"We're not asking them to solve it for us," Cunningham said. "We're willing to pitch in and do our part."

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Copyright (c) 2006, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

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Source: North County Times

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