A.M. Winn Won't Close: SCUSD Ends Discussion

The Sacramento City Unified School District board will no longer be voting on school closures within the district. 

The board meeting room met its 350 person capacity on Thursday night, with many people still waiting outside to show their anger of the possibility of school closures and consolidations.

Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said trustees will be tabling any discussion of closing schools, including A.M. Winn, a Rancho Cordova school that would have moved students to James W. Marshall and Abraham Lincoln elementary schools upon its closure.

Closing A.M. Winn could have saved the district an estimated $180,000.

“I have realized that putting solutions on the table and then asking your community to get there is the wrong way to go,” board member Jeff Cuneo said. “I hope that we can now turn around and have some very good conversations about where we as a district, where we in our respected communities want to go with our local school system.”

Concerns brought up from A.M. Winn families at a previous school site meeting included staffing, transportation concerns, safety around street crossing, increased class size, after school program, school community, principal’s leadership and the attendance impact.

Barbara Hokamp, an A.M. Winn parent, said she was “absolutely relieved” to hear that the school will not be closing.

“The main concern was other schools are far from our house and not in walking distance,” Hokamp said. “We have a really strong community … It really brought our school together.”

A third grade teacher at the school, Robert Whitehead, said he was thrilled about the decision and that his main concern was for his students.

“It would disrupt students’ lives, and they would have to cross busy Routier Road,” Whitehead said.

Whitehead also said that Abraham Lincoln Elementary School’s cafeteria is not large enough to house the additional students that would have transferred, and would have probably needed portable restrooms as well.

Cuneo still urged the community to stay involved with district issues, pointing out that the budget is still an issue the board will need to deal with.

“We need to realize that we have dwindling enrollment, that we have budgetary issues, that we have more seats than students,” Cuneo said. “So we have to have a real frank discussion between and amongst ourselves about what’s important, about where we see our local schools and what we want out of our local schools for the next five or 10 years.”

New board positions were also voted on at Thursday’s meeting.

Exiting roles are president Gustavo Arroyo, first vice president Patrick Kennedy and second vice president Ellyn Bell.

Diana Rodriguez was voted in as the new board president, with Darrel Woo as first vice president and Jeff Cuneo as second vice president.

Area 3 trustee Donald Terry, whose area includes Rancho Cordova and Rosemont, was also nominated for second vice president, but declined.