Strobridge School to Close in 2022
Hayward’s school board voted unanimously at a November 17 special meeting to close Strobridge School following this school year. They did so as a number of parents and teachers at the meeting called on them to “press pause” on proposed school closings across the district.
District officials said that they face a $14 million budget deficit for next school year amidst enrollment drops, and face mounting facilities repair costs, especially at older schools.
“The obvious takeaway tonight, and all the other nights, is to put a pause on this. All kinds of things are in question,” said teachers union president Madia Faraj.
She suggested using one-time COVID-19 relief money to buy time to think through any cuts more fully.
Strobridge School, just over the Hayward city line on Bedford Drive has been serving Castro Valley children since 1955.
The board also voted to close Bowman School, located in southern Hayward on Jefferson Street, but gave a reprieve to two other schools set to close after this year.
Glassbrook Elementary and Ochoa Middle School will not be closing in the fall, but they won’t be accepting new students, the board decided. Two preschool programs now at central sites will be dispersed among all the remaining elementary schools.
However, the Board voted to put proposed cuts for the following two school years, 2023-24 and 2024-25, on hold pending a further look at alternatives.
Superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne and other district officials said bigger state budget cuts are coming. Making cuts now ahead of them was essential, he argued.
Some 50 public speakers at the online meeting largely disagreed, and several took issue with Wayne’s call for “right-sizing” schools by having fewer, larger schools.
Andrea Mace said, “In the days of COVID, more students is not better. Less is best.”
“That $90 million’s not a real number,” said Sandra Macias, of the district’s figure for needed repairs at multiple schools.
Calling the figure “super-inflated,” she added, “Students have gone through a year of stress, and now you want to rip them apart.”
The district did remove one objection Strobridge parents and teachers had to the school closing and reassignment plan.
Rather than moving to Cherryland School on Amador Street in Hayward in the fall, students living east of Mission Boulevard will instead be assigned to Fairview School on Maud Avenue in Hayward.
Parents had argued that getting to Cherryland would have required students to walk a long and dangerous route that involved crossing busy Foothill Boulevard. Fairview is further away from Strobridge than Cherryland is but walking there does not require crossing Foothill.
Allan Garde, assistant superintendent for business, said at the board meeting that the district considers providing transpiration for elementary students living more than one mile from their schools.