Paso Robles school board trustee Jim Cogan’s first reaction was, “Are you kidding me?”
After finally deciding the fate of Georgia Brown Elementary School last year, the Paso Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) recently discovered an “anomalous feature” under the school that’s put its planned renovation in jeopardy.
The geologic feature could be seismic—there’s about a 50 percent chance of it, the school district said. The state will require a deeper investigation to find out for sure before any shovels can hit the ground.
“It’s definitely not the news we were hoping to get,” Cogan told New Times. “My heart goes out to all the parents and students and teachers who just want to know what’s going to happen.”
The discovery occurred as part of pre-construction activities, and it will delay the district’s plan to renovate Georgia Brown and turn it into a smaller neighborhood school to later house Glen Speck Elementary.
In the short term, it means Georgia Brown students and staff will likely stay on their campus for the next school year. Georgia Brown had been preparing to relocate to a temporary campus near Flamson Middle School while the renovations took place.
A larger decision also looms for the school district about whether to change course on its overall elementary school plan, given the potential ramifications of the anomaly and the effect on the future of both Georgia Brown and Glen Speck.
Cogan and his colleagues will discuss the district’s path forward at a May 23 board of trustees meeting.
“I don’t think anyone has determined what the best solution is right now,” Cogan said. “I think going forward the biggest responsibility on the school district is to make sure we’re having a very transparent conversation about our options.”
School district officials emphasized that the Georgia Brown campus remains a safe place to go to school. According to the district, the Division of the State Architect—which oversees K through 12 public school construction projects—confirmed that the soil anomaly doesn’t pose a safety threat to the school.
PRJUSD Superintendent Curt Dubost added that he is having a structural engineer inspect the campus facilities to add another layer of oversight and reassurance.
“People are little freaked. Is it safe to go there now? There is absolutely no indication there’s any immediate danger,” Dubost told New Times.
Dubost called the soil discovery “a huge curveball for us.” He said city seismic maps showed a potential for a fault line under the school, which caused the Division of the State Architect to require the district to investigate it further. That’s what led to the recent confirmation of a geologic anomaly.
If the feature is ultimately determined to be a fault line—and “the only way to know is to dig a trench,” Dubost said—that would dramatically change how the PRJUSD would be allowed to renovate and configure the campus.
Dubost is recommending that Georgia Brown remain on its 36th Street campus for the next school year while the PRJUSD gathers information and deliberates its next steps.
In 2021, district officials recommended that Georgia Brown close to reduce PRJUSD’s elementary school count from six to five, citing declining student enrollment.
But community outcry to keep the school—which offers a popular dual-immersion program in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood—caused the board of trustees to compromise with its current renovation plan.
“Now we’re back to square one,” Dubost said. “The smart decision financially is to close it. But there was pushback against that. This isn’t Starbucks. These are neighborhood schools, and they have cultures that go with them, especially Georgia Brown, which has been there for 80 years. It isn’t an easy decision, and it’s going to be controversial no matter what we do.” Δ
This article appears in May 18-28, 2023.
Kenney Enney will get it all figured out, as soon as he decides whether he’d rather be seen in a tweed suit or in a 2 day old beard and tattered ballcap.
I really feel sorry for the students and teachers in Paso.