Paso Robles school board to host Aug. 7 town hall on future of Georgia Brown 

To dig a trench, or not to dig a trench. That's the question the Paso Robles community faces on Georgia Brown Elementary School, with its future at stake.

A geologic "anomaly" found under the campus in May has delayed a campus renovation and is now forcing the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) to decide whether or not to move forward with the project at all.

Before it can proceed on the renovation, the district would have to hire a contractor to dig a 30-foot-deep and 150-foot-long trench on the campus to find out if the anomaly is seismic in nature.

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• Map Courtesy Of The Paso Robes Joint Unified School District
• UNCERTAIN FUTURE The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District is debating its best route forward after it found a geologic "anomaly" under the Georgia Brown Elementary School campus (shown in red lines).

The district has received one quote so far for that work for $293,000.

At a June 13 meeting, the PRJUSD board of trustees voted unanimously to schedule a town hall-style public meeting on Aug. 7 to discuss the options moving forward and collect public input.

The meeting will start at 6 p.m. in the Paso Robles High School gym.

"There's just so many things we don't know at this point," Trustee Jim Cogan said during the June 13 meeting. "I want to encourage all of us to not jump to what we think are going to be solutions, so that we can allow the opportunity to get as much information as possible."

PRJUSD officials said that they welcome questions about Georgia Brown ahead of the town hall and asked that questions be submitted before July 17 via the district's website.

According to the district, since the geological discovery, a structural engineer has inspected the Georgia Brown campus and found that it's safe to occupy.

The Georgia Brown students, staff, and teachers will remain on the 36th Street campus this fall, instead of relocating to a temporary campus while construction commenced.

With the next school year starting in mid-August, any trench digging—if approved by the board—would likely have to happen in the summer of 2024. The estimated month-long job would be so disruptive that school could not be in session during it, officials said.

"I think we need to set expectations," trustee Kenney Enney said at the meeting. "If we start pushing into the school year, I think the expectation should be we don't trench at all until the following summer. So basically everything's going to be put on hold for a year." Δ