Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the fate of Georgia Brown Elementary School in Paso Robles, a geologic anomaly flipped the school’s future on its cabeza. The ramshackle campus has been the subject of an ongoing debate about that to do with it: shutter it, remodel it, swap its dual immersion language program with Glen Speck Elementary School, let the Earth swallow it whole, preferably without any K-5 students on it?
Maybe the school should change its mascot from a tiger to a bull because I’m sure the students and their parent feel like they’ve been led around by a septum nose ring as plans for the school have swerved in various directions. ¡Vamos, toros!
But first, what the heck is an “anomalous geologic feature”? It’s simply an area that differs from what’s typical or expected. A geologic survey in May discovered the soil anomaly, and estimates say there’s a 50 percent chance it could be seismic, as in … (((Earthquake!)))
Apparently, the Division of the State Architect has assured the district the anomaly doesn’t pose an immediate safety threat, but before they go sinking millions into the campus, maybe they ought to take a little look-see—in this case, that means dig a 30-foot-deep, 3-foot-wide, 150-foot-long trench to the tune of about $300,000, which would take a little bite out of the $15.5 million in Measure M money set aside to spruce up Georgia Brown. I mean, what a waste of money if the shithole falls into a sinkhole?
However, for the residents of the largely low-income, predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood around Georgia Brown, I’m sensing they’re feeling a tad unheard, ignored, and disrespected. This is a community, not a name on a building. The students and parents not only appreciate but embrace and live the school’s motto of “Bilingual, Biliterate, Bicultural.” Now, will this community go bye-bye?
Judging from recent public comments at an Aug. 7 “listening session” held by the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District—Really? You’re listening?—parents of the school’s students are very eager to keep it open. But after the meeting, many said that despite the opportunity to speak, they still didn’t feel heard.
These are some of the same folks who, in January 2021, complained after an 11-person committee suggested closing the school due to budget concerns. The parents’ complaint triggered an ongoing U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigation into the committee, arguing the district allegedly discriminated against the Spanish-speaking community by not having diversity on the committee or disseminating information in Spanish. ¡Ay, caramba!
Maybe this listening session is mostly a ruse: “Don’t civil rights investigate us, Department of Education! Look, we listened!” For now, the fate of Georgia Brown remains in limbo, kicked down the road like a soccer ball at recess.
Speaking of limbo, that’s also the fate of a safe parking program in Arroyo Grande, where city staff advised its City Council to suspend adoption of an ordinance because they couldn’t get social service provider 5 Cities Homeless Coalition (5CHC) to administer safe parking sites in the city.
As SLO County continues its glacial effort to end its disastrous safe parking site at Oklahoma Avenue, should anyone be surprised that agencies like 5CHC aren’t lining up to be the next flagellants to come under the lash of a flailing and ill-defined program with no clearly set goals or mechanisms to achieve those goals? That’s a rhetorical question, and the answer is “no.”
Way back in March, 5CHC Executive Director Janna Nichols asked the Arroyo Grande City Council what a safe parking program would even look like: “What is that proposed plan that would come before you? I caution between jumping too far ahead versus what you need to do to put the legs in place.”
Judging from a lack of a service provider coming forward to manage AG’s proposed program, this sucker’s still legless, but that didn’t stop Mayor Caren Ray Russom from arguing to charge onward. Huzzah!
“What’s the harm in passing what we’ve done?” she asked Planning Manager Andrew Perez. “We know that nobody can fulfill that permit but maybe tomorrow we can. Why wouldn’t we validate staff’s work and all the public hearings that we’ve had?”
Um, maybe because staff is the one telling you to pump the brakes? If this program blows up in Arroyo Grande’s face like Oklahoma Avenue blew up in the county’s, I sure wouldn’t want to be the social service provider holding the bag.
For her part, Nichols explained that 5CHC has been busy running the successful Cabins for Change in Grover Beach, with plans to open another temporary tiny-home location.
“Safe parking is a tool to secure those who are experiencing homelessness in a continuum of services,” Nichols told New Times. “We need to be clear before we open the program on what those services are and who we are serving. In the priority list of all the things we are working on, where does it fit?”
Meanwhile, SLO Town‘s Railroad Square Safe Parking Program is transitioning to a rotating model, meaning every month it will change locations. What could go wrong? ∆
The Shredder wants everyone to get along. Tell it how to make that happen at shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Education Today 2023.
Yeah, keep it open. Let a quake kill a bunch of kids. That makes sense.