Sacramento area ‘safe haven’ high school to close — unless donors opt to save it
George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences, a high school described as a safe haven for LGBTQ and disabled students, is set to close at the end of the school year.
Faced with declining enrollment and a financial deficit, the Sacramento City Unified School District board voted 4-3 Thursday night to close the school come June, but there’s one thing that could keep it open next year — if the school is offered $300,000 in external funding.
The school, located in Rancho Cordova, is in a tough position — it enrolls only about 150 students despite having as many as 325 in the past. Students have reportedly been leading efforts to recruit middle schoolers to attend the struggling campus.
Carver, a public Waldorf high school, serves a small but tight community of students. Many of them have been described by themselves or their parents as kids who struggled in standard schools but were embraced by the Carver community.
Dozens of students and parents turned out Thursday, pleading with the board to vote against closing the school they described as an invaluable resource for students with disabilities and LGBTQ youth.
“Closing our school will rip these students from their friend groups, support teachers and all that is familiar,” senior Reid Wages said. “Please make some kind of deal or find some kind of way to keep us open, because these students and future generations deserve somewhere to go that is safe for them.”
But the school faces a six-figure deficit, amounting to about 15% of its total budget. The district already bailed the school out last year, contributing $273,000 to a charter school which is expected to be financially self-sufficient. Faced with a potentially devastating financial crisis, the SCUSD board is not willing to contribute the cash needed to keep the school operating.
Board President Tara Jeane suggested voting to close the school, but giving the community two weeks to come up with external funding. If no donation is secured by April 30, the school’s fate is set.
Potential pathway to keep Carver open
Rancho Cordova leaders have offered to buy the school and merge it into Folsom Cordova Unified School District, a proposal that offered hope to distressed Carver families.
“Let us help you,” Rancho Cordova Mayor Garrett Gatewood said to the board Thursday. “We can’t help you on all the schools, and I know you have a lot of hard decision to make, but let us take this one off your hands.”
It turns out that the prospect of transferring the school and its operations to another district isn’t as simple as signing a contract. A school transfer is not legal under state education code, according to district charter administrator Amanda Goldman. The pathway to opening the school under Folsom Cordova would be an extensive, complicated one that would still involve closing the school for a period of time.
“That being said, the city of Rancho Cordova has been incredibly generous to Carver in the past, if they wish to continue to be so, we will happily accept the donation,” Goldman said.
Gatewood did not return a request for comment via email about whether the city would consider offering the school a flat donation.
Loss for students and families
Several students and parents touted Carver as the school that allowed kids with unique needs to thrive.
Around 70% of the school’s students have individualized education plans, or IEPs, for their disabilities. Many had trouble receiving accommodations at larger district schools.
Parents Jose and Melissa Tostado have seen their son, Dominic, flourished in his freshman year at Carver after years of struggling in school due to lack of accommodation for his special needs.
“He’s actually opened up like a flower, he likes to go to school,” Jose Tostado said.
They are considering homeschooling Dominic over one of the alternative options the district provided. Dominic said that it’s going to be hard for him not to go back to Carver in the fall.
Parents Brad and Stacy Pyle echoed issues getting their daughter services through her IEP at a larger school.
“There’s already a problem with the special education system, and it’s just one more thing for the school district to fail on,” Stacy Pyle said. “They fail the school, they fail on IEPs.”
Student body president Miles Daniels said that she and her sister, who both have IEPs, thrived in the small school environment at Carver. She also noted that the school serves a large population of queer students who have found comfort and support on campus.
“I would say a majority of our students are LGBTQ, and the majority of them are coming from big schools,” Daniels said. “We have a lot of transfer students that come from big schools after being either bullied or experiencing some negative action against them, and they came here as a safe haven.”
