Parents raise concerns over fate of East School

About 40 people spoke at the Long Beach School District’s facilities utilization forum on Tuesday night, invited to comment on five options for restructuring the district’s elementary schools — including the possible closure of East School — that the Board of Education must vote on next month.

“This is an opportunity for us as a community to probe deeper into the issue that we have to confront,” said Superintendent David Weiss. “We need to be able to have dialogue in a manner that allows us to really weigh and judge the issues’ long-term effects.”

The district began assembling a facilities study group in 2012, but the project was put on hold after Hurricane Sandy. It was revisited last September, and the group — made up of teachers, school employees, parents and residents — was tasked with analyzing the current use of school facilities and brainstorming ideas on how to use the space better.

Weiss started the meeting by making the case for each of the options under consideration. Option A calls for keeping the elementary setup as is. Option B would repurpose East School, closing it to students and using it for administrative offices and adult classes. Option C would create an early learning center at Lido and spread the second to fifth grades around East, West and Lindell. Option D would do the opposite, housing pre-K to second grades at Lido, East and West, and turning Lindell into an intermediate elementary school. And option E is a combination of B and D, closing East School to students and also creating the intermediate elementary school at Lindell, leaving pre-K to second grades split between Lido and West.

Weiss cited declining enrollment and finances as major factors in the restructuring. He added, however, that while enrollment has declined over the past decade, it has seemed to stabilize. But the current student numbers, he said, make it clear that the district is not using its space as efficiently as possible. Financially, he explained, the district cannot sustain its budget past 2015-16 if things remain the same.