A sea of green shirts filled the Cumberland Elementary School multi-purpose room Oct. 28 at an informational meeting hosted by the school district, as more than 200 parents showed their unified disapproval of possible boundary realignments.
The meeting is one of three that will be held by the Sunnyvale School District to clarify that the district is not officially changing school boundaries but is considering doing so.
District staff and the board of education held a study session on Oct. 16 to discuss enrollment and capacity within the district. It’s no secret that both Cumberland and Cherry Chase elementary schools are impacted and have reached or are over capacity.
Some students have already been sent to neighboring schools as a result.
There are several options the district is exploring in order to address this problem, one of which is redistricting. Other options include keeping the boundaries the same but increasing site capacity.
“While one potential means of leveling enrollment among schools included studying the possibility of boundary realignments, there have been no recommendations presented, decisions made nor timeline set,” superintendent Ben Picard assured the buzzing crowd. “We are in the beginning stages of a process of studying all options to address a growing problem.”
Both Cherry Chase and Cumberland are seeing enrollment numbers higher than projected. Cherry Chase was projected to see 879 students this year, but the actual enrollment ended up at 901 students. Cumberland was projected to have 704 students, but actually saw 723.
Redrawing the district and school boundary areas would impact about 600 households in the Washington Park area.
About 30 speakers raised a variety of concerns during a question-and-answer session.
Under the proposal, these 600 homes currently within Cumberland’s boundaries, which is known as a top-performing school, would ultimately attend Vargas Elementary, a lower-performing school. Several parents voiced their discontent over this.
Others raised concerns about losing value on their homes if the proposal goes through.
Every speaker was applauded by the crowd; some voices wavered with emotion, and some tears were shed.
Several families waved “Say No to School Boundary Changes” signs during the discussion.
At one point, a member of the audience managed to use the district’s projector to convey a message against redistricting. The chief operations officer had to nonchalantly turn the projector off amidst an onslaught of snickering.
Steve Enders, a Sunnyvale resident and parent of three Cumberland students, echoed many of the speakers’ sentiments against redistricting.
“We want to see the district avoid redistricting and instead focus its efforts on improving the lower-performing schools in the district, thus making them just as desirable as Cumberland is today,” Enders said. “This issue has completely galvanized the Washington Park/Cumberland neighborhoods in a way I’ve not seen in my eight years living here.”
The next informational meeting about the district’s plans for handling enrollment growth is scheduled for Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at Cherry Chase Elementary, 1138 Heatherstone Way. The third meeting will be Nov. 19 at Vargas Elementary, 1054 Carson Drive.
