Thursday, March 23, 2006 9:42 AM

PALOMAR MOUNTAIN SCHOOL THREATENED
By DAVID ROSS

Palomar Mountain residents are organizing to save their picturesque, tiny school from the budget-cutting knife at the VC-Pauma School District. No one has said that the school will be closed. A Budget Advisory Committee is looking at all sorts of options to cut costs, including charging for busing. A decision must be made by the June school board meeting.
The district is in a pickle. Three years of declining enrollment and the loss of $800,000 in federal impact funds, have created a deficit of $500,000. Closing the mountain school is one option being studied to save money. Supt. Lou Obermeyer calculates that closing the one-room schoolhouse will save $53,709. Another option is a half time teacher, working 8 a.m. - noon, who would cover core subjects, but probably not P.E. or arts. Under this scenario the Boys & Girls Club would provide afternoon day care so students would still be in school, have adult supervision, be able to do homework and enrichment activities. This would save $25,188, half the salary of a teacher, plus other savings, says Dr. Obermeyer.
Palomar Mountain School, which has operated on Canfield Road near the observatory since the 1940s, has averaged a dozen students in grades K-8. Attendance has been as high as 40 per year. A school has operated somewhere on the mountain since the 1800s. This year it has 11 students. Six are expected to attend next year. With such numbers the district loses money on the school. Adding to the problem, says Dr. Obermeyer, is the fact that Palomar's students don't attend school as regularly as the rest of the district. Average Daily Attendance, by which the school is reimbursed for each child, is 90.4%, compared to 94% district wide.
A deed from Cal Tech, which operates the Observatory, was granted "in order to maintain school on the heights of Mount Palomar" in 1950. Most maintenance is done by parent volunteers, lessening operating costs. Local residents also raise money for field trips with bake sales and other fund-raisers. They drive children to the school. The bus that operates on the mountain transports students to VC High School. If the school does close or is cut back, it will be the victim of the unification that was a boon for the rest of the former Pauma Union School District.
When it was just Pauma, the mountain school qualified for Necessary Small Schools money from the State of California.
The two districts combined was too large to qualify. In 2000 Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a bill to restore this status to Palomar. He reasoned that the VC district was rich enough to pay the difference. Residents such as Bruce Baker, part of the committee to save the school, points out that the districts that qualify for Necessary Small Schools are close to ours in size.
It's actually only two schools, says Olivia Leschick, Administrator in Charge of Special Projects. They are Rand Elementary School in Kern County, a K-3 with nine students; and Hot Springs Elementary School in Tulare County. Two other schools that were getting the money closed recently. Leschick spoke to the Superintendent / Principal at Hot Springs Elementary. He told her that special legislation was passed for $50,000 which will terminate after Jan. 2009. The school has 22 students."Our stance," says Baker, "is they are getting the money, we don't see why Palomar Mountain school is not getting it."
Forming the Glue
Fund-raisers and social events on Palomar concern either the school or fire department. Not much else gets peoples' motors running. Of the two, the school arouses the most passion. It forms the glue of the community; the center around which its social and civic life orbits.
"The entire community supports both of these organizations," says Tom Cunningham, another member of the community, but with no children attending the school. "We are all independent but we all help one another."
Concerned parents met with Dr. Obermeyer Wednesday. They were uninterested in options that don't keep the school open full time. Ken Morrish, who with his wife, Peggy, have a 7th grader in school, told The Roadrunner, "I think they grasp our feelings about the school and the overall community feelings of wanting to keep it. And really having no other option of providing the kids with a great education. We think the traditional school is the best way to do that."
Old Fashioned Education
Parents laud the old-fashioned education offered. Says Morrish, whose oldest daughter graduated three years ago, "It provides a very good education in the basics. They can get reinforced because they have opportunities to spend time with kids from the older grades. And they help the younger kids. "They work at pretty much their own pace. Some need some special attention but most kids work at grade level or above." He adds, "Mrs. Schuffer provides a great education. She demands a lot of respect from the kids and they give it to her. I think it's a special situation."
Top of their class
Parents brag that the education the one-room school provides is the best in the district. They say the Palomar school had the highest API (Academic Performance Index) of any of the school in the district. Note: We couldn't confirm this claim with the school district by press time. The consensus is that once the school closes, it will never reopen.
Says Morrish, "My biggest feeling is if we don't keep a traditional school it will never go back to it. We know enough about how schools function that when you lose one thing it won't come back the same."
"Every community needs a school. I feel if you close the school I don't think it will ever be reopened," says Baker.
"Once the students leave, Cal Tech would take the land back. Once that school goes away it would probably go away forever," says Cunningham.
Health Issue
There is also a health issue for young children riding the bus up and down the 5,000 foot grade. The change in altitude affects the inner ear, something that even adults notice. "It's a known fact that its hard on young children," says Baker.
A one hour each way bus trip is also seen as taxing for the young children.
It Comes Down To Money
The parents say they are willing to find other funds to support the school, just as the community holds fund-raisers to support the volunteer fire department.
Parents told Dr. Obermeyer they thought they could raise $25,000 annually to help defray the costs of the school.
Cunningham notes that when he donated a crop of apples for the district that it raised $1200. "You start putting a few of those things together and $25,000 doesn't seem that difficult to get.
"It all comes down to money," says Cunningham. "Either the money has to be found in the system or it has to be found outside the system." Parents were miffed when they read that one of five questions on a survey circulated among some staff members is whether the school should be closed. "Of course, we do not believe the future of our school should be determined by the personnel working in VC," said Mrs. Phelps. Of course, that's likely to be the case in any event since it's unheard of for the school board not to follow the recommendations of the school administration.
More Children in the Wings?
The Christian Conference Center recently obtained a permit for double the current size of the camp. They will need extra staffing, and those staff members may likely have children.
Says Bonnie Phelps, who also serves on the committee, "We do have quite a few parents with young children looking forward tp being a part of the excellent education that Palomar Mountain School has had the reputation for since the late 1800s."
Kids come first?
Educators like to say that "kids come first." However sometimes that depends on where the kids live.
The logo at the right is for the VC-Pauma School District, taken from its Web site. I interpret that logo as proof that the district is proud of the fact that Palomar Mountain is part of the area it serves.
It can also be proud of the old-fashioned classroom next to the observatory featured in the logo where 11 students attended this year. And of the fact that in last year's Academic Performance Index they scored 821, the highest of all the schools in the district.
Proud or not, the district is studying shutting down the one-room schoolhouse that serves this small, self-sufficient community, as a way to reduce the unforeseen $500,000 shortfall that the district is experiencing.
Closing the school, which next year will have six students, is also one of five options offered on a survey circulating among the staff at some schools. Only five? Why were only five offered? There must be literally dozens of ways to save money.
The survey was not written by the administration. It is intended to give input to the budget committee appointed by Supt. Lou Obermeyer to make suggestions for saving money. I won't comment on the appropriateness of asking staff's opinion about whether a school that serves taxpayers should be axed. Actually, I'm going to! Frankly, in this instance, staff's opinion is irrelevant, except those who are also taxpayers and residents.
On technical questions, on questions of the science and the art of teaching, on questions about instructional materials, I yield to no one in respecting the opinions of professional educators. Their professional chops are not in question. But when we're talking about taking an action that will, in essence, take a hard swing at ruining the young lives of the children in question, the opinions of employees should be given no weight.
The administration is also looking at running a "half-time" classroom, with a teacher instructing core subjects. That's probably what will eventually be adopted. The first step,