Staff ‘outraged’ that Pajaro Valley Unified school board to consider relocation of Renaissance High to Duncan Holbert School

Teachers and staff at two Pajaro Valley Unified schools are in uproar at a district proposal to relocate a small alternative high school, Renaissance High, to a school serving children with disabilities, Duncan Holbert School. 

District officials say Duncan Holbert’s students, ages 0 to 5, will then transition to other district schools. They informed staff at each of the schools on Friday afternoon. 

Staff at both schools told Lookout they’re shocked the district could be uprooting two schools that specialize in serving marginalized populations. Duncan Holbert speech therapist Cassedy Sullivan said she was “outraged and disgusted” to learn the news. 

“This would be, if it goes through, a complete waste of the investment that the district has made [at Duncan Holbert],” she said. “You’re disenfranchising a population that’s already marginalized – and then to see that it’s to benefit another marginalized population is so outrageous.” 

Renaissance High serves 92 students from its La Selva Beach campus, while Duncan Holbert School serves about 200 students from its Watsonville campus, adjacent to Rolling Hills Middle School. The district says the proposal is driven by Renaissance school’s infrastructure concerns, such as an estimated $3 million fix to a water quality issue, and its isolation from other schools, leading to high transportation costs. They add that by relocating Duncan Holbert’s students to elementary schools, the district is creating a continuum of school attendance from pre-K through fifth/sixth grades and is integrating special education students more with their general education peers. 

“Administration understands that proposed changes involving schools and student programs can create strong emotions and important questions from families, staff, and the broader community,” reads a statement from PVUSD spokesperson Alejandro Chavez. “The District is committed to approaching this process thoughtfully, and with students at the center of every decision.”

District officials say the school board will discuss the proposal at its Wednesday meeting and it’s scheduled to vote on it during its June 17 meeting. If approved by the board, the district will have the campuses ready by the beginning of the upcoming school year in August. 

The announcement comes as the district just launched a committee of community members who are tasked with analyzing its school facilities’ capacity and conditions to ultimately recommend sites for potential closures due to declining enrollment. The district’s enrollment has declined significantly over the past decade and is projected to drop 20% over the next seven years: 15,690 students this year down to 12,604 by 2032. The committee is scheduled to make recommendations to the board by November.

District officials said the Renaissance and Duncan Holbert proposal is going before that committee for input but is a different process than what the committee has taken on. Staff at Duncan Holbert disagree and argue that this represents the closure of their school and its programs. 

When pressed about the district’s word choice about Duncan Holbert’s future, Chavez said that because the school site is still open, it’s not closing. 

“The Duncan Holbert campus itself would continue operating as a PVUSD educational site under the proposal, housing Renaissance High School,” he wrote. “Because the campus would remain open and continue serving students, this is not considered a school closure.”

Renaissance High staff told Lookout their continuation high school students feel safe and a sense of belonging at their secluded La Selva Beach campus, while Duncan Holbert Preschool staff say their site is highly specialized with a wide range of resources for its students with disabilities and has a tight-knit community. Both school staff expressed concerns that the transition would put student safety and well-being at risk. 

Renaissance staff, students want to stay

Renaissance teacher Ariel Stonebloom said when staff heard the news during a meeting with district officials last week, the room was full of grief. Now, people are “angry.” 

“The magic of Renaissance is that we are out, we’re removed from the intensity of downtown Watsonville,” she said. “It’s like a neutral space for our students to let their guard down, take a deep breath.”

Renaissance employs eight teachers and the equivalent of 4.5 full-time non-teaching staff. District officials say the staff will continue serving students at their new site, if the proposal is approved by the board. At least one of those non-teaching staff member, Matt Merrill, was previously laid off in December, as part of the district’s nearly 160 layoffs it approved to address its budget deficit. 

Merrill, the school’s mental health clinician, said the relocation of Renaissance is “heartbreaking” as the school’s isolation is “rejuvenating” for the students and a break from the schools that didn’t work for them in the past.

“It’s shocking, alarming, heartless,” he said. “Everything that we’ve worked to create will be gone.” 

Staff developed the school’s garden, Merrill helped create nature trails that go through a small forest and around the school’s field, and teachers do a teacher-student workout class after school where sometimes they’ll run laps around the trails or do a workout in the gym. With the relocation, he said, all of that will go away. 

“It’s weird, the kids are upset and they’re scared,” said Merrill. “They’re sad, and nobody’s happy about this.”

Renaissance High junior Rebecca Buckman said she was shocked when she found out the news because “it’s going really well for me here.”

“I used to be one of the students who wouldn’t show up to class and wouldn’t go to school at all or do any work,” she said. “So it’s been a big change for me.”

Now, she said, she’s caught up on her course credits and can graduate earlier. She worries what students will do if they’re located in Watsonville again. 

“I feel like if we were located in town, kids would start to miss school more,” she said. “It’d be an easy access for kids to start failing again.”

If the move is approved by the board, Buckman said she’ll try to transfer to a different alternative school, like Sequoia High School. 

Duncan Holbert staff speak out

Duncan Holbert occupational therapist Katlyn Bach started a petition that has over 1,500 signatures calling on the district to keep the school on its campus. 

“We were definitely shocked,” said Bach. “To have [the school] be disbanded when it’s working, is very discouraging.” 

Bach and two other staff members expressed serious concerns about the proposal and scoffed at the district’s refusal to describe the change as a closure of the school and its programs. 

Duncan Holbert occupational therapist Ann Brownstone said not only is the district closing down the program, but it also will become less efficient at serving its students. 

“They’re calling it a disbursement but they’re basically closing the school,” said Brownstone. “They’re dispersing a program that will make it less effective.”

Duncan Holbert serves between 150 to more than 200 students from ages 0 to 5, and the site provides a wide range of services as well as a team of staff that help determine what special education plans best suit them. The school employs 5.5 full-time-equivalent teachers and 12.5 full-time-equivalent classified employees, such as occupational therapists.

Staff said the students also have onsite access to general education peers through the on-site state preschool program, which has about 50 students. 

Bach said the school also has 35 students in special day classes, about 60 students in its Early Start program and 72 students receiving speech-only services. Early Start is a program for infants and toddlers who have developmental delays or medical conditions.

Also on Duncan Holbert’s site is a state-run program, California Children Services, which helps students with medical or physical needs. Bach said Duncan Holbert students easily access that program right after school, allowing parents to stay at work and to avoid picking up and taking their children to other sites for appointments. 

In board documents for the Wednesday meeting, district officials say students could potentially be placed at Ann Soldo, H.A. Hyde, Landmark and Ohlone elementary schools. 

Staff told Lookout that it will be impossible to provide these comprehensive services if students are moved to other elementary schools. 

“What kids get when they come here is they get the entire continuum of possible support,” said Sullivan. “They’re going to degrade our program. There’s no way it will be as good as it is now.”

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