Board votes to accept CEQA report on Broadway

School district says students must be moved by March

By Jessica Lyons

Despite parent and student pleas to stop the proposed Broadway move, the Board of Education gave a hesitant nod toward relocating the continuation high school onto the John Muir Middle School campus last week.

Short of giving the go-ahead to bulldozers and construction crews, the Board voted 3-2 to accept the CEQA report, while directing San Jose Unified superintendent Dr. Linda Murray to "work with concerns posed by the community" at the Nov. 18 meeting.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that public agencies conduct environmental reviews of any projects that may have adverse environmental effects.

Up until now, final plans for Broadway's new classrooms--and ultimately the groundbreaking--have hinged on the Board's decision whether or not to adopt the CEQA report.

Broadway's 300 students must be moved by March, say San Jose Unified School District officials, to allow other district-wide construction projects to keep on schedule. But even if construction were to start on the 15-plus portable classrooms tomorrow, "it's going to be pushing it" to build a new home for Broadway by March," said associate superintendent Gerald Matranga. A potential lawsuit, threatened by Community Action in Robertsville (CAIR) members if the board decided to proceed with the move, could stop construction altogether.

At press time, CAIR president Jim Chase had no comment on whether or not the community group would file suit against the school district.

The Broadway move was triggered by the district's shift back to neighborhood schools after 11 years of court-ordered busing. Last year, San Jose Unified officials decided River Glen Elementary would become a 750-student neighborhood school, and the district's award-winning Spanish dual immersion program would move to the Broadway campus. After considering nearly a dozen sites, the Broadway relocation committee chose John Muir's campus as the new continuation high school site.

"We have an obligation to have a neighborhood school for these kids," Murray said. "The bottom line, the end of the domino are 750 students without a school. In good faith ... I think we need to continue to follow the timeline we have established."

But dissenting Board members argued the bottom line included more than 750 kids.

"We now have Broadway students without a home, without their old home, without their new home and yet we've made a home for these 750 kids," said board member Gary Rummelhoff, who with Veronica Lewis voted not to approve the CEQA study.

The Board reached its decision after nearly two hours of debate and public comments from CAIR members, Broadway students and a Broadway teacher who asked the board to delay the move at least until summer.

Many students came to Broadway because of attendance problems, they said. Uprooting these high schoolers mid-year will result in more drop-outs.

"I have achieved so much at Broadway," said 17-year-old Olga Martinez, a two-time Broadway student of the month. "I went to Broadway for a second chance. My attendance has improved, I feel safe here, the teachers are wonderful. Please let us finish this year at Broadway."

John Muir parents and community members said the board has kept them in the dark for much of the relocation process.

"I ask you to stop bullying the community of John Muir Middle School and not accept this location," CAIR member Linda Gregory said.

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