Prior to the March 4 vote, there was a momentary glimmer of hope for Erikson parents when trustee Veronica Lewis presented an amendment to the school-consolidation proposal, asking the trustees to remove Erikson from the recommended list and only vote on the closure of Hester and Hammer. Trustee Carol Myers seconded the amendment, but it went no further, and the original proposal became final. Lewis and Myers, however, voted against the closures, with school board President Gary Rummelhoff and members Richard Garcia and Jorge Gonzalez approving the proposal.

Myers even questioned whether the right schools had been selected.

"It seems to me that schools we are closing have done everything the court order [on desegregation] says we should be doing," she said.

Before the board acted, more than two hours were spent discussing the issue, as parents and school administrators walked up to the podium, for the final time, appealing to the trustees to keep their schools open. Many parents attending the meeting agreed with Hammer Montessori parent Tamsen McGinley when she told board members that "public perception is you can't trust the school district." She told board members that it had betrayed the parents and "dehumanized" the children by uprooting them and placing them in another environment.

"Isn't there some way to spread the pain throughout the district, not just on these three schools?" she questioned, holding back tears.

Erikson parent and consolidation committee member Tony Macias told the board that "the district and the parents are not on the same page." And he added, "A lot of alternative proposals have been presented, but they are all being dismissed as unfeasible. I don't believe we have looked at all the options. Don't vote to appease someone else, vote on what you think is right as an individual."

But board members countered that they had been fair and addressed everything brought before them from the three previous meetings. San Jose Unified School District Associate Superintendent Jerry Matranga went into detail on how much of the budget had been cut through administration reductions and benefits. He also said $7.2 million had been used from the district reserve funds, which have dwindled to "dangerously low levels."

Matranga said, "Our enrollment is projected to drop below 30,000 in two years. The reality is if we don't close schools tonight, then the same question arises next year."

Bob Gonzales, who was part of the task force consolidation committee, addressed an alternative plan proposal that was presented to the board at the Feb. 12 meeting. The alternative plan kept similar school programs together by closing Cory and moving students to Trace. The alternative plan also closed Grant and split those students between Empire Gardens and Horace Mann. But Gonzales said this proposal would prove costly for the district, requiring additional classrooms and staffing.

Yet Hester parent Laurie Acosta told the board it did not understand the ramifications of their actions.

"You are bringing Sureño families to the northern side, " she said referring to the Hester population, which will be transitioned to Grant. "You are moving us into gang activity, sending our children into a dangerous situation. You are going to destroy our children and their families. I will take each one of you over there and you can talk to the Norteños and ask them what they think about the Sureños."

But even this potential powder keg was not enough to sway the necessary votes away from closing Hester School.

Board President Gary Rummelhoff said, "This is not a pleasant event at all, but it really disappoints me when people question the service and ethics of the board."

He told the group of parents that the district's serious budget crisis had to be addressed promptly and that trade-offs would have to be made. The options, he said, came down to closing schools and displacing children or going back to looking at cutting sixth period in middle school.

"I'm trying to keep it out of the classrooms," he said. "And if we postpone the issue another year, then we may have to close another school. It's less painful to do it sooner and move on."

The district said it also needed to quickly resolve the issue because it has delayed kindergarten enrollment while the school-consolidation issue was being finalized.

But when the final votes were cast, many parents were in a state of shock, sitting in their chairs hugging each other for support as tears rolled down their cheeks. For those who had faithfully attended all the meetings and spoken before the board and district, their disappointment and frustration were clearly evident over the district's decision to no longer delay the vote on the school-closure issue.