Newly elected SJUSD board member Pam Foley, who will represent Willow Glen schools, said she's more concerned with the immediate budget crisis. The district plans to close one middle school and two elementary schools next fall due to a projected $9 to $11 million budget shortfall in 2005-06.

Castillero, Steinbeck and John Muir middle schools were on the short list of campuses being considered for closure. The district's Consolidation Advisory Task Force has recommended closing Steinbeck. The SJUSD board is scheduled to vote on the task force's recommendation on Dec. 9.

Children from Willow Glen families make up almost 20 percent of the student body at both Steinbeck, which offers a laptop technology program, and Castillero, which offers a magnet program in the performing and visual arts. According to SJUSD spokeswoman Karen Fuqua, Steinbeck students who live outside the school's attendance boundaries will be given the choice to follow the laptop program to John Muir next fall or enroll in their neighborhood school. Castillero students from outside the school's attendance area will be grandfathered in unless they choose to return to their neighborhood schools, Fuqua said.

But Willow Glen resident Kathy Hopp, who has a seventh-grader at Castillero, said she's not confident that her child will, in fact, be able to attend the school next year.

"We're being told to wait and see," Hopp said.

The district established its magnet schools as part of a court-ordered desegregation program and now operates under a Voluntary Integration Program that allows students to attend schools outside their neighborhood.

Fuqua said the district intends to preserve its choice program at the middle-school level in as much as is possible following Steinbeck's closure. New board member Foley said she's confident the district will fulfill its intentions.

"[Superintendent] Don Iglesias has publicly voiced tremendous support for the choice process," Foley said. "My own personal philosophy is that preserving choice is really important."

Curriculum choices, however, might be compromised should the district cut sixth-period classes at its middle schools. While the cut wouldn't affect her child, Hopp said she understands why some Castillero parents are concerned that it could spell disaster for the school's magnet program, since most of the instruction in performing and visual arts takes place during sixth period.

"It'd be really difficult, but there are ways to maintain electives with fewer periods in the day," Hopp said, adding that students could take P.E. and reading classes every other day.

"It wouldn't be great for the P.E. program," she acknowledged.

To maintain sixth-period classes, Fuqua said, the district plans to hold a special parcel-tax election in March 2006. If the measure fails and sixth period is cut, she added, it will be up to individual schools to rearrange their class schedules to preserve programs.

"There would definitely be a limiting of programs if you take a period out of the day," Fuqua said. "That's where the savings come in."

The district said it is pursuing school closures in the wake of declining enrollment, which has led to a decrease in state funding. The district is projecting a $40.9 million cumulative budget gap in the next four years. The budget gap for 2006-07 is estimated to be between $11 to $13 million.

In addition to one middle school, the district is planning to close two elementary schools for 2005-06 to save an estimated $1.9 million per year. The elementary schools under consideration for closure are Almaden, Allen, Bachrodt, Carson, Cory, Hacienda, Lowell, Randol and Trace.

Last year the district closed three elementary schools­Erikson, Hammer- Montessori and Hester—for a savings of $1.5 million.

Public forums on elementary school closures are set for Jan. 6 and 13, 2005, and recommendations should go before the board on Jan. 20 and Feb. 10, 2005.

All meetings are at the San Jose Unified School District offices at 855 Lenzen Ave. For updates or additional information, visit www.sjusd.k12.ca.us or call 408. 535.6000.