Of the Advocate
Rachel Cost was surprised when her request that her son attend Mendocino schools was denied by Fort Bragg Unified School District.
The Fort Bragg Unified School District last week said one yes, one no and two maybes to four families” requests to leave Fort Bragg schools for Mendocino schools.
The board changed its transfer policy two years ago in an effort to try to keep students who live in Fort Bragg in local schools, creating a short list of criteria under which transfers would be allowed. Fort Bragg schools lose revenue every time a transfer to Mendocino happens, but not the other way around, Superintendent Steve Lund explained to the board at last Thursday”s meeting.
Cost was sure her transfer would be approved because her family met two of the board”s criteria — child care needs and employment in Mendocino.
She told the board she was opening an office in Mendocino (she is a graphic artist) and that her husband works in Little River. She said her child had been going to Rainbow School in Mendocino and they wanted to keep him in Mendocino for continuity.
“Probably we are going to start looking for a home in Mendocino and likely will be moving that way anyway,” said Cost, who was confident she would get a yes vote.
In turning her down unanimously, the board said there was no sign of hardship, another of the factors on the list.
“I don”t know how they could be aware of hardship, or a lack of hardship,” Cost said later. “With it being televised, that is awkward when families have to give information to the board about hardship.”
The transfer issue is clearly one of the most difficult and painful for the board. Their voices dropped when they talked about denying transfers. But board members were adamant that when they allow a transfer funding is lost for all the other students they represent.
“This is really hard to do this. We have had some really compelling cases,” board member Jennifer Owen said to Cost.
“I don”t see hardship of the sort, we now are compelled to look at hardship … I think your child might be happy here,” Owen told Cost.
Steve Osborne and his wife Becky, who live in Cleone, prevailed on the board to allow their son, now at Rainbow School in Mendocino, to attend Mendocino schools.
“Three generations of our family have gone to the school, including both of us, and we kind of want to keep the tradition going,” Steve Osborne told the board.
While board members praised the family for being true to their school, the primary reason they were allowed to transfer was the work of the two grandmothers who live in Mendocino and take care of their grandson. Steve and Becky both work nights in the restaurant industry and need the free day care.
Owen told the couple that every departure negatively impacts every other student in the FBUSD, but added, “If a family desires family day care that is free, that is pretty huge these days.”
High real estate prices make it difficult for young, working families to buy a house on the Mendocino Coast, especially in Mendocino. The couple told the board they couldn”t live in Mendocino because of the price of real estate.
“All of us know real estate prices are different between Mendocino and Fort Bragg … Our schools are equal in many respects,” said DeeLynn Carpenter, president of the school board.
The two families said their request was not about school quality.
The median home sale price in Fort Bragg was about $475,000 over the past 12 months, county recorder statistics show. During the same time period, the median price in Mendocino was $750,000. The Fort Bragg median price had continued to rise even as the number of sales has fallen steadily over the past two years, signs of high end buyers, many using a tax cutting environment to buy second or third homes. Family homes are not as desirable in the current real estate market as are vacation homes.
Enrollment is down 16.5 percent at Fort Bragg High School over the past five years as the area job base has gone down and housing prices skyrocketed.
Cost said she was aware of the crisis in local schools caused by falling enrollments but said the criteria should still be based on that list of criteria, not finances.
She felt the board might have allowed her transfer had she not had two children, representing two lost sources of revenue for Fort Bragg schools.
“It seems to me that somebody who doesn”t have a financial interest in the decision should be making the decision, so that the good of the child and family can be separated from the issue of the money,” Cost said.
Two other requests for transfers from Fort Bragg to Mendocino schools were postponed by the board last week. One, because the parents didn”t come to the meeting and the other to give a mother time to meet local preschool and school officials and see what Fort Bragg schools have to offer.
Cost said her issue was not with the quality of Fort Bragg schools and she has heard only good things about Redwood Elementary. She wants to keep her older child in Mendocino schools so that he can ride the bus back to Rainbow School to be with his younger sibling and near his parents” work.
The board chose to send letters to local day care facilities and to the Coastal Mendocino Association of Realtors in an effort to better educate new families and new residents as to how the policy works.
Realtors in the Mendocino Coastal Association of Realtors normally tell buyers about the school district they are buying in. Most buyers are aware of the issues and some look only in one school district.
Prior to the policy, Carpenter remembered last week seeing “a million dollars” worth of revenue go south. We do have our students that are in our school to look out for.”
