Cupertino Councilmembers Make Unusual Request Of School Board

CUPERTINO, CA — In an unusual discussion at Cupertino’s City Council meeting this week, several councilmembers asked the city’s school district to reconsider a decision it made last October to close two schools.

The request was unusual in that the council has no jurisdiction over the school district, which is overseen by its own independently elected board members.

The request was contained in a draft letter from Vice Mayor Liang Chao asking that the Cupertino Union School District board reevaluate its decision to close R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School and William Regnart Elementary School.

The school board had cited declining enrollment, funding issues and voters’ rejection of a parcel tax as reasons for closing the two schools.

Superintendent Stacy Yao, speaking on behalf of the school district at the meeting, accused critics of attempting to reframe the decision to close the schools “as a hasty decision with insufficient notice to the community.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Yao said, adding that the district provided the council with specific data points addressing its concerns.

Related: Backlash Mounts As Cupertino School District Ponders Closures

Vice Mayor Chao's draft letter, which was backed by Councilmember Jon Willey to get on the agenda of Tuesday’s meeting, argued that the school district did not “adequately address” the effect that closing the schools would have on district families.

Chao, Willey and Mayor Darcy Paul signaled support during the meeting for urging the school board to rethink its decision. The council did not vote on whether to send the letter formally. At least one councilmember, Hung Wei, a former school board member, criticized the draft letter.

Chao and Willey both argued that the school board’s 3-2 split vote to close the two schools meant that the board failed to reach a consensus. Chao told Patch in a statement last fall that the district made a “rushed decision to close schools in the middle of the pandemic.”

Willey said the council received hundreds of emails about the issue and argued that the school board — which has been the target of an ongoing recall effort for the past year — failed to listen to residents.

“The five of us were elected by the residents,” Willey said. “We’re here to listen to the residents. I’m here to listen to the residents. And when I don't want to listen to the residents, it’s time for me to step down.”

Willey seemed bothered by a presentation put together by the school district in which it rebutted claims from critics of the school closures, labeling them “false” in red lettering, and called the presentation “propaganda” and “not nice.”

Paul, who has two children attending Meyerholz, said he “respects the challenges of another jurisdiction” but added that he believed the council should have a say in decisions regarding schools.

“We have a lot of residents affected by this, and a lot of people are asking us to consider,” Paul said. “I would ask that the school board re-examine this and take a more holistic approach to whether this makes sense.”

For her part, Yao disputed the letter's characterizations and rejected its call for the district to reconsider. She said the school board — as the “sole elected body entrusted with responsibility for public education in the district” — made its decision “only after years of deliberation and community input, never losing focus on doing what is best for students.”

“While the district understands the importance of the City Council in responding to the pleas of their constituents, serving a letter which has no legal standing will further divide the community, create false hope and impede the work necessary for the district to focus on student learning,” Yao said.

Willey was put off by Yao’s comments, arguing that she was “here to tell” and not listen.

“If CUSD has important information about our streets or something in our community, I want to hear,” Willey said. “I hope they raise themselves to the level that we hold ourselves to here, in terms of listening to the residents and providing as much conversation as is needed.”

The district has lost nearly 5,000 students since the 2015-16 school year and expected to see enrollment decline for the next eight years, according to a school district staff report from last fall.

The district blamed a shortage of affordable housing in the area, declining birth rates and an aging population, resulting in fewer students enrolling in kindergarten, the report said.

Closing an elementary school would result in an overall cost savings of $1.4 million, Yao said at a town hall last October discussing the closures. The district would save between $400,000 and $500,000 in staff reduction, and leasing out a school site would generate around $900,000.

Measure A — a parcel tax measure that would have provided $14 million a year for eight years beginning in 2023 — failed in May to achieve the two-thirds vote threshold necessary for passage. Combined with declining enrollment, the district's operating budget faced an "additional strain," according to district staff.

Wei pushed back strongly against the councilmembers' proposed letter — which is addressed on behalf of the City Council.

“It is not our place to dispute the facts and what the CUSD board and district have done and put them under the bus,” Wei said. “This is not the way to do it. This is a long process, carefully considered. It is guided by school code and legal consent. Through and through, they did a great job.”

Wei urged her colleagues to trust the school board’s decision and said that individual councilmembers were free to send letters on their own behalf.

“This letter does not represent Cupertino,” Wei said. “It does not represent Cupertino residents. It can represent your own opinion. Send it as much as you like. It does not represent me.”

Click here to download the proposed letter.

Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to the draft letter as the "councilmembers' draft letter." The letter was drafted by Vice Mayor Chao.

Related:

• South Bay School District Copes With Recall, Frustrated Parents
• Cupertino Union School District Parcel Tax Failing: Early Results