Tears flowed at Reynolds Elementary College in Oceanside Tuesday.
“It’s exhausting to see the lecturers crying. It’s exhausting to see mother and father crying, youngsters crying,” stated Reynolds’ father or mother instructor group president. “Everybody is de facto heartbroken over this. It’s devastating.”
Julie Hammer instructed NBC 7 the Oceanside College District’s resolution to shut Reynolds Elementary College is impacting everybody related to the varsity.
Engineers say the bottom beneath the varsity can be unsafe throughout a serious earthquake, NBC 7’s Dave Summers reviews.
As PTO president, Hammer’s job is to help college students and employees for the subsequent 4 months. As a mom of three kids who attend the varsity, she has a unique perspective: “We don’t really feel heard in any respect by this district. We don’t suppose they’re listening to us.”
This isn’t the primary time the Oceanside Union College District stated they wished to shut Reynolds. In 2001, there was discuss of closing the growing older college, however after a bond measure handed to assist pay for enhancements on the district’s campuses, plans have been made to renovate Reynolds.
These plans have been scrapped Monday after the district obtained an engineer’s report that detailed potential liquefaction underground that would trigger buildings to sink.
Mother and father who spoke to NBC 7 the day after the choice say they learn the 176-page report they usually see the conclusions in a different way. They pointed to 2 particular references on web page 9 that learn: “…no energetic faults are recognized to underlie or challenge towards the location; thus, the likelihood of fault rupture on the web site is taken into account low.”
NBC 7’s Dave Summers explains the threats to Reynolds Elementary College in Oceanside.
There’s additionally a reference on that very same web page that claims the varsity web site has a “low liquefaction danger.”
The report lists potential remediation options to solidify the earth beneath the varsity buildings, however the district opted to shut the varsity and relocate college students and staffers for their very own security.
“They closed primarily based on security, which in our opinion is inaccurate,” stated Molly Martin, whose twin 3rd graders attend Reynolds. “We’ve solely had the report for just a few days however in the event you learn via it, they are saying the varsity web site is completely protected as is,” she added.
NBC 7 requested Martin if she would ship her kids to a college that she thought was unsafe. “No, in fact not. None of us mother and father would. The lecturers wouldn’t be combating to maintain their jobs in a faculty that was unsafe. The employees wouldn’t be. I dwell two blocks away. Do you suppose a five-plus magnitude earthquake is gonna have an effect on my home? I’m not transferring. Now we have earthquake insurance coverage. Do you suppose that they might insure my dwelling in the event that they felt that the soil liquefaction that plagues all of North County was a difficulty? It’s not.”
Martin stated the district has offered no solutions about which colleges their kids shall be transferred to or how far-off they’ll be.
A district spokesperson instructed NBC 7 all college students can be despatched to varsities inside a two-mile radius of their properties.
The Oceanside Unified College District issued this assertion the day after the choice:
“After cautious consideration, on March 13, 2023, the Board of Training of the Oceanside Unified College District voted to shut Reynolds Elementary College efficient June 2023. It has been decided that the soil’s situation at Reynolds Elementary shouldn’t be appropriate for the deliberate building. Assessments revealed soil liquefaction. Soil liquefaction is a lack of floor power that causes the soil to quickly behave like a liquid. Throughout an earthquake this might trigger buildings to sink and incur different damages.
The security of our college students and employees is our highest precedence each for these attending now and sooner or later. We all know that everybody had their hearts set on modernizing this campus and perceive the frustration the neighborhood could also be feeling.
The Board of Training will meet once more to debate extra outcomes from floor testing at Del Rio, college boundaries for Reynolds college students, and the position of packages. This assembly shall be on:
Thursday, March twenty third
6pm
Chávez Center College
202 Oleander Dr.
We need to reassure the neighborhood that no Reynolds employees member will lose their job. Our fantastic workforce at Reynolds shall be relocated to different colleges throughout the district. Their skills and dedication to college students will impression the lives of households of their new assignments.
All of our elementary campuses are outfitted to deal with the social and emotional wants of our college students. Each college has a full-time on web site counselor. The district additionally provides extra help for college students and their households. Please don’t hesitate to make use of these free assets throughout this transition.
We all know that everybody from Reynolds will carry what makes them distinctive to their new campuses and discover a new sense of belonging.”
