"No easy way about it": Auburn school district forced to close doors to 2 campuses
AUBURN — Schools in Auburn will be closing their doors as Placer County is forcing the Auburn Union School District to consolidate its five campuses down to three after financial projections show the district won't last if money can't be saved.
Students and teachers walked out of Rock Creek Elementary Thursday afternoon. Some told us they can't imagine what it would be like to never walk through these doors again.
It's a future this school is facing. A dedicated teacher there calls her classroom home.
"This is a really tightknit family," teacher Rachel Barrios said.
For 23 years, Barrios has taught at Rock Creek Elementary school, but after more than two decades, the school bell may ring for the last time.
"I'm pretty emotional about that," she said. I started here at this school."
The Auburn Union School District is facing a tough decision come December.
"This is really hard there's no easy way about it," said Amber Lee-Alva, district superintendent.
Lee-Alva is the superintendent of five schools with more than 1,500 students and roughly 100 teachers who is now forced to find a way to keep the classrooms open.
"Last December, we had our first interim budget. We could not show three years out that we had enough revenue to cover our expenses," she said.
Placer County charged the district with reducing three million dollars in spending. The board of trustees formulated a plan to increase classroom size and close two schools, prioritizing the closure of Alta Vista Community Charter and Rock Creek Elementary, and folding the students into one of the three remaining schools.
But the Rock Creek community said closing these doors would put families in a tough spot.
"A lot of our families are low-income families," Barrios said. "A lot of them are working families. They walk. I don't know what they're going to do."
The district is considering a bus route for working families who can't transport students – but for some, that's not enough.
"I can't see them taking away Rock Creek," Barrios said. "I wouldn't put my grandkids anywhere else."
A final decision will be made in early December. Until then, the board of trustees and district will continue to collect information and listen to families in order to make the best decisions possible – but two schools will have to close.
It's unclear if teachers will be able to keep their jobs.
