Tears flowed at Reynolds Elementary School in Oceanside Tuesday.
“It’s hard to see the teachers crying. It’s hard to see parents crying, kids crying,” said Reynolds’ parent teacher organization president. “Everyone is really heartbroken over this. It’s devastating.”
Julie Hammer told NBC 7 the Oceanside School District’s decision to close Reynolds Elementary School is impacting everyone connected to the school.
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As PTO president, Hammer’s job is to support students and staff for the next four months. As a mother of three children who attend the school, she has a different perspective: “We don’t feel heard at all by this district. We don’t think they’re listening to us.”
This isn’t the first time the Oceanside Union School District said they wanted to close Reynolds. In 2001, there was talk of closing the aging school, but after a bond measure passed to help pay for improvements at the district’s campuses, plans were made to renovate Reynolds.
Those plans were scrapped Monday after the district received an engineer’s report that detailed possible liquefaction underground that could cause buildings to sink.
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Parents who spoke to NBC 7 the day after the decision say they read the 176-page report and they see the conclusions differently. They pointed to two specific references on page 9 that read: “…no active faults are known to underlie or project toward the site; thus, the probability of fault rupture at the site is considered low.”
There is also a reference on that same page that says the school site has a “low liquefaction risk.”
The report lists possible remediation solutions to solidify the earth beneath the school buildings, but the district opted to close the school and relocate students and staffers for their own safety.
“They closed based on safety, which in our opinion is inaccurate,” said Molly Martin, whose twin 3rd graders attend Reynolds. “We’ve only had the report for a few days but if you read through it, they say the school site is perfectly safe as is,” she added.
NBC 7 asked Martin if she would send her children to a school that she thought was unsafe. “No, of course not. None of us parents would. The teachers wouldn’t be fighting to keep their jobs in a school that was unsafe. The staff wouldn’t be. I live two blocks away. Do you think a five-plus magnitude earthquake is gonna affect my house? I’m not moving. We have earthquake insurance. Do you think that they would insure my home if they felt that the soil liquefaction that plagues all of North County was an issue? It’s not.”
Martin said the district has provided no answers about which schools their children will be transferred to or how far away they’ll be.
A district spokesperson told NBC 7 all students would be sent to schools within a two-mile radius of their homes.
The Oceanside Unified School District issued this statement the day after the decision:
“After careful consideration, on March 13, 2023, the Board of Education of the Oceanside Unified School District voted to close Reynolds Elementary School effective June 2023. It has been determined that the soil’s condition at Reynolds Elementary is not suitable for the planned construction. Tests revealed soil liquefaction. Soil liquefaction is a loss of ground strength that causes the soil to temporarily behave like a liquid. During an earthquake this could cause buildings to sink and incur other damages.
The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority both for those attending now and in the future. We know that everyone had their hearts set on modernizing this campus and understand the disappointment the community may be feeling.
The Board of Education will meet again to discuss additional results from ground testing at Del Rio, school boundaries for Reynolds students, and the placement of programs. This meeting will be on:
Thursday, March 23rd
6pm
Chávez Middle School
202 Oleander Dr.
We want to reassure the community that no Reynolds staff member will lose their job. Our wonderful team at Reynolds will be relocated to other schools across the district. Their talents and dedication to students will impact the lives of families in their new assignments.
All of our elementary campuses are equipped to address the social and emotional needs of our students. Every school has a full-time on site counselor. The district also offers additional support for students and their families. Please don’t hesitate to use these free resources during this transition.
We know that everyone from Reynolds will bring what makes them exceptional to their new campuses and find a new sense of belonging."
