April Graves passionately addressed the Merced City School District Board of Education Tuesday evening, explaining how the social and emotional trauma of changing schools would devastate her 5-year-old autistic son.
She was among the dozens of parents who showed up to the school board meeting to speak against the district’s proposed school boundary adjustments.
In an effort to reduce overcrowding in schools, Merced City School District is redrawing school boundaries and will shift sixth grade students from elementary campuses back to middle schools.
District officials at the county’s largest school district estimate the changes will affect about 1,200 of the district’s 12,000 students over the next two school years.
Graves expressed relief and celebrated after the school board, on a split vote, made an exception to let Chenoweth Elementary students stay put next school year – despite district officials’ warnings that it would mean overcrowding at the campus.
“I’m ecstatic! I’m desperately thankful that this decision will allow (my son) continued success with the resources at Chenoweth,” Graves said outside the district’s STEAM Center while the school board meeting was on a five minute recess.
“I’m feeling 1,000 times better, but I’m still sad for the families who will be impacted by the change,” she said.
Graves was stunned when the board meeting started up again. The board was informed it needed to rescind its prior votes, cast new motions and vote again due to a procedural error made during the first vote.
The meeting took yet another turn when one trustee changed her vote the second time around – meaning Graves’ son would likely have to switch schools after all.
“It’s a doozy,” she told The Merced FOCUS in a telephone interview the next day. “It was an unfortunate situation that happened yesterday. Going forward, I have to just continue to do what I do for my son, in our unique situation, in hopes that there is going to be some miracle that’s going to help us.”
By the time the second vote occurred, many of the parents who showed up and spoke during public comment had left the school board meeting.
Board President Priya Lakireddy – who represents Chenoweth families and motioned to keep Chenoweth students in place next school year – was visibly shaken by the change. She spoke through tears as she read the final votes on the boundary changes.
Trustee Beatrice McCutchen originally voted in favor of allowing Chenoweth students to stay at their school. But after the break and during the second vote, she voted against the motion, without explanation and tipping the majority vote from approval to opposition.
McCutchen declined to comment for this story.
District officials confirmed with legal counsel the final process was done correctly.
School boundary changes necessary for safety
Now that the new boundaries are approved, around 1,000 elementary school students will change schools in the 2025-6 school year, and about 230 sixth graders will return to middle school campuses for the 2026-27 school year.
District officials grappled with the question of how building a new school in north Merced prior to the pandemic would have affected the current overcrowding in Merced schools. Superintendent Julianna Stocking said at that time, the district faced declining enrollment.
Meanwhile, Rivera Elementary School grew to around 900 students this year, and the middle school has over 600 students, putting the school over capacity. Teachers and staff use a staggered schedule to use the lunch room and even bathrooms, creating safety concerns.
“The safety conditions that are present at Rivera Elementary school are ones that I don’t believe you would want your children to be subjected to – the maneuvering that they’re having to do with their overstaffing, their lack of access to bathrooms, the way in which they have to time it has impacted the ability of a portion of our students that we all serve to have their needs met,” Trustee Annie Delgado said.
While districts in the San Francisco Bay Area are closing schools due to lagging enrollment, Merced City Schools now is projected to increase enrollment by over 450 students over the next five years. Most of the city’s growth is planned for north Merced, meaning the district’s four north Merced school sites will see enrollment increases.
A district committee began meeting in September to strategize the boundary adjustments. School board members were briefed on the issue during board meetings in October, November and January; and the district held five community meetings beginning in December to answer questions and collect feedback from parents.
The school district paid $22,000 to work with a consulting firm, SchoolWorks, Inc., to complete a demographic and enrollment projection study and develop the boundary adjustments and maps.
During Tuesday’s school board meeting, district officials provided two maps for the board to choose from. The red and blue maps were similar in most respects but differed in a few north Merced neighborhoods.
Merced Police Sgt. Nathan McKinnon urged the board to choose the blue map over the red map, noting the red map would put students in danger of crossing Olive Avenue. He also advised the district to provide bus service for some students if the blue map was approved.
Merced voters last year approved an $80 million bond for the district for facility improvements. Stocking said district officials will go through the bond oversight process in hopes of setting aside bond money to eventually build a new school.
Emotions run high during meeting
Over a dozen parents spoke at the board meeting against the boundary adjustments, emotionally pleading with district officials to consider the impact to families. No parent spoke in favor of the proposed maps.
Many parents said they currently live less than a mile from their children’s school, and switching schools would mean longer commute times and disrupted routines and growth for their students.
Most parents who spoke had children attending Chenoweth Elementary. Notably missing were any parents from Rivera Elementary School, which currently faces the most severe overcrowding.
Alicia Perez, the mother of a student attending John Muir Elementary, said she had mixed emotions about the district’s proposal. More time and work was needed to produce a better plan, she said.
“I love what you guys have implemented, but I also hate it. A lot of hard work has gone into it, I understand, but it’s easy to isolate every child into a number, and our kids aren’t numbers,” she said.
“I think that a boundary change is needed, but not in this way. Six months of work to change over 1,000 children’s lives in just one school year – I don’t think that’s the way to go about it,” Perez said.
The similarities and differences between the two maps also prompted confusion both from the dais and audience.
Board trustees asked about data analyses and had many questions for district administrators.
For example, they asked: How many students living in a 1-mile radius to current schools would be moved? How will differing start times at various campuses affect commutes? How would school of choice applications be handled? What is the plan to help students with the transition?
The board asked about postponing the vote, but district administrators said the process for staff assignments begins March 1, and the board doesn’t have another regular meeting scheduled before that.
“This is difficult for us, very difficult, because either way it goes, somebody’s not going to be happy,” McCutchen said.
Lakireddy said she was frustrated by the limited options trustees had to work with and the lack of analysis done on the impacts.
“They’re just telling us what to do instead of really having a discussion, and I am not a fan of that,” she said.
Delgado proposed keeping John Muir students at the school and adding a portable classroom to the campus to accommodate them. Lakireddy proposed something similar for Chenoweth students. Initially the board voted in favor of both of those plans, until McCutchen changed her vote.
In the coming weeks, the district will verify addresses and begin notifying families of students who will need to change schools. Parents can still apply for school of choice, which is a lottery system. The district will honor students who already were approved for school of choice for their duration of time in the district.
Stocking reassured parents that the district would never propose a plan that would jeopardize student safety, and the upcoming changes were part of a longterm vision for the district.
“Boundary changes for a school district is one of most difficult decisions a board and district has to make, knowing we need a longterm solution to address overcrowding as well as ensuring safety for schools,” Stocking said. “…We will focus our attention and efforts in preparation for the changes, working with families and schools to ensure we have equitable resources for all students through this transition.”
that school board member should tell the parents WHY she changed her vote. also, so many parents aren’t aware of these community meetings or we have to work or we are just so damn tired, we cant make it to meetings. I hate that more of the community could not give their input.