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Rural parents, students urge Atascadero Unified to restore grades 6'8 at Carissa Plains Elementary
Summary
A group of parents and students from Carissa Plains Elementary told the board that sending older students to town will require multi-hour bus rides and urged the district to hire a teacher to keep grades 6'8 on campus or create on-campus virtual options.
Parents and students from Carissa Plains Elementary told the Atascadero Unified School District board on April 1 that the planned move of sixth through eighth grades to town would force some children onto buses for more than two hours each way, and they asked the board to hire another teacher to keep those grades at the rural campus.
Pedro Ruiz, speaking for a group of parents, said the board's prior decision to add a second teacher two years ago helped families and asked trustees to consider funding another teacher now. "If we don't ask, we don't receive," Ruiz said during public comment.
Students addressed the board directly. McKinley Toselman, a fourth-grader, said she does not want to attend school in town because it would mean more than an hour each way on the bus and would interfere with extracurricular commitments such as junior rodeo and 4-H. Fifth-grader Mason Eddie said his grandfather is sick and asked, "Please make Carissa Plains school go to the eighth grade again." Parent Adrienne Twissleman described children's daily schedules if they must take long bus rides, saying the change would take "nearly 4 hours a day" away from family time and could harm students' mental health.
Parent Patty Hermosillo provided approximate travel times she observed, saying morning rides are about "an hour and 20 to an hour and 30 minutes" and afternoons can be nearly two hours; she said social media responses to the issue have shown broad community support.
Trustees did not take formal action during public comment. Superintendent Tom Butler responded after the remarks and said, "I'll reach out to the parents on behalf of the district and have some dialogue around their request for a middle school. We can report back about that concept also and start to chat a little bit." The board scheduled no immediate vote on staffing or grade configuration at Carissa Plains.
Community members suggested alternatives such as on-campus virtual learning with a local aide to monitor students or hiring an aide to support virtual instruction; parents said campus space could allow a longer-term expansion but emphasized the near-term need to reduce daily bus time for middle-school-age children.
The issue arose during the public-comment portion of the meeting; trustees acknowledged the speakers and thanked families for coming.
