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Carissa Plains parents urge board to restore middle grades, trustees and staff outline funding, legal limits and next steps
Summary
A group of parents and community members from Carissa Plains urged the Atascadero Unified board to restore local seventh‑ and eighth‑grade instruction and add a third teacher; district staff reviewed the site's funding history and the state rules that govern “necessary small school” funding.
Parents and community members from Carissa Plains pressed the Atascadero Unified School District Board of Trustees to restore local seventh‑ and eighth‑grade instruction at Carissa Plains Elementary and to hire a third teacher, arguing long bus rides and loss of community programs harm students.
At a packed public comment segment, Adrienne Twissleman, speaking as a spokesperson for the Carissa Plains Teachers and Friends group, outlined the community’s history of local schooling and said the district made the middle‑school busing decision without a supporting study. “Decisions that impact an entire community should rest totally on transparent actions and community input,” Twissleman said.
Several other parents and former students described the educational and social benefits of local middle‑grade programming. Patty Hermosillo, a Carissa Plains parent, told trustees long bus rides can harm middle‑schoolers’ mental health and that parents bear additional time and expense driving children. She also said private donors had pledged funds contingent on district direction: “California Valley Solar Ranch has already donated $5,000. Another solar ranch is ready to help fund a third teacher,” she said.
Nut graf: The board heard heartfelt appeals for restoring local middle‑grade instruction, while district staff and legal counsel cautioned that state funding rules, average daily attendance (ADA) thresholds and staffing and credential requirements for secondary courses complicate any immediate change.
District administration provided historical context and a technical explanation of small‑school funding. Superintendent Butler and district staff recounted a history of reorganizations and said the district successfully pursued a state carve‑out — described in the presentation as “Senate Bill 13 21” — that allowed Carissa Plains to qualify for necessary small‑school funding after prior exclusion. Business services staff (Miss Darnell) explained necessary small‑school funding is based on ADA (not raw enrollment) and on the number of teachers assigned to the site. She said, under current rules cited to the board, the district’s P2 average daily attendance at Carissa Plains was 20.13 (k–6); that ADA places the school in the first tier of funding (1–24 ADA) and does not meet the threshold staff described for three‑teacher funding. “To reach a tier for three teachers, we would need an average daily attendance rate in K–6 of 49,” she said.
Board members and staff said they were hearing the community’s concerns and agreed more study is needed. Trustees acknowledged the emotional and logistical burdens parents described but also raised credentialing and programmatic issues for seventh‑ and eighth‑grade instruction (secondary classes typically require subject-matter credentials). Trustee members asked staff to place a formal action item on a future agenda and to work with Carissa Plains families on possible models.
Ending: No vote to change grade configuration or staffing was taken at the meeting. The board invited further community engagement and asked staff to return with options, data and possible funding scenarios for future consideration.
