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Parents urge board to drop Gateway Middle co‑location plan at Creative Arts campus
Summary
Multiple parents and community members told the board the proposed co‑location of Gateway Middle School (≈300 students) at the Creative Arts campus is infeasible due to limited classroom and yard space, ongoing construction after a fire, and safety concerns for young children. Speakers asked the board to remove the proposal before the Jan. 8 meeting.
Several parents and community representatives addressed the board during public comment on Dec. 11 urging the district to take the proposed co‑location of Gateway Middle School off the table. Kate Miceli Zimin, a Creative Arts parent and former teacher, said Creative Arts had more than 175 applications last year for 44 kindergarten spots and projected growth that will require most annex classrooms; she called co‑location with a 300‑student middle school infeasible.
Rahula Janowski and Rebecca Archer described capacity and safety concerns: yard and specialty spaces (library, music, dance) are already cramped after a recent fire and construction; adding 300 more middle‑school students, they said, would overwhelm shared spaces and threaten the small K–8 environment that parents value. Archer, who identified herself as a school‑law practitioner, noted Creative Arts has been operating without reasonably equivalent facilities and urged the board to remove the option prior to any decision.
Board members receiving the comments did not vote on a relocation at the meeting; several indicated the item could be discussed again and asked staff to continue working with the Creative Arts community on alternatives before the January meeting.
