Will Murray Elementary School be the Next School to Close in Dublin, CA?
With the recent departure of Principal Rick Boster, many parents are wondering what is in store for Murray Elementary School. In an effort to cut expenses and potentially boost reserves, the Dublin Unified School District (DUSD) may be considering the closure of Murray Elementary School. By shutting down Murray Elementary School, DUSD could save at least $250K of operating expenses each year. Additionally, the sale of the Murray Elementary campus to the City or a developer would likely yield a significant one-time boost to the District’s currently non-existent operating reserves.
If DUSD does decide to close Murray Elementary School, current Murray students would likely be diverted to Dublin Elementary School and Fredericksen Elementary School, with most of the students sent to the latter.
Murray Elementary School has had recent academic struggles as noted by its plummeting API score from 860 in 2008 to 836 in 2009. This drop of 24 points was quite a disappointment in a year when most of Dublin’s schools enjoyed increases in their API scores. More importantly, Murray Elementary School’s enrollment is significantly lower than all the other elementary schools in DUSD. While enrollment was boosted in 2008-2009 with the closure of Nielsen Elementary, the number of students attending Murray Elementary School has drifted downward for the past decade.
The trend of lower enrollment is evident in all K-8 schools in west Dublin. As this chart demonstrates, student enrollment in west Dublin schools has dropped by 20% over the past decade, while student enrollment in east Dublin schools has increased by more than 700% over the same period.
The closure of Murray Elementary School could make great fiscal sense, as the shift in enrollment from west Dublin over to the growing east Dublin continues. Given the budget woes of DUSD and the heart-wrenching precedent set by the closure of Nielsen Elementary School, the sale of the Murray Elementary campus may provide the infusion of capital DUSD desperately needs to weather future economic challenges.
9:33 AM on July 30th, 2010
Close it down! DHS supporters love to argue if things make financial and academic sense. Well…keeping Murray open definitely does not. Also Murray supporters love to justify it’s low API by citing the low enrollment and how one low student can skew the score. Closing Murray will resolve all our problems.
11:38 AM on July 30th, 2010
If Murray is closed, that will leave two elementary schools on the west side, both west of Dougherty Road:
1. Dublin Elementary
2. Fredericksen
When Kolb Elementary is completed, there will be three elementary schools on the east side, both east of Hacienda Drive, with two more currently planned:
1. Dougherty
2. Green
3. Kolb
4. E-4
5. E-5
Another elementary school on the east side is planned for the Camp Parks redevelopment. I also recall hearing someone at the city or district say at one point that a 7th elementary school will eventually be needed for all the new developments on the far east side. That is, unless the district decides to redraw the attendance boundaries so that many families whose kids currently attend Dougherty Elementary (the top scoring school in Dublin) will instead have to drive their kids to the west side to attend one of the two lowest performing schools. Imagine how parents will react to a decision like that!
With the student population heavily concentrated on the east side, how much longer can the district (and the OneDublinHighSchool zealots) argue with a straight face that a single high school on the west side is the best solution for Dublin? What a waste of time, gasoline, road maintenance, and wear & tear on cars! Not to mention the pollution and the impact on everyone else driving that route during commute hours! Who were the morons that made the decision to cancel plans for an east side high school and instead spend $120M transforming Dublin HS into the mega-high school that is unwanted by new families in Dublin?
John Z – Can you publish the names of the school board members that made that selfish, short-sighted decision? It’s time they were exposed. I’ll bet some or all of them are among the noisy self-serving mob that is angrily fighting Tassajara Prep. What a shame that they are still selfishly fighting for what any intelligent observer can see was a foolhardy decision. If they’d only made the right decision to build a second high school on the east side, and made it a true college prep high school, there would be little need for Tassajara Prep and the district would have retained their dream of absolute control over all public education (and education funds) in Dublin.
1:18 PM on July 30th, 2010
The K-6 I attended in Sacto suburds was replaced by a tract of homes years ago. My impression is that West Dub is probably on the same track as the neighborhood where I grew up — baby boom scramble to build schools when too many kindergardeners showed up one year. Then when they all finished high school there was a decline in K-6 enrollment and a surplus of schools. Even one high school was closed (not likely to happen here). But with the West being older homes and maybe some kids are grown and gone so might be the time to close a school if not needed. Elementary schools can be consolidated if in the same area.
7:23 PM on July 31st, 2010
I’m not trying to hijack this post or anything, and this isn’t related to the topic of this post at all, but there’s nowhere on this blog where readers can start their own posts, so here goes.
I saw a news headline recently about a band called Dublin Death Patrol, and yes, the Dublin is named after our Dublin, not the Dublin in Ireland or Ohio. I did some research, and while thrash metal is not my thing, it turns out the guys in the band are pretty well known. The singer is the lead singer from Testament, a famous metal band in the ’80s, and the drummer is from Tesla, which is a very famous rock band to this day. The other guys in the band are from Dublin, though I’m not familiar with them.
This kind of music won’t appeal to Around Dublin readers or anything, but it’s the first band I’m aware of with any name recognition that is not only from Dublin, but also wears the Dublin name proudly in their band name. And no, I’m not friends with them trying to give a cheap plug. I just think it’s really cool that a rock/metal band with some famous players (relatively) is based in our very own Dublin. Here’s their MySpace page, and sorry again for hijacking this thread:
http://www.myspace.com/dublindeathpatrol
5:36 PM on December 20th, 2010
Thanks for the additional topic on Dublin Death Patrol. It would be cool if an article on them to highlight that a wide range of folks live or base themselves out of Dublin.
Don’t let stereotypes get in the way. I’m a 47 year old male in East Dublin that listens to Megadeth and other thrash bands, and I read many of the blogs on Dublin.
10:37 PM on August 2nd, 2010
Anonymous poster above: thanks for letting me know about OneDublin.org. I keep hearing this term “one Dublin”…. didn’t know it was an actual website. I’m new to the area. I like all of the positive info I get from this site.
This blog (Around Dublin) is great too though anonymous angry postings tend to wear on me. John Z. — anyway you would consider shutting down the “anonymous” posting capability here? I think it brings out the uglier side of people.
11:10 PM on August 2nd, 2010
James, it is pretty pathetic to promote your pathetic website this way. It is none of your business how AD runs their website/blog.
11:21 PM on August 2nd, 2010
Who is James? My name is Sue and I’ve just moved here from Washington State. I live in Dublin Ranch. I guess I should’ve signed my name above. As I read more of the blog, I see there have been some concerns/discussion about censoring comments and/or getting rid of anonymous postings. I’ll continue reading to learn more.
5:24 PM on August 18th, 2010
Hello! I am a Murray parent, so I thought I would just share my thoughts on this. First of all, my kids have had great teachers at Murray, and my kids have been happy at the school. However, it is a really old school. The kindergarten playground is horrible, it really needs to be redone, the school itself is just really old. I would actually be in favor of sending my child to Fredrickson, as I hear that school is a lot nicer. As a Dublin resident and parent, we need to really think about what’s not only best for our city financially, but also academically. It makes no sense for us not to have 2 High Schools. Dublin High is looking great, and I will be sending my kids to it, but with the expansion of East Dublin, it seems like it will be too big in the next few years, plus I would hate to have to make that drive from East Dublin to West Dublin everyday! It sounds like there are a lot of people with some pretty strong viewpoints, but we also have to remember that it’s ok to change our minds. I don’t see the budget, I am not an expert, I am just a parent. Let’s put politics aside when it comes to our kids. If they decide to close Murray, then hopefully they will decide that way before they close it so they can come up with a real plan how to incorporate all of those kids into Dublin El and Fred without having our kids suffer by increasing class sizes. The one thing that I don’t like about Murray is that there are always a ton of combination classes. There also seems to be a lot of drama with some of the parents, probably because it is such a small school. I stay out of it, but by staying out of it, that means that I am not as involved with the school as I would like to be because they are all fighting things out all of the time.
That’s just my 2 cents, I would like to stay open to what’s best for our kids and the future of Dublin as we grow this great little town. Let’s make this a fantastic, safe place for our kids to be raised in!
11:00 PM on August 18th, 2010
Why not trim the pay of all the DUSD top PAID and I bet we can get enough to cover the $250K that we would be saving!!!!!
Schools closing while our top admins. are making 3 Million Combined……how is this possible?
3:37 PM on September 13th, 2010
Just to clarify things. Go check out the scores and see for yourselves. All schools have increased their scores. One thing I must say is that Murray’s houses ALL the special needs classes which can cause the schools API to lower for the fact that the special needs classes scores are included they are NOT seperated from regular ed. Also, these children were sent over from the Nielsenclosure and Dublin El who got rid of them as quickly as they could to accomodate their new Kindergarten classrooms. By the way Have you seen the burned down house across from the Grand Dublin EL with the beautiful set of concrete stairs and the plumbing pipes protruding from the gated structure that once stood. Oh yeah… that happened about 20 years ago?? Isn’t there an ugly law in Dublin ummm… yes there is.. and shouldn’t that apply? Did you know you can’t build a new school in the state of CA within 500 feet of a freeway but Fabulous Dublin Elwith it’s new construction sits atop a congested freeway? Hey who changes those special filters that were put in the classrooms to protect all those kids from the exhaust fumes? A paid air quality specialist or the janitor who makes 9 bucks an hour? Go ask the Dublin School board… and all those Advanced Educated Members. So yes Murray is a small school. Is that wrong?.Does that mean it should be on the chopping block? so we can send our 5th graders to a junior high with 8th graders?. Are our kids going to be smarter??? To the people who want to close it I would like to see how you would react should they choose to close your school that your child attends and maybe it won’t be the first time. Look into it before you leap. It could impact your children. Furtermore, the Distric Office employees are overpaid, sneaky and will do anything to keep their pay increases and bonuses. So if you trust the District to listen to you or what is in the best interest for the students of Dublin then you have been so duped and I mean DUPED people….they don’t care. They care about their luxury cars, bonuses, paychecks, luncheons, dinners and what is in the best interest for them, their futures and careers. And it’s all about the “looks”. Attend a board meeting…. they all need to be booted! Furthermore if they choose to close a school they provide NO transportation for our children nor do they care where your child ends up as long as they are getting $$$….so filler up folks! and by the way your little 11 year old 5th grader with an 8th grader… that’s really smart. Bravo Bravo DUSD!!! Glad you all earned those P.H.D.’S??? Dr. did you say?? I say NOT!
3:35 PM on December 19th, 2010
So I was told about this thread by a relative, as I live in the Murray area. I was concerned about what she had perceived was information that Murray was scheduled for closing. What is funny, sad, and ridiculous at the same time is:
1. The website offers no empirical evidence about how it comes to the conclusion of Murray closing. The only evidence the website offers is that the East Dublin is growing and West Dublin is shrinking. That’s it? There is no room for new development on the Westside and the Eastside was ranch land that has been slowly parceled and developed over the years. If you could afford to buy new over used, wouldn’t you do the same. This offers no evidence as to why Murray specifically would close.
2. Everyone on this thread posts anonymously. (Yes including myself). Feel free to say what you want when you are free from recognition.
Local hearsay and conjecture mean nothing to me. Make better use of your time and find some concrete evidence first. Or perhaps we could create a thread showing aliens have landed in East Dublin, where I can make some fancy charts showing no real proof they have landed.
3:38 PM on December 19th, 2010
By the way, do all the realtors who work on this website live on the East or West side of Dublin?
11:09 AM on December 20th, 2010
Sue,
Welcome to the Dublin. Be sure to think critically about what you read on this site. The factual postings about new stores opening, parks being built, etc are fine. That is how the blog started and it was a asset to a fast growing community where it was difficult to keep track of all the things that were going on.
However, John frequently crosses the line into conjecture and trying to gin up controversy where it may or may not exist. By way of background he is a failed city council candidate with a bit of an axe to grind against Dublin City Hall and the School Board. The echo chamber of anonymous postings just add to the effect.