The San Luis Coastal Unified School District is looking to sell two of its former school sites.
The district has been leasing both the Morro Elementary site in Morro Bay and the Sunnyside Elementary site in Los Osos for the past 22 years.
“This is a great site for our school,” said Kim Wishon, the administrative director at Wishing Well School, which is leasing the Los Osos site.
SLCUSD Assistant Superintendent Ryan Pinkerton says the two schools are no longer needed by the district due to a dramatic drop in enrollment.
Morro Elementary is valued at about $10.2 million.
“This is the field which is a part of the Morro Elementary school site. It’s in great condition. It’s well maintained by the district,” said Madison Treiber, Morro Bay resident.
While the site is not being used as an elementary school, the building isn’t empty.
“Public tuition-free Montessori school, parent participation preschool, a co-op preschool, special needs program, adult graduation program,” Treiber said.
Pinkerton says some of those are district classes that will be moved to other locations, adding that tenants at the Morro Elementary and Sunnyside sites are on year-to-year leases.
“They have been warned for several years about the sale of the property,” he added.
Treiber says the site is a valuable asset to the community that she doesn’t want to see go.
“Morro Bay won’t have something like this ever again. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. There won’t be a school, field, historical building. Those are things that are irrevocably lost,” Treiber said.
Pinkerton says the cost to keep the schools is too high.
“Both sites are in need of major modernization, between $20 to $30 million per site. We don’t have the funds to pay for those modernizations. Our current bond funds will be needed at our current schools,” Pinkerton said.
“There are kids who go to school here every day. It’s not beyond saving,” Treiber said.
The City of Morro Bay is looking into purchasing the Morro Elementary site, but City Manager Yvonne Kimball says they need more time.
They’ll be sending a letter to the school district asking for more time to make that decision.
At the old Sunnyside Elementary, Wishing Well School has been leasing the site for 13 years. It is 11.9 acres, and its highest possible value is $6.05 million.
Wishon says the Waldorf school currently has 21 employees and 140 students.
“We would love to even take over more space if possible. We are a very unique type of education, so we’re really a boon to the community,” Wishon said.
San Luis Obispo County District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson says he’d still like to see the site secured for the Los Osos community but says they’re still “a ways from opening the conversation between the county and the school district.”
Gibson adds the formal start of the process should begin with an item the Board of Supervisors will consider in a closed session on February 25.
Pinkerton says they are working to declare both sites as surplus but going through the legal process could take months.
The City of Morro Bay is holding an informational meeting on the Morro Elementary School site on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building located at 209 Surf Street.
