District breaks ground on Sausalito elementary school

The ceremonial event ushered in a transformational period in which the elementary and middle school campuses might be consolidated.

The Sausalito Marin City School District has broken ground on its $30 million elementary school construction at 636 Nevada St. in Sausalito.

The ceremonial event on Thursday ushered in a transformational period in which the elementary and middle school campuses of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy could be merged at the same complex.

The new school is expected to be ready for students by fall 2025.

“I think it marks the beginning of a new chapter for our district’s learning and educational opportunities for our students,” said LaResha Huffman, the district’s superintendent.

“It’s more than just the construction of a new building,” she said. “It represents our commitment to fostering an environment where we’re really focused on innovation, inclusive practices and learning so that all students can thrive.”

Huffman made her comments following a two-hour community meeting on Wednesday. About 100 people attended the meeting online and in person to learn about potential school changes. Another meeting is set for 6 p.m. April 22.

The district will send a survey to parents before the next meeting to gauge their preferences for the school.

The new configurations for the school campuses follow $1.9 million worth of budget cuts in February. The district, facing a $1.4 million deficit and a “qualified” budget certification, reduced hours and imposed layoffs affecting more than 12 jobs. A “qualified” budget certification means the district does not know if it can pay its bills.

The cuts not only closed the gap and allowed the district to achieve a positive budget certification, they also reduced administrative overhead by eliminating a principal, an administrative assistant and food service personnel at the middle school campus in Marin City.

The cuts in administrative and support staff in Marin City will allow sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders to relocate from the Marin City campus to Sausalito. They are expected to have classes in the upper campus at Sausalito for at least one year while the new school is built.

After that, they might move into the new school, which would have to be altered slightly to accommodate taller children.

The community meeting on Wednesday and the meeting on April 22 are intended to decide which grades would go to Sausalito and which, if any, would stay in Marin City. According to Huffman, the district has until May 15 to finalize its plans and to see whether any of the employees who have been provisionally let go need to be brought back.

“I think the governance team in Sausalito Marin City faces a difficult set of challenges,” said John Carroll, the Marin superintendent of schools. “But I also believe they have the capacity to address those challenges in a thoughtful manner in accordance with the values of their community.”

Carroll said the district’s difficult budget decisions in February were successful, although painful.

“Marin County Office of Education provided a fiscal expert to assist the district with its second interim financial report,” Carroll said. “We are now able to withdraw that support because the district took the difficult steps necessary to achieve a positive budget certification.”

Huffman said there has been “an outcry” from the community and parents to consider having the whole school, from transitional kindergarten through eighth grade, together in Sausalito.

“We’ve really worked on creating a space that can serve as not only a space of learning, but a community hub for our students,” Huffman said. She said the combined school would offer outdoor classrooms, flexible learning environments, play environments, and a lab for science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

“It’s kind of the beginning of bringing in innovation that our school and district so desperately needs,” Huffman said.  She said the combined schools will have “more cohesiveness, more opportunity for collaboration and for people to work together.”

The Sausalito campus, led by longtime principal David Finnane, now accommodates transitional kindergarten through fifth grade. In the TK-8 plan at Sausalito, those 202 elementary students will stay in Sausalito and be joined by the 75 middle schoolers from the Marin City campus.

In addition to having Finnane as school principal, Huffman said, “we would probably need to hire an assistant principal, a dean or a teacher on special assignment, because the middle school is struggling.”

“Middle school is challenging, no matter what,” Huffman said.

The extra cost of running just one campus in Sausalito — beyond what is already budgeted for teachers and a principal — would be $150,000. That would cover expenses like hiring an assistant principal.

If the district kept some of the kindergarten through second grade students at the Marin City campus, it would cost an extra $321,207. That would cover an administrator, an administrative assistant and a food service worker, possibly bringing back employees who received layoff warnings.

To keep the two campuses operating as is, it would cost an extra $421,332 to bring back the employees who received layoff notices, Huffman said.

Having all the students at Sausalito would leave only the district office, a preschool class and lots of possible vacant rental space at the Marin City campus.

“That could potentially be a new revenue generating source,” Huffman said of the open rental space. The district would still need to cover utilities, maintenance and other costs to keep the building running.

Huffman said she did not factor transportation costs into these options in her presentation at Wednesday’s community meeting. The district is paying $200,000 annually for a bus to take elementary students who live in Marin City to the Sausalito campus and back.

She had no word on Thursday whether a second bus would be needed for the middle school students if the school were merged in Sausalito. Some middle school students could walk to school, but the district is required by the state to provide transportation for all students, Huffman said.

“If we needed a second bus, that’s another $200,000,” Huffman said.

The new elementary school is being funded out of a $41.6 million Measure P bond approved by district voters in 2020.