At the Paso Robles District Board meeting on January 23, 2024 they revealed that the Georgia Brown elementary campus will have to move to one of the middle schools campuses, causing the middle schools to conjoin, and all of the elementary schools will be K-6 grade.

There were originally plans to rebuild Georgia Brown like they did to Glen Speck. Unfortunately during an inspection a seismic anomaly was found, canceling this proposal. Their next decision will be what middle school will host a dual-immersion K-8 program and which will be the “main” middle school, Lewis Middle School or Flamson Middle School. Both options have pros and cons: Flamson is a bigger school, so it would most likely more easily host two schools worth of middle schools, but at the same time, it is an optimal location for many English-learners who live near Georgia Brown to walk to school.

Joel Peterson has been on the school board for nearly ten years.. Regarding the decision, Peterson said, “I would hope that this is one of the last big decisions that we make and that we can finally have some continuity for our programs to really grow and develop. It’s been tough to come out of COVID and there was lots of learning loss and lots of change and so I would love to have some continuity for teachers, for students to really get the basics of education and make friends.”

An issue many see with the single middle school approach is transportation. Our District has struggled with a shortage of bus drivers, and we would need a long bus route and host of drivers to support kids whose parents can’t drive them across town for school, which will occur no matter which campus is chosen. Teachers will also be affected because of the mass moving of staff members.

The final decision will be announced on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.  The hope is for all of the changes to have begun for the 2024-2025 school year.