Central Gaither's fate again up in air

It has a history reaching back to 1922 and was rebuilt after the 1955 flood, according to Debbie Everett, principal of Central Gaither School, whose future will be discussed at a forum today.

"When a school closes, it never opens again," Everett said Monday. "It just becomes a relic."

The Yuba City Unified School District board decided last year against closing the elementary school located in a rural area on Bailey Road at Highway 113 south of the city limits.

More expected cuts in state funds have brought a possible closing back for review, school district officials have said.

"I hope they see the value of Central Gaither," Everett said. "And that closing us isn't the answer." A grant was used to upgrade a coaxial cable for computers at the school and the work was just completed, she said.

Separate work funded by school bond money covered two projects — the first of which included new air conditioning, cost $458,000 and was undertaken five years ago, Everett said.

Jeff and Bonnie Magill and their daughters Margery, 17, and Raeann, 13, expect to speak at the forum today.

Margery, who now attends the Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts, is an alumna of Central Gaither and Raeann is student body president there.

"I just don't see how you can just close a school," Bonnie Magill said Monday. "There's got to be another way to find $325,000."

Those are the savings the district has projected from closing Central Gaither, which Magill said draws its name from the combining of two schools.

"Every student is looked at individually," she said. "You're not lost in the shuffle."

Nearly 200 students attend the school. About another 20 students are in a program of the Sutter County Superintendent of Schools for the hearing-impaired.

Nancy Aaberg, superintendent for Yuba City Unified, said Monday that the decision on Central Gaither's future is a very difficult one for the board of trustees.

"The board has every intent to listen carefully and open the forum for all perspectives," Aaberg. "The decision for consideration of closing the school does not come easily and does not come lightly to the board."

Trustee James Ferreira has said Central Gaither is being considered for closing at the end of this school year only because state "budget cuts get deeper and deeper."

If closed, students would attend Barry Elementary School about five miles away, Ferreira has said.

Principal Everett said some students already have an hourlong bus ride they start at 6:15 a.m. to reach school nearly an hour before classes begin.

Closing Central Gaither would mean an even longer trip for those students, she said.

No decision will be made at the forum, but the fate of school is expected to be decided by January, Everett added.

Meeting

• What: Public forum on possible closing of Central Gaither School

• When: 6 p.m. today

• Where: Central Gaither School, 8403 Bailey Road (at Highway 113)

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com