Parents, Students Advocate for Nesbit as Redistricting Discussion Heats Up

When Sarah Klieves learned her former school no longer offered a Girl Scout program, she jumped into action to make sure that changed.

Klieves, a Girl Scout herself, helped bring back the program at Nesbit because she said she "felt really sad" when she found out it had stopped. Now a freshman at , Klieves is also a part of the Music Mentoring program and visits Nesbit every Tuesday after school to teach violin to Nesbit students.

"I feel really passionate about the school," Klieves said on Thursday night, as she stood among dozens of other students and parents who clutched signs advocating for Nesbit outside the board meeting.

On the agenda for Thursday night's meeting was the , which has become a hot topic around Belmont as the school district tries to figure out the most efficient way to spend about $29.4 million to both modernize Belmont elementary schools and fix a capacity problem.

One of the possibilities, which appears to have riled up the greatest number of parents, is to move dozens of students from Central Elementary to Nesbit.

The students and parents stood at the front of Fox Elementary School holding signs that boasted "Nesbit Rocks!" and "Proud Nesbit Families" from about 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, where the board meeting was held.

"We're very sympathetic to parents who don't want to move schools," said Lyra Ghose, who's been a Nesbit parent for eight years. But, she added, she doesn't agree with what she called negative comments regarding the quality of education at Nesbit.

"The diversity at the school is incredibly welcome," Ghose said.

She said some parents focus mainly on test scores when comparing schools, which, Ghose emphasized, is only one day in a student's life and doesn't necessarily account for the quality of teaching at the school.

Nesbit, Ghose said, has been known as a "revolving door school," meaning it's taken overflow from other schools and that students may not stay for their entire elementary education.

Many Nesbit parents are hoping that will change.

"We're a collaborative, engaged, connected community," Nesbit parent Laura Klieves said.

"We're people just like them," said Nesbit parent Barbara Eldridge, referring to parents at other schools. "We're Girl Scout leaders, we're softball coaches."

Former and current Nesbit students who came out to support the school Thursday night echoed their parents' emphasis on the positive spirit at Nesbit.

Kendal Wise is a sophomore at Carlmont High, and graduated from both Ralston and Nesbit. "Out of all three schools, Nesbit is my favorite," she said. "Nesbit set that foundation for us, it helps you develop before you go off to Ralston."

Lauren Young, a seventh grader at Ralston, said she attended Nesbit from kindergarten through fifth grade. "The teachers are really nice and supportive," she said, adding that she returns to Nesbit on Tuesdays and Thursdays to tutor a fourth grade student.

Carlmont High student Lia Eldridge, who also went to Nesbit and whose brother is a fourth grader there, said her family moved out of the district last year but applied to keep her brother at Nesbit.

"Nesbit helped prepare me for middle school," Eldridge said. "It taught me valuable life skills."

Meanwhile, inside the board meeting, Superintendent Emerita Orta-Camilleri updated parents on the status of the redistricting discussion.

Various options were discussed among the board members and parents were shown maps of possible boundary changes.

A number of parents spoke at the meeting as well. Many have said a primary issue with redistricting is pulling children from a school they're used to, or forcing kids to enroll in a school they hadn't planned on attending in the past.

Tim Fox, an attorney with San Mateo County, also spoke at the meeting to inform district employees and board members about potential conflicts of interest when deciding on a boundary issue.

Fox said if an employee or board member stands to be affected financially by a boundary change, it would be a potential conflict of interest for that person to vote on redistricting. But he added that it's too soon to tell whether anyone will be impacted economically by a boundary change.

The next Belmont-Redwood Shores School District board meeting is scheduled for April 14 at 7 p.m.