Richmond Plans to Shut Schools May 1

Schools in the debt-ridden Richmond Unified School District will be closed next week--six weeks before the scheduled start of summer vacation--because the district has run out of money to pay employees, officials said Thursday.

Facing a $29-million deficit, the 31,300-student district in Northern California last week became the second in state history to file for bankruptcy protection, contending it has only enough money to meet its April 30 payroll.

The Richmond School Board decided Wednesday night to close the system’s 52 schools May 1 unless the district gets a $29-million bailout loan from the state. Gov. Pete Wilson has said he would not approve such a loan unless it included provisions to suspend employee union contracts--a condition rejected by Democrats in the Legislature.

“It looks like our last day of instruction here is going to be April 30, instead of June 14,” school district spokesman Paul Ehara said Thursday. “That’s 32 days short of a typical term.”

California’s Education Code requires students to attend school for 180 days each year, but Department of Education spokeswoman Susie Lange said state officials can either grant a waiver or seek special legislation exempting Richmond students from the requirement and allowing seniors to graduate. Students will have attended just over 150 days.

“Whatever it requires, we will assist them so that these students aren’t harmed any more than they already have been--so that seniors can graduate on time and second-graders can move on to third grade in September,” Lange said.

The closure announcement comes despite a plan by state Controller Gray Davis to advance to May 1 the district’s regular May 29 payment of $5.36 million.

“I hate to say we were counting on (the early payment by Davis) because that sounds presumptuous, but that’s really the only way we will be able to meet this month’s ($8.9-million) payroll,” Ehara explained.

“The process to close the schools is already under way,” he said. District officials hope to reorganize and work out financial problems during the summer and reopen on Sept. 4.

Two lawsuits have been filed--one by a group of parents and another by the California Teachers Assn.--to block the shutdown, contending the early school closure would violate Richmond students’ constitutional rights by denying them an education equal to other students in the state. A hearing on those lawsuits is scheduled for Monday.