A debate over a controversial proposal to create a new school district in Contra Costa County came to a head Wednesday.
The proposal to split the Northgate Community from the Mt. Diablo Unified School District was flatly denied Wednesday.
The discussion started five years ago with nearly 7,000 petitioners calling for a split From Mt Diablo Unified, saying a smaller district would be more responsive to the needs of their community.
Lisa Loza was one of the chief petitioners and spoke at Wednesday’s hearing.
“Our mission is and always has been is to create a smaller community based-public school district that would that be more responsive to the needs to our students and educators and more accountable to the community at large,” she said.
Critics blasted the proposal, calling it an attempt to create a far more privileged and far less diverse school district.
The county eventually denied the petition and that's why it was appealed to the state’s board of education.
The board cited several reasons for denying the proposal, including strong disapproval by California’s Department of Education, pointing out the proposed new district would be 50% Caucasian.
“It would effectively create an isolated and less diverse, lower population of diverse learners,” said Kim Pattillo Brownson.
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“It became painfully obvious that a core element of this new district would be exclusion,” said Northgate High School Teacher Meg Honey.
Honey spoke against the proposal at Wednesday’s hearing, noting it would cut out two of the area's most diverse schools.
She hopes the decision means the community can finally move on and work to make the current district better for all students.
