The Sacramento City Unified School District needs to cut costs.  Enrollment is down, state funding is down and the budget deficit … is way up.  Meanwhile, officials say they simply have too many schools compared to the number of students.
 
So the district is proposing to close four elementary schools and one charter high school.  Officials say they’ve suggested those schools because their enrollments are small and other facilities are nearby.  But the PTA president at Alice Birney Elementary, Vernadette Foster, says the district is using old data.
 
Foster: “It sounds like they’re closing us on information that’s not all true. So what we want them to do is have correct facts before they even think about closing us down.” 
 
Nearly 1400 students currently attend the five schools.  That’s about three percent of the district’s total enrollment.
 
Nothing is set in stone yet.  Officials are holding meetings at each school currently on the closure list – starting Wednesday.  And the board is expected to make its final decisions later this month.