A small group of students and parents from the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District held a protest to stop school closures before the district’s last board meeting of the school year on Thursday, May 9.

The gathering of 14 protesters initially set up their rally at Steinmetz Park in Hacienda Heights where they expressed discontent with the district’s school reconfiguration decision last fall. They sang classic Mexican folk songs such as “Ciento Lindo” and “De Colores,” a call back to the United Farm Workers Union’s battle for fair wages and workers’ rights.

Christina Gomez, a mother of a student from Bixby elementary, expressed her frustration with the district, saying she didn’t feel that the board was willing to listen to the families most affected by school closures.

“I don’t really know how to feel right now, every time I’ve gone to a board meeting – I stopped going because I didn’t see the point,” Gomez said. “I feel like I wasn’t being heard, I feel like I wasn’t given the chance to be heard.”

Bixby Elementary is one of the four district schools permanently closing at the end of this school year.

“I feel like there’s this unspoken divide within the district,” Gomez added. “I know a lot of parents at Bixby feel defeated, they feel like the school didn’t do anything for them, the district didn’t do anything for them.”

At around 6:30 p.m., the group began their mile-long march down Wedgeworth Drive to the district’s regularly scheduled board meeting, which was held at Glen A. Wilson High School, picketing in the parking lot until the meeting began later that evening.

The district made its decision in November to completely close four elementary schools while converting two others from K-8 schools into middle schools only; dozens of affected families have been attending board meetings to voice their opposition to reconfiguration.

In that time, the meetings have become tense with stakeholders who are both in favor and opposed to reconfiguration complaining that the situation has made meetings feel both unsafe and unproductive.

On at least four occasions, Board President Christine Salazar declared an unlawful assembly, utilizing both district police and deputies from the LA County Sheriffs, to remove the community from the boardroom as tensions boiled over.

Due to time constraints because of a late start, the meeting was adjourned prior to completion of the agenda and a continuance meeting was held on May 13.

The reconfiguration plan will move forward at the end of the school year. The district will hold its next regularly scheduled board meeting on June 13, 2024, at 6:30 p.m.