Save Our Schools v. Barstow Unified School Dist. Bd. of Ed. CA4/2

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant and respondent, Barstow Unified School District Board of Education

(the District), approved closing two of its elementary schools, Thomson Elementary

School (Thomson) and Hinkley Elementary School (Hinkley), and transferring their

students to other district “receptor” schools. The District found that the school closures

and student transfers were exempt from environmental review under the California

Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.),1 because

they fell within CEQA’s categorical exemption for “minor additions” to schools

(§ 21080.18; Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15314 (Guidelines) [public school closures

resulting in “minor additions to existing schools . . . where the addition does not increase

original student capacity [i.e., enrollment capacity of a transferee school] by more than

25% or ten classrooms, whichever is less” are categorically exempt from CEQA]).

A citizens group, plaintiff and appellant, Save Our Schools (SOS), petitioned the

trial court for a writ of mandate setting aside the District’s resolutions approving the

closures and transfers and finding them exempt from CEQA. The petition was…