TUSD has chosen to close Brichta as an effort to lessen their $17 million deficit. TUSD's plan is to merge Brichta with Menlo Park and move to the Maxwell Middle School campus. Maxwell will be forced to relocate their students among other TUSD middle schools. According to TUSD, Brichta/Menlo Park will become a k-6 and eventually a k-8 school over the next few years. In the mean time, the two buildings that were once Brichta and Menlo Park will be abandoned. TUSD has not stated their intentions for the abandoned property, but the neighborhoods that hold those properties will be concerned about vandalism, perhaps the school becoming a charter school with unfamiliar families sending their children there, or leveling of the structure to build something else. Parents who do not support these changes will pull their child(ren) out of the merger and will send them to a different school, whether it is a charter school or a school in another school district. The loss of these families will add to TUSD's deficit because with each child, a stipend ~ $4,800 is attached to the school it attends. These families and will also reconsider donating their tax credits to the Brichta/Menlo Park merger.  Please indicate the # of children that will not be attending and the grade they will enter in 2013.

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