Parents criticize lack of input on new resource center at Oakmont
Oakmont Outdoor School parent Juliet Kane after speaking during public comment at the June 19 CUSD Board of Education meeting. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo
by Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com
In a June 17 email to the Oakmont Outdoor School community, Claremont Unified School District Superintendent Jim Elsasser announced plans to use grant funds to establish a student and family resource center at the school, taking many by surprise.
Elsasser concluded the email by acknowledging the disconnect.
“We understand limited information about the Student and Family Resource Center initially reached some community members last week which led to questions and concerns. I apologize for not communicating this decision earlier.”
News of the planned resource center spurred public comment at the June 19 board meeting.
“The entire situation has made our family question whether Oakmont is still the right place for our child, not because of the staff, teachers or students, because of the district leadership and the way that it disregards the community and strips resources from the very students it’s claiming to support,” said Oakmont parent Stephen Zeller. “We are demanding transparency, and we demand involvement.”
The center, located in Oakmont’s former art room, will be funded by a $29,413 Tri-City Mental Health Services’ Student Services Act Sub-Grant, which CUSD received June 3. The district is not supplementing the project financially, said CUSD spokesperson Elaine Kong. The new center will be a “confidential, non-threatening environment where CUSD students and families can receive direct support services,” according to an email from Elsasser. Planned services include mental health counseling, therapeutic art activities, support for CUSD foster, homeless and recently arrived immigrant families, a computer lab, and a therapeutic garden. It will serve as space for Oakmont school councils, parent workshops, and individualized education program meetings. The center will be overseen by CUSD Senior Liaison for Family and Youth Services Rosa Leong.
Kong explained the project’s timeline in an email: “The opportunity to apply for this grant emerged earlier this year. District staff attended a Tri-City Mental Health Bidder’s Conference on February 20, 2025, to gather more information about the final round of available funding. CUSD submitted its grant application on March 31, 2025, with the site to be determined. Oakmont was selected in late May after reviewing available and appropriate spaces.”
Andrew Soto, a rising Stanford University sophomore and beneficiary of CUSD foster and youth family services, spoke in support of the plan at the board meeting.
“A student and family resource center would mean everything to a future student like me,” Soto said. It would provide “a safe space, someone to talk to, and somewhere to study when things at home were unstable.”
Oakmont’s former art room was selected as a site for the center “after the grant was awarded on June 3rd due to the ability to have a separate entrance and separation from the rest of the school campus,” Elsasser wrote.
Art instruction will continue at Oakmont in another classroom. Other CUSD elementary schools do not have dedicated art rooms, including Sumner Danbury, Sycamore, and Mountain View. Other schools use a rolling art cart of supplies and teach the subject in students’ home rooms.
“I urge you to reconsider transferring students out, gutting Oakmont Elementary School [and] removing their art room,” Oakmont parent Kelly Kane said at the board meeting. “The point is the money has been spent, and it could have been spent publicly rather than the cloak and dagger of the day after school lets out. There’s no reason the resource center couldn’t be in this giant building,” he added, referring to the Richard S. Kirkendall Education Center, site of Board of Education meetings.
Work, led by the district’s facilities, maintenance, and operations team, began June 13. “There is no general contractor leading construction, as this is not a major renovation project,” Kong wrote.
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