After years of negotiations, protests, and board meetings, Glen Speck Elementary School is moving into a brand new 17th Street campus, albeit temporarily.

Paso Robles High School sophomore Moeni Basurto said her younger brother was excited to learn that he and his classmates would finally be able to attend a proper school. Basurto told New Times that her brother had been waiting since he started kindergarten to move from a temporary facility back to the school's original campus.

• Photo Courtesy Of Paso Robles Joint Unified School District
• NEW SCHOOL, HAPPY STUDENTS After teaching in portable classrooms for the past three years, Glen Speck teachers and students get to finally move into the brand-new 17th Street campus for the next two years.

"He was actually happy, it's like finally, I got my school—but only for two years, and then he got sad because it was only two years," Basurto said. "I feel like they've been waiting for this so long, that I think that they finally deserve [the school]. They [the board] should just take into consideration those kids that started off there and let them have the school."

According to Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Curt DuBost, Glen Speck students and staff will be moving into the new campus over winter break and will remain there for two years until the 36th Street campus is finished. Then, students at Glen Speck and Georgia Brown will switch, where Glen Speck will move to the smaller, renovated 36th Street campus and Georgia Brown will take over the 17th Street campus.

The school board made that decision earlier this year after protests to a plan that would have kept Glen Speck at the temporary school site until renovation at the 36th Street campus was finished. While Speck originally expected to move back into 17th Street permanently, enrollment numbers and a decision to keep Georgia Brown open changed that. The campus on 36th Street is smaller than the newly constructed campus on 17th Street, and Glen Speck is expected to have fewer students enrolled than Georgia Brown over the next several years.

"The thinking is that they need to be permitted to attend the site they helped to plan and expected to occupy permanently at least during the 18 months of construction. It was also considered fundamentally unfair if the Georgia Brown staff and students did not have to occupy the temp site at all, while the stay of Speck at the temp site was extended," DuBost wrote in an email. "The prospect that Speck staff and students would never be able to occupy the new school they had been planning to attend also weighed heavily on the board."

The grand opening of Glen Speck Elementary on 17th Street took place on Nov. 16, featuring a ribbon cutting ceremony and a tour of the facility. Constructed with funds from 2016's Measure M, the new school features 12 new classrooms, a library, learning stairs, and the renovation of four existing classroom buildings. After teaching in portable classrooms for the past three years, Glen Speck teachers Terri Pearl and Rita Koski say that they're both excited and grateful for any bit of time they can have in the new school.

"I think everybody would like to be back at Glen Speck's original home, Bauer Speck, and that's what was promised to the community," Koski said. "It was a surprise to learn that we would be going to 36th Street, but in the meantime, we're really thrilled to be back at the new campus where kids can have an equitable playground to use and beautiful classrooms. I think they've given up a lot of years to be in a portable school, and I think it's equitable to be in a traditional school." Δ