It’s late morning on a Friday and a silence hangs over Cabrillo Elementary. Patricie Wilson, the elementary school assistant, is in the front office assessing a sick child. Other K-4 students, their colorful backpacks hanging uniformly on hooks outside buildings, are in class. In the library, staff and parents, some from other schools in the Point Loma Cluster, sit somber-faced around a table. They are brainstorming ideas to keep Cabrillo, one of the oldest elementary schools in the district, from the chopping block. “The pace and the sacrifice that we are being asked to make doesn’t make sense for a fluid and seamless transition,” said Principal Nestor Suarez. “But we’re not alone. The entire Point Loma Cluster is asking if the district is making the right decision.” Kelly Touhill, a teacher at Cabrillo for 16 years, comes out of the library talking about questions for the district. The group’s list of concerns includes lack of transparency and information from the district, transportation impact and the legalities of using Proposition S money for other than it is intended. If the school closes, its Prop. S funds would be shifted elsewhere, according to a written statement from the district. Also, what would become of the six-acre site, which sits next to a city recreation center? Touhill wonders if “there’s a public land grab for profit.” Suarez said there’s no giving up. “We’re going to keep talking,” he said. “We’re going to hold the district accountable by turning every rock and asking every question.” Cabrillo is the most under capacity of the 10 schools in the cluster at more than 67 percent, yet has the highest cost per pupil at more than $5,436. There are 239 students living in Cabrillo’s boundary. Of the 202 students enrolled, 106 are residents within the boundary, 45 are from elsewhere in the cluster and 51 are non-residents from outside the cluster. Cabrillo has been honored by the San Diego Unified School District as a Military Partner of the Year and more than half of its students are from military families. “Our families carry a heavy burden with parents in harm’s way,” Suarez said. “They need a sense of safety. [Closing the school] is the last thing these kids need.” Back in the office, Suarez and Wilson talk about the school’s history and its location in the neighborhood, historically known as Roseville. The area was named after Louis Rose, a pioneer developer. Wilson pulls out a binder with a black-and-white photo of a classroom, dated June 6, 1906. When the school had its 100-year anniversary celebration, people in the community were able to point to family members in the photo, she said. Indeed, the school has long and strong community ties. In his youth, John DeBeck, 80, a five-term school board member who represented the schools of San Diego’s beach communities, walked down a then-unpaved Talbot Street to go to school at Cabrillo Elementary.