Citizens Respond to School’s Closure
EDITOR ‘ S NOTE: The following four letters refer to the Palos Verdes Peninsula school board’s decision to close the Margate Intermediate School and reassign its students to the Malaga Cove and Ridgecrest campuses next fall. Trustees adopted revised attendance boundaries last week.
In trying to sell our community on the virtues of the Malaga Cove school and why it should not be closed, the school board seems to be in the real estate business when it states: “Malaga Cove school is a historic, architecturally distinguished and aesthetically pleasing school. It is located in the heart of old Palos Verdes. It is conveniently adjacent to Malaga Cove Shopping Center and other historic features of the community.”
If the school board is in the real estate business, it should hurry up and sell the Peninsula High School site, La Cresta Elementary and other property. The estimated $15 million from the high school land alone, if invested properly, would yield a return of $1 million to $2 million annually.
That makes far more sense than closing Margate to save $250,000 a year, while forcing parents and taxpayers to pay as much or more to transport children who formerly walked or biked to school.
MARY JANE SCHULTZ
Palos Verdes Estates
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