Busing Yorba Linda School Students

The article “Foes in School Civil War Live to Fight Another Day” by Bill Billiter (Jan. 16) reported the facts as presented Jan. 15 in Sacramento at the Senate Education Committee hearing for Senate Bill 907.

This bill would allow the Yorba Linda Elementary School District (kindergarten through the eighth grade) to leave the Fullerton Unified High School District (ninth through 12th grades) and unify with the Placentia Unified School District (kindergarten through the 12th grade). What your reporter was unaware of were the untold issues--the issues Yorba Linda parents were not given the time to present during the hearing.

As one of these parent representatives for SB 907, I found our trip to Sacramento to be very frustrating. We followed the yellow brick road to Sacramento to see the wizards of the Senate Education Committee, hoping they would be sensitive to the needs of the children of Yorba Linda.

We had the heart to know this is an issue of common sense. Why should 907 Yorba Linda High School students spend the time and the taxpayers’ money to be bused several miles to a Fullerton School, passing up to three Placentia High Schools on the way?

We had the brains to know it is not fair for our Yorba Linda Elementary School District students to have additional programs and equipment cut year after year while the remaining 78% of our city is in the Placentia Unified School District already, blossoming in their “classroom of the future.”

Our elementary school children are suffering from a lack of funding because the Fullerton Unified district will not release us so that we can become part of a Unified (K-12) District. Unifying with Placentia would mean an additional $300 per student in grades K-8 and an increase in staffing and programs.

We had the courage to testify on behalf of the children of Yorba Linda, but the “wizards” did not have the time to hear our plea. Instead, they told us we should solve our own problems at home. (We’ve been trying for 24 years.) How dare we bother them with local issues! (Remember that come election time.)

And so the “wizards” sent us home with an order to negotiate for another three months. Do you suppose the Fullerton school district would melt if she were doused with water? She already has our ruby slippers.

CHRIS PARMENTER

Yorba Linda