Moorpark Board Won’t Allow Voters to Rule on School’s Fate

A Moorpark school board member’s proposal to put the fate of the city’s 69-year-old high school in the hands of voters this November was defeated Tuesday.

The motion by Moorpark Unified School District board member Cynthia Hubbard-Dow to put an advisory measure on the ballot asking voters to indicate whether they would want the 29-acre school property leased or sold received no support from her four board colleagues.

The citywide vote on the high school, closed this month, would not have been binding on the board.

Board members opposed to the vote said that passage by voters earlier this month of Proposition 73 would prohibit the district from mailing campaign materials explaining their position.

The board’s decision earlier this year to either lease or sell Moorpark Memorial High School drew strong criticism from community members who want the school saved. The school district received about $15 million in state funds to build a larger high school, which is scheduled to open in the fall in the growing southern portion of the city.

Board members have said the district, which has about 4,200 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade, cannot afford to keep the downtown school property.

Members of the Committee to Save Moorpark High School have said they oppose large-scale development of the high school property because they fear traffic congestion will increase in surrounding neighborhoods.

Committee members also say the high school site should be preserved because of its historical significance. Moorpark Memorial was the first high school in eastern Ventura County.

The controversy has sparked a recall effort against four of the five board members. The committee has targeted trustees Tom Baldwin, Patty Waters, Lynda Kira and Carla Robertson.

The citizens committee has about three months to collect the signatures of about 2,400 registered Moorpark voters for each of the targeted board members before a recall election can be called.