Why the War Against Miraleste?

It becomes increasingly difficult to understand why the Peninsula school board continues its holy war against Miraleste High School. What does it take for a good school to stay open these days?

I am looking on from the other side of the peninsula, but from where I write, I see an excellent school, with students that are so outstanding they consistently win nationwide scholastic contests in science and other fields, they continually score as one of the top-rated schools in California, if not the nation, in aptitude tests and they are tops in sports, if one can believe local newspapers.

Further, almost the entire east side has risen and fought like a mother bear protecting its cub to keep Miraleste High open. We’re talking thousands of east-side residents . . . students, parents, teachers and concerned activists . . . all fighting to keep the school open. And yet a tiny band of bureaucrats on the school board can find no good way to prevent closure of this fine school.

Since when can local bureaucrats ignore the wishes of an entire community? By what right? What great power and overreaching vision does it take to close a school in the face of thousands of peninsula residents and teachers and school kids? Why must bean counters and accountants always decide that the bottom line is always a dollar bill?

School-based management is the new wave of systematic school administration that is sweeping the country . . . from Miami to New York to Chicago to Los Angeles. Thousands of schools nationwide and hundreds of schools in L.A. are now embarking on this new phase of school management that will give teachers and parents and schools and communities more control and power over their schooling and future.

The PVUSD is moving backward in time and backward in management technology by its stubborn stand to close Miraleste. The school board should now make the effort to do what they should have done in the first place. They must sit down with east-side community leaders . . . residents, parents, teachers, students and school activists . . . and work out a reasonable solution that everyone can live with.

The draft environmental impact report covering closure of Miraleste High makes it clear that closure will have profound negative impacts on the entire peninsula . . . all the more reason to find a way to keep the school open. Come on, school board, get down and start talking and negotiating with the good people on the east side. Who knows . . . you may love the result!

GAR GOODSON

Palos Verdes Estates