MOORPARK : Board, Council to Meet--Separately

The Moorpark school board--invited to a meeting with the City Council to try to resolve a two-year dispute over the sale of a school--agreed to meet but not in the same room.

Board President Patty Waters said the district is willing to negotiate but not at a joint session.

“What we want is five board members in one room and five council members in another, with our written proposals presented to them by our attorney, and they respond through their attorney.”

The school district and the city have battled over the downtown school property for more than two years, and each agency has sued the other. The district wants to develop the property with high-density housing, while the city contends that such development would bring too much traffic to the area.

“It would be suicide for the school district to go into an open meeting with the city with the current lawsuits,” Waters said.

Councilwoman Eloise Brown said she was astonished when she heard the district’s newest proposal.

“My thinking right now is that we send another letter to them asking for a joint meeting. They most certainly couldn’t have read the first one. I say, let’s go through this exercise again.”