Couple Target Simi Trustees Over Growth

A local couple Friday outlined their plans for a political action committee that can take on the school board trustees they fault for failing to address the district’s rapid growth.

Ron Robinson and his wife Marybeth Jacobsen said they are sending three-page letters to 3,000 residents with complaints about the board.

“This is a board that refuses to partner with anybody,” said Robinson, who is starting a group, called Renew Simi Schools, with his wife. . “And the ones that suffer are the kids.”

At the new Wood Ranch Elementary School, what the couple view as inadequate computer technology, skimpy after-school care and cramped classroom space have sparked their primary concerns. Although the school has yet to open, seven portable classrooms have already been installed.

Their letter also contends the district must change school boundaries, raise $24 million to reopen two schools, and find $22 million for desperately needed repairs throughout the district.

“What we really want to see is long-range planning and fiscal responsibility,” Jacobsen said.

The couple plan to hold a meeting with other residents Sept. 15.

Officials Friday said they shared the couple’s concerns.

“We’re not sitting at opposite ends of the table here,” school board President Janice DiFatta said.

An unexpected surge in enrollment has forced the need to reopen schools, make repairs and redraw boundaries, interim Supt. Kenneth Moffett said.

The boundary task is to be started after classes begin and will be finished by next fall, he said.

Officials said little could be done about the portable classrooms at Wood Ranch because the school was planned five years before the state required schools to cut class sizes. Technology is also a priority, they said. Although Wood Ranch will not have the equipment some parents had hoped for, they said it still will be wired for computer use.

The board did not want to give the new school--situated in an upper-income area--more than schools in less wealthy neighborhoods, Moffett said.

The difficulties of planning in a fast-changing district have been aggravated by the rapid turnover of Simi Valley superintendents. Since 1990, there have been four superintendents and three interim superintendents. DiFatta is confident that when new Supt. Joyce Mahdesian takes over Oct. 1, she will be able to stabilize the district.

“She’s got a proven track record of pulling groups together,” DiFatta said.