Lang Ranch School Compromise Lauded

We were deeply disturbed by the article “Plan Not Elementary for Parents” by Elaine McKearn, published Jan. 11. While we are sure school board member McKearn’s intentions are honorable, her concerns are unfounded.

Like others who reside in the neighborhood surrounding Lang Ranch Elementary School, we applaud the decision of the Conejo Valley Unified School District board members to include our children in the school’s boundaries. The board received hundreds of letters from our neighborhood expressing concern regarding the previous boundaries that were proposed by Sean Corrigan.

It was extremely refreshing to see our school board consider and listen to the voices of the families who would be directly affected by their decision.

We recognize the hard work undertaken by the board in response to our concerns and believe that the compromise plan designating Lang Ranch Elementary a K-5 school in order to accommodate the entire surrounding neighborhood was not “hastily” made, but a valid and just one. The sole dissenting vote was that of McKearn, who expressed the same reservations she repeated in her article.

It is worth noting that the Dec. 9 meeting McKearn refers to was overflowing with concerned parents from the neighborhood surrounding Lang Ranch Elementary School. An overwhelming majority of those parents expressed support for the current plan, feeling victorious and privileged to be part of the decision-making process. Under no circumstances does the majority of these families feel like “second-class citizens,” as McKearn states.

We understand that McKearn strongly supports the concept of allowing our neighborhood children to attend their neighborhood school, and for that we salute her. However, her unwillingness to accept the only compromise that appears to satisfy the concerns of the majority of those affected, will only serve to jeopardize the board’s attempts to allow our children to walk to their neighborhood school.

SELENE and SCOTT CARR

Parents of Geoffrey, Class of 2011,

and Courtney, Class of 2014

Thousand Oaks

* Elaine McKearn’s article failed to mention the main reason for reconfiguring Lang Ranch Elementary School from K-6 to K-5. By making it K-5, all the students who live within walking distance may now attend the Lang Ranch school.

This recommendation was rock solid. Keeping Lang as a K-6 school would have slammed the door on some students who live in that neighborhood.

Further, to call a 6-8 middle school program “another educational experiment” is inaccurate. Many districts in California have had this configuration for years, including Oak Park, Las Virgenes and Los Angeles Unified.

Although the board did not announce beforehand its intent to reconfigure Lang Ranch Elementary School, revisiting this decision on Jan. 13 was the correct action. The other four board members are to be applauded for putting forth a viable alternative that preserves the concept of the community school.

TIMOTHY STEPHENS

Westlake Village