Parents Seek Voice on School Facilities

As the Simi Valley Unified School District board prepares to map its facilities needs into the next decade, parents said they want to take part.

Ron Robinson, co-founder of a Simi Valley group of parents called Simi CARES, was one of several residents who told the board Tuesday night about the overwhelming growth that the district faces in the coming years as a result of new housing developments.

With seven portable classrooms already at Wood Ranch Elementary School, which opened in September, parents urged the board to address the growth problem by the beginning of the next school year. And they said they were eager to help.

“Simply cramming more portables onto the school site . . . is unacceptable to your constituents,” said Marybeth Jacobsen, Robinson’s wife and a member of Simi CARES.

Parents cited what they called a shaky history of parental involvement with similar decisions and asked the school district to include parents on a task force.

The comments came as the board voted to hire Government Financial Strategies of Sacramento to project enrollment over the next 10 years.

In addition, the study will determine the future impact of residential development on schools and recommend an appropriate cap on developer fees, which the district levies on new commercial and residential development.

The $25,000 study, estimated to take six weeks, was one of two the board approved Tuesday. The other, which will cost the district a similar amount, includes an analysis of the district budget.