Discovery Museum No Site for High School

* On behalf of Discovery Museum of Orange County, I want to respond to Supt. Al Mijares’ opinion in the April 11 Times: “Santa Ana Has a Perfect Spot for New School.”

He wrote, “It is clear that construction of a new high school on a parcel owned by the district, located at Centennial Regional Park and the Nature Center, offers the best alternative for taxpayers, students and educators.”

Representatives of the school district continuously promote this concept by camouflaging the fact that they want to build a three-story high school in the heart of the Discovery Museum, piercing its existence in Orange County. The Nature Center is Discovery Museum.

It is clear that taking away an innovative educational resource is not the “best choice.”

Green space, parks and natural habitat are rare commodities in Santa Ana. With a need for more schools, building anything on open space is a Band-Aid solution.

According to the district’s master plan, by 2008, student overcrowding will only have gotten worse. What in the neighborhoods will be taken before all the needed schools are built? Are schools becoming our parks of the future? Will our neighborhoods become our schools of the future?

Taxpayers, through expenditures by the school district and the city, have spent millions to create this museum. Over 40,000 visitors, most children, come to the museum annually.

As museum board members and staff meet with district personnel, architects and volunteers, our responsibility to the public is to make certain the integrity of the museum is not impacted.

ROBERT ESCALANTE

Discovery Museum

Board of Directors

Santa Ana