Oxnard School Sites

The Oxnard School District is holding town meetings to sell a bad plan to the people, giving misleading information and making an unethical attempt to scare the people into believing that unless the district gets its way there will be frightening consequences.

The district is insisting on building a school outside city limits on farmland next to pesticide use, where 1,000 students would have to be bused. There are no neighborhoods surrounding this site to add students without being bused--and this is unlikely to change for 20 years because of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR).

Schools are needed in the central part of Oxnard, where four schools have been eliminated. This is where young families can afford to live. There are nine families with very young children on my block. This is where the young children are and where they will have to be bused from to the pesticide sites.

Educationally, it is very valuable for families to be involved with their children’s schools. This cannot happen when families live so far from a school built outside the city.

School district officials give misleading information to the public at these meetings about potential school sites in the central city. For example, they say the old St. John’s Hospital site is too small. It has 10.4 acres with a 2.9-acre adjacent parcel; the existing schools in the district are 6.72 to 12 acres. They say the site is too narrow, but it is the same width as Curren. They say the site is too close to the airport but it is not much closer than McAuliff or Ritchen, two very recently built schools.

The top three sites chosen by the school district happen to be owned by the same land development company and promoted by a member of the company who worked closely with the district to pass the bond issue. Is paying off a helper more important that the education of our children?

I urge the school district to stop the misinformation and honestly examine the sites within the central city.

JANE TOLMACH

Oxnard