Wrong Site for a School

Although SOAR does allow school districts to build new campuses in farming areas where other development would be restricted, doing so is a bad idea for several reasons. Potential health risks to students and staff is only one of them.

The Oxnard School District is plowing full speed ahead with its plan to plant an elementary school on 14 acres between Rice and Rose avenues, south of Wooley Road. The site is surrounded on three sides by fields that grow sod,, produce and strawberries year-round.

Before November, when Ventura County voters resoundingly passed the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) measures that require public approval before farmland can be rezoned for development, that entire block of the Oxnard Plain seemed destined to become residential neighborhoods. The passage of SOAR has changed that destiny. Now, that area is likely to remain in greenbelt agriculture for many years.

Putting aside the disputed--although we believe legitimate--concerns about chemical exposure from pesticides and fertilizers, the school district must answer these questions:

* Is it right to flout the clear wishes of the 73% of Oxnard voters who endorsed SOAR? To comply with state law, SOAR did give school districts a legal right to build on farmland. But nearly three of every four Oxnard voters said leave the farms alone, and the Oxnard School District should heed that message.

* Is it wise to build a school so far from the population it is intended to serve that nearly all of its students would need to be bused in every day? Why put a school on the edge of town where housing within walking distance is unlikely ever to be built? Neighborhood schools foster involved parents and stronger communities.

* With Ventura County, its cities and the powerful Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) struggling to adjust to SOAR’s limits, does it make sense to propose building on a greenbelt site that lies outside Oxnard’s city limits, even outside its sphere of influence, where it would first need to be annexed to both the city and a water district--annexations LAFCO is not at all certain to approve?

The school district has brushed aside such concerns, focusing solely on its belief that it must start building schools immediately to accommodate growing demand. It has rejected a number of other sites, citing reasons that frankly do not seem any more legitimate than the objections to its preferred site. Some district officials have gone so far as to suggest that anyone who opposes building on this particular site is willing to sacrifice the health and education of Oxnard’s children to advance other agendas.

We believe they have it exactly backward. The health and education of Oxnard’s children can only be well served if future schools are built in places that fit with the area’s commendable long-term trends and goals.

Saving the fertile farms of the Oxnard Plain isn’t just some fad among Volvo-driving tree huggers. It is crucial to the future of the area’s lifestyle and economy--and no one benefits more directly than the farm workers whose children make up much of the district’s clientele. What’s the value of building a school that contributes to wiping out the livelihood of those who would attend?

And yes, many laws restrict which farm chemicals can be applied and when and how and how much. We agree that most of the farmers whose land abuts school grounds make stringent efforts to minimize off-site exposure and risk. But mistakes are made; teachers and students at existing schools have reported health problems. Simple common sense dictates that building in a location likely to endanger both the school’s occupants and the farmers’ efficiency (if not future) should be a last resort.

And we believe there are other options.

To buy time, we encourage the district to look at the possibility of shifting all of its sixth-graders from its overcrowded elementary schools to its three junior high schools, where there is available space. This shift is working well in other Ventura County districts. Then, we encourage a closer look at the so-called Southwest Site (south of Wooley Road and west of Victoria Avenue) or Northwest Site (near the northwest corner of Patterson and Gonzales roads) or a site northwest of the intersection of Vineyard Avenue and Ventura Road.

None of these sites is flawless but each of them is within city limits and has the potential to one day be surrounded by homes.

Members of the public will have their next opportunity to comment on May 26, when the school trustees hold a hearing on the proposed site’s environmental impact report.

We respect the Oxnard School District for the difficulty of its challenge and for its desire to do the right thing for the parents and children it serves. We urge the trustees to take a wider view and give more serious consideration to the factors of health risk and the SOAR mandate.

Healthy kids plus a healthy economy equal a goal worth making extra effort to achieve.