Environmental Report on Soria Site Accepted

The school board has voted to proceed with acquiring a Lemonwood site proposed for the Juan Laguna Soria Elementary School, despite safety concerns expressed by several parents and community members at a public hearing.

After listening to a lengthy explanation Wednesday night of an environmental impact report on the proposed site, the trustees accepted the report as complete and technically accurate. Trustees Dorothie Sterling, Susan Alvarez and Francisco Dominguez voted in favor; Ray Gonzalez and Arthur Joe Lopez voted against.

“Safety was my issue,” Gonzalez said. “Nobody could really say that it was going to be healthy for kids to be there.”

The preferred site for the Oxnard Elementary School District’s 20th campus is a sod field in Oxnard’s southeast corner. The campus would be surrounded on three sides by strawberry fields.

Gonzalez said he doesn’t oppose building a school on the site, but wanted to see more research, both on the land and on the effect of potential pesticide exposure.

Local environmentalists, farmers and a doctor told the board that the methyl bromide fumigant used on strawberries could affect the health of students and staff.

But Dominguez stressed that the district faces a growing student population, creating a tremendous need for new schools. In addition to Juan Laguna Soria, the district plans to build a second elementary school by 2003.

If the district cannot find sites for new schools, school officials said, it may have to dismantle class-size reduction efforts or hold double sessions in which half of the students attend classes in the morning and half in the afternoon.

The district has scheduled another public hearing at 7 p.m. June 23 at Lemonwood School to certify the final environmental report and to determine the final site for Soria Elementary.