SOAR and Schools

Re: “Oxnard District’s Plan for New School Dealt Setback,” Nov. 16.

A very strange thing happened at the most recent meeting of the Local Agency Formation Commission. The LAFCO commissioners, unswayed by the pleas of school district and parent representatives, declined to allow the annexation of 10 acres to the city of Oxnard for a neighborhood elementary school.

Many of the parents present were farm workers pleading to have farmland next to their home annexed for a school. This was a logical request, since there is no other city land near their home for a school, and their children are being bused around the city due to school overcrowding.

LAFCO suggested that a school site be found somewhere else in the city, as if a neighborhood school was not important.

The implication was that it was more important to keep that 10 acres in farming than allow children to have a school near their homes.

If this is how some people are interpreting the SOAR [Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources] initiative, they have completely missed the intention of the good people who voted for it.

There is no appeal to this vote.

Sadly, this is an appointed board with a tremendous amount of power. Members are appointed by elected officials.

Boards need to be regulated by the voting public and their decisions, especially decisions that ultimately deal with the well-being of children, must be scrutinized very carefully.

If you are as unhappy as I am, please contact your elected officials and let them know of your displeasure. I have. When we take actions that in the end punish children and their parents, we need to question why a government board wants to be this cruel.

JOHN V. MCGARRY

Oxnard