MAILBAG - Nov. 1, 2007

Closed schools too valuable to be lost

I am writing in response to Celia Jaffe’s commentary in the Oct. 18 Independent (“Fate of sites isn’t taken lightly”). Through her words and descriptions, Celia talks primarily to the readers who have not been following the school board’s recent movements closely. She leads one to believe that we, as residents, misunderstand the intentions of the school board. She says in her article the school board “has invited proposals for sale, lease or trade on four school properties not in current public school use.” Yet, she writes, “ there is no plan to sell the four district properties.”

If there is indeed no plan to sell the four school sites, then please stop the red-flagging and marking off of the school properties. Kettler was closed two years ago by the school board yet the board also turned away potential lessors once the property was vacant. All of the potential lease income from these tenants was lost.

The properties of Kettler, LeBard, Burke and Gisler are invaluable to our community. Kettler’s fields are used by a girls’ softball league. Burke and Gisler currently house local private schools, which add diversity to our community. Sports leagues and educational opportunities for our children occupy all four school sites.

The recent fires have been tragic for those who have lost homes and land surrounding their homes and neighborhoods. We have these four school sites including the land and fields as precious resources for our Huntington Beach community. It is one thing to lose your resources because of Mother Nature. How tragic it would be for us to have these resources taken away by our own school board and handed to developers.

On this topic, the school board has a choice. If there is indeed no plan to sell the four school sites, please choose to pass on all proposals you have received. Please preserve our precious resources of land, playing fields and school sites for our community of Huntington Beach.

Hilery Copeland

School board needs to weigh all options

Regarding the letter “School board should support private schools” from “Citizens For Saving Huntington Christian School (Oct. 11):” Attempting to spin the HBCSD board into anti-Christians and accusing them of betraying “fellow educators” is, to use your own word, disgraceful.

The HBCSD is an excellent district. The majority of the district schools are Blue Ribbon winners. These schools consistently prove themselves with test scores to be the best of the best in the state. It is run by educators who care about the kids in the district and get results while overseen by this school board.

You also need to know you are not saving the taxpayers anything by not attending local schools and may even be contributing to the district’s lack of funding, causing them to seek relief by possibly selling properties. Why? Because by living within the district and not sending your child(ren) to these excellent city schools, the school district receives zero. It’s called ADA (Average Daily Attendance).

You ask, “Shouldn’t the board have loyalty to these other schools which are helping the school district in the worthy goal of educating the community’s children?” The board’s loyalty must lie with the children they are elected to serve, which would be the children attending the schools they govern, not children in private schools.

You should also know, the board (all five members) will be reviewing proposals for sale, lease or trade. Not just sale. The true split of proponents for the possible sale of property is not 3-2 as stated in your letter, it is 4-1 if you look at past board sessions and comments. The three-member vote you are referring to is the vote not to rescind the lease termination letters to HCS and BCS.

The community should know that money from a sale cannot be used for programs, books or teachers, and can only be used for maintenance or capital improvements.

The board has stated it would use the proceeds from a sale of properties to move the current Maintenance, Operations and Transportation yard from the Smith/Dwyer site, where it has been for years and years, to another location. They have stated the amount of land they would need to accomplish this goal and the city has said it cannot be accommodated.

The district also wishes to move or modernize the district office currently housed at the LeBard site. It has been neglected for years due to lack of funding and is in desperate need of repair.

The loss of open space for the gain of a new office building is hardly a fair trade to the community.

The board has a duty to do what is right for the students of the district and the citizens of the community. They should approve the proposed long-term leases to both Huntington Christian and Brethren Christian schools, thereby leaving those properties status quo and increasing their lease income. They should negotiate only with the city of Huntington Beach for the Kettler and LeBard properties, keeping these sites as open space and use the funds to either move or modernize the district office and set some funds aside so the new office does not fall into disrepair for lack of funding. Moving the district office to the newly modernized and uninhabited Kettler site is just one option.

As the board walks down the path of decision making, the members of AYSO, SHB girls’ softball, Seaview Little League, Huntington Beach Tomorrow and Save HB Community have met to join forces which represents more than 3,000 families in southeast Huntington Beach. We believe in preserving these school sites as open space for Huntington Beach to use today as well as tomorrow. We have promised to take whatever means necessary to achieve our belief. Information on joining us can be found at www.saveHBcommunity.com.

Crystal Kerins

President, Huntington Beach Tomorrow

Priority should be student education

The Huntington Beach School District priorities need to be thought out carefully. The No. 1 duty of the district is to provide the best possible education for children. That means smaller class sizes, the best teachers, school supplies, books, computers, etc.

The profits from the sale of four school campuses apparently cannot be used for any of the above. Therefore, the district trustees need to channel their energies in another direction. Instead of selling our irreplaceable open space which serves the community in so many ways, trustees need to work on getting direct classroom benefits.

Instead of building a new district office, they should work on ways of finding funding to directly benefit the students. A new district office is very low on the priority list for improving our students’ education. Why sell off La Bard, which has a lovely park-like setting, to build a new office — and where? Is the district planning to buy land elsewhere for a new office? Why not save millions of dollars by simply remodeling the La Bard district office?

It seems to us, the taxpayers, that the trustees are looking at this in a very selfish way. They want a new office. The higher priority should be to get the students out of the uncomfortable portable classrooms.

Why sell off school campuses to build a bus lot? Use the campuses we have to park the buses. We know the vast majority of our kids never ride a bus to school because most parents drive their kids to school, or the kids walk and bike.

A new bus lot, like a new district office will not do much to improve the quality of education.

By using their time and energy on these pro-development schemes which will do much damage to our community, our district officials are only helping developers get richer.

Are there developers behind the scenes pushing for these school sales?

The district should work first for the most important goal: to improve our students’ education.

MARINKA HORACK

HUNTINGTON BEACH