EDITOR: I would like to commend the Oak Leaf staff for
eloquently expressing their concerns on various important issues
this year. Live Oak High
’s newspaper staff this year has several passionate individuals
who really tell it like it is.
EDITOR:
I would like to commend the Oak Leaf staff for eloquently expressing their concerns on various important issues this year. Live Oak High’s newspaper staff this year has several passionate individuals who really tell it like it is. What struck me in last Friday’s issue of the paper were the multiple articles about the sad state of Live Oak.
The news stories about the school’s health and standards, suffering from lack of budget and budgetary concerns indicate that the future is no better, and the editorial on maintenance troubles all paint a grim picture of the high school that represents Morgan Hill.
How shameful that in a town where the median price of a home is $500,000, our high school is half remodeled, a poorly maintained embarrassment, and worse yet, a health hazard to our children. Even the one positive note in the editorial – that the students are pleased with the overhangs that keep them dry – is a myth. My own two children who attend there were soaked from head to toe during the rainy days because the overhangs don’t extend to the 600 and 700 buildings or out to the numerous portable buildings that serve as classrooms.
Everyone at Live Oak is trying to make the best of a horrible environment – Nancy Serigstad is a phenomenal principal, the teaching and coaching staff is incredibly dedicated, and the custodial staff does the best they can with the time and resources they are given to work with. It was the poor decisions at the district level that have left this school an inexcusably blighted area in the community.
As they pour money into a new high school, they have all but forgotten their promises to Live Oak. Only after several negative articles in local newspapers, plus many impassioned speakers at the board meetings, have they begun to do rudimentary band-aid improvements to the mold-filled boy’s locker room (which was supposed to be completely remodeled) and other areas in dire need of a major overhaul.
How can Sobrato Principal Rich Knapp even begin to talk about equality between the two schools when Live Oak is in such poor shape? He insists that Sobrato must have a pool if Live Oak does – then shouldn’t Live Oak have all new buildings and furniture as well? The worst part is that a second $1 million pool will cost us another $150,000 a year out of the general fund to maintain. Think how many custodians and groundskeepers that could pay for to keep our existing facilities in decent condition.
Come to think of it, why are we spending so much money on athletic facilities when the board is considering eliminating all sports? Do they really think that the community will pull together to raise the money for a full sports programs at both high schools? This town isn’t big enough to support two schools with donations, and besides, most of the people with a great deal of money send their kids to private school.
Kids telling the awful truth about their school – it broke my heart to read it – and if the board members read it, they should think long and hard about where they’re spending their money and how they’re cheating Live Oak.
The conditions there “do not provide an environment conducive to learning,” writes Steve Warren.
“Parents have expressed worry in the learning environment and how the disheartening atmosphere affects their children,” writes Alison Mutz.
To make matters worse, they are doing nothing to prepare for the increased enrollment at Live Oak next year except to paint a couple of old science rooms.
“Serigstad asks for equity and parity between Live Oak’s and Sobrato’s programs,” writes Andrew Bucek.
Unfortunately, the district is determined to make Sobrato a gem while Live Oak remains a pebble. All it would take is a little creativity to free up more money for Live Oak’s renovations.
For example, instead of spending nearly $1 million on a kitchen at Sobrato, why not finally remodel the food services building at Live Oak that currently services the entire district, and service Sobrato from there as well? Or better yet, don’t remodel or build, and instead, use an outside supplier for the food served to the students (even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has suggested that districts look for outside agencies to provide some of their services in order to save money).
They plan on spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology at Sobrato while the majority of Live Oak’s computers sit in various stages of disrepair. This district obviously doesn’t understand the concept of “total cost of ownership” – whether it’s computers, a new football field or basic classrooms. If there is no money to maintain them, why buy, seed or build them?
Oak Leaf reporter Kelly Tatarakis sums it up well when she writes, “Overall, Live Oak High School (and apparently the rest of the district) is on the brink of overstraining its resources.” If a high school student can figure that out, why can’t the school board?
Brooke Bailey,
Morgan Hill
