EDITOR: Just in case you haven
’t heard, San Jose is planning to build a new self-contained
city just north of Morgan Hill in Coyote Valley. The plans are
scheduled to be completed no later then December 2005.
EDITOR:
Just in case you haven’t heard, San Jose is planning to build a new self-contained city just north of Morgan Hill in Coyote Valley. The plans are scheduled to be completed no later then December 2005.
No big deal? Not quite! Coyote Valley is planned to have 25,000 households and a population of 80,000 people living between Bailey Avenue and Palm. By any standard this will have a significant impact on the Morgan Hill and San Martin communities.
Here’s the shocker. The City of San Jose expects the Morgan Hill School District to build schools for the development of Coyote Valley. Let me connect the dots for you. In simple terms, the taxpayers in Morgan Hill and San Martin are going to pay for Coyote Valley school construction through the passage of construction bonds and higher tax assessments.
The expected population of 80,000 plus will more then double the current size of the district with an approximate addition of 15 new grade schools, three middle schools and two high schools.
Here are several facts that must be considered. Morgan Hill School District is not capable of addressing the challenge of this unprecedented plan for the following reasons:
MHSD is a rural district. Coyote Valley development will make it predominately an urban district.
The contracts for the superintendent and her three assistant superintendents have not been renewed. All members of the senior staff will be replaced by June 2005. MHSD will have a new superintendent in less then one year whose number one priority should be the reorganization of a failing district not building new schools for San Jose development of Coyote Valley.
There will be four new trustees elected in November. The remaining three trustees by November will have only 24 months of experience. The last three construction projects taken on by MHSD are between $30 million and $50 million over budget. Can you imagine what damage twenty more school construction projects could do?
The communities of Morgan Hill and San Martin have a very small window of opportunity to put a stop to this insanity. The longer we wait the greater the impact the new Coyote Valley voters will have on the south county. The balance of voting power in this district will shift to San Jose – like it or not.
Please ask the Morgan Hill trustees to place this issue on the November ballot. The trustees need to know that you want the district split before it’s too late.
Harlan Warthen, Morgan Hill
