EDITOR: At the end of an article on Sobrato High School in the
Dec.19 edition, it was stated that Measure B
“also included money to build Barrett Elementary and renovate
the aging Live Oak High School.” The planned funds to build Barrett
did not come from Measure B.
EDITOR:
At the end of an article on Sobrato High School in the Dec.19 edition, it was stated that Measure B “also included money to build Barrett Elementary and renovate the aging Live Oak High School.” The planned funds to build Barrett did not come from Measure B.
I realize that Measure B was advertised as an enabler of the Barrett, Live Oak and Sobrato projects. In fact, to help pass the bond on the third round, teachers canvassed the district door-to-door with the message that without the bond for additional facilities at all grades, we would need year-round school. We were told that without the bond we could not meet the third-grade class size requirements of the state and would therefore lose some state funds. This line was used to push the bond projects that were not well supported 1999 and are still questioned by many as poor planning.
I am a member of the district’s bond oversight committee. When district administrators first laid out the funding sources for all of the projects they explained that money expected to be necessary to build Barrett had been in the bank for some time before the bond passed. Just do the math. How much was the bond? What’s the cost of each project? What are the other funding sources?
Why do I bring this up? With the money in hand, building Barrett sooner would have saved significant funds due to the extremely high construction cost of building Barrett at the peak of the construction boom. Without the campaign deception we would not have passed the bond and would have been able to push the district and School Board to developing a better plan.
For example, one modern full-service high school for all Morgan Hill School District students. A middle school in Morgan Hill large enough for all Morgan Hill middle school students. The district claimed we needed two high schools because the ideal school population is less than 1,500 students.
Plans for Sobrato have always included an option for 2,500 students – more deception. Clustering is easier to justify if a school is too small to provide full services. But that’s another topic – or is it?
Larry Arnett,
Morgan Hill
