To repeat Glen Webb
’s introduction in his column on the opinion page in the Feb. 11
edtion of The Times, “I am an individual citizen, a parent of three
girls who graduated from Live Oak, and a member of the community,
my views are my own.
EDITOR:

To repeat Glen Webb’s introduction in his column on the opinion page in the Feb. 11 edtion of The Times, “I am an individual citizen, a parent of three girls who graduated from Live Oak, and a member of the community, my views are my own.

We must build the new Sobrato High School as soon as possible. One difference between Glen Webb’s views and mine is the difference between a five-year look at the future and a 10-to 20-year look.

My memory goes back to 1967. The community and the School District recognized the need for a new Live Oak High School. The bond issue of November 1967 failed to win a two-thirds majority by 27 voters. At that time the projected cost of a new Live Oak was $2 million. Over the next four years the district tried and failed to pass four more bond issues. Each of the five times a majority supported the proposal but not by the needed two-thirds.

Eventually, Superintendent Lyle Silverson found a clause in the state Education Code that required only a simple majority, if the financing was by lease purchase. The new Live Oak opened in 1975 at a cost of $6 million. In eight years the cost had tripled.

You can be assured that if Sobrato is not built by 2008, its cost will go up by at least 50 percent.

During the eight-year delay in building Live Oak, every single grade level in the district was – at one time or another – on double session. A new high school affects the loading of all schools, kindergarten through 12. This could happen again.

How long do you believe the Coyote Valley will stay unpopulated? Eventually the whole valley – from Metcalf road through Burnett Avenue – will be covered with houses, warehouses, and factories. There is enough space to accommodate 30,000 homes, producing 1.5 school age children per house. That is potentially 45,000 children from kindergarten through grade 12.

Compare that to the present population of the Morgan Hill School District. I am not saying that this will happen all at once, but I am saying it is going to happen. Building Sobrato High School now is the way to begin preparing for the future.

William R. Keig,

Former assistant superintendent of MHUSD

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