EDITOR: The Morgan Hill School Board met in a special session to
award construction bids to begin structural work for Sobrato High
School on Tuesday, June 3. The board instead voted 4-3 to delay the
awarding of bids.
EDITOR:
The Morgan Hill School Board met in a special session to award construction bids to begin structural work for Sobrato High School on Tuesday, June 3. The board instead voted 4-3 to delay the awarding of bids.
That vote was reported as the headline of the June 6 issue of The Times. Having been one of less than 10 members of the audience at that meeting, I was surprised to see what The Times did not report. What was anticipated to be a 15-minute rubber stamp special meeting, turned into a 2.5-hour discussion during which several of our trustees rose to the level of fiscal responsibility that this community deserves.
Shelle Thomas, Jan Masuda, Amina Khemici and Mike Hickey are to be commended for making a stand based both on principle and the fiscal realities that are facing the district. The fundamental reason for delaying the project was the inability to guarantee the completion of Live Oak renovation within the building funds available to the district. This very obvious fact was somehow not reported in The Times article, and yet it is fundamental to both the public trust and expectations regarding the completion of our current high school.
Instead, The Times choose to report on the impact of the delay to the opening of Sobrato in 2004 – leaving a very inaccurate impression that the Live Oak staff is anxious to have Sobrato opened. Instead, this meeting had pivotal implications on the widening chasm between the vision according to district administration and reality according to district trustees.
It was indeed a landmark meeting. Five separate trustees conceded that opening Sobrato in 2004 is somewhere between unlikely and a pipe dream. And Jan Masuda based her dissent on the fact that completing Live Oak must be guaranteed within the budget numbers or she is ready to “pull the plug” on Sobrato.
It is clear that district administration is desperately trying to hold onto a 2004 opening despite the fact that a 15-month timetable escalates costs. The district leadership is willing to strap the building fund to save face, while caring little about leaving Live Oak incomplete as the price for seeing Sobrato finished.
Thank God our trustees earned the public trust. Remember Thomas, Masuda, Hickey, and Khemici at the next election. And come on Morgan Hill Times … recognize the story that you missed.
Glen Webb,
Live Oak High School
