Guest View

On June 27,  the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board voted yes to go forward with remediation on the Peet Road/Borello property, where the district plans to build a new elementary school. The vote was four in favor, three against. On June 28, an article was written in the MH Times that did not reflect some key concerns highlighted during the meeting that questioned the successful monitoring of the safe levels of the toxin dieldrin during the projected August remediation.I did an extensive research into the district’s Removal Action Plan (RAW), as I was concerned about several factors, namely: the placement of only three or four air monitoring units described; the environment unique to Morgan Hill, primarily our winds and gusts; the 24-hour turnaround for the actual results; and exceeding the fence line “stop work” number of .05 mg/m3.I spent a majority of my career working with designing/analyzing measurement and testing equipment. I saw a disconnect in the amount of air monitoring units proposed in the RAW, coupled with the lack of information about the accuracy of these units. These two factors alone are concerning. The RAW indicated prevailing winds in that region of Morgan Hill as 3 mph. This is incorrect; I have personally been monitoring winds and gusts in Morgan Hill on key meteorological sites for 60 days. The actual winds and gusts are in the area of 9 to 16 mph.I then called Thermo Fisher, the maker of the measuring unit. The technical expert indicated the accuracy is +/- 5 percent based on constant calibration (manual) of the temperature and humidity; this information was not indicated in the district’s RAW. The Thermo Fisher expert then indicated the diameter of the air chamber is only 1 inch wide by 3 inches long. This expert then asked the length and width of the area being measured. I replied, nine acres, and he suggested 91 units are needed to accomplish a 95 percent confidence level. I asked if we can reduce the number of units and he said you can halve the 91 units to 40 at a distance of about 5 feet apart, but the confidence/success level will be reduced. This information was not included in the RAW report.At the June 27 board meeting, I asked the consultant of the Peet Road project, with a Department Of Substances Control representative on the phone via teleconference, if he knew the accuracy of these measuring units and the answer was NO. I asked if he knew the diameter of the air chamber, and the answer again was NO.I expressed my concerns that the RAW is only recommending one-tenth of the air monitoring that the experts say we need to protect the surrounding community with a high degree of success. The consultant and DTSC were unable to answer my questions regarding the wind/gust factors relative to when dirt dries and becomes airborne given temperatures above 80 degrees.The district’s RAW raised many other questions that need answering including why the soil wasn’t retested in the area that encompasses the proposed grassy area that students will be playing on. This planned grassy/field area is almost 56 percent of the Borello property.Our children will be exposed to TOXINS on a daily basis unless DTSC initiates further testing to be absolutely sure of the level of toxicity/Dieldrin in this quadrant of the land. I have a duty of care as a Trustee, I voted not to proceed.Gino Borgioli is a Morgan Hill Unified School District Trustee. He was elected to the board of education in 2014. He can be reached at [email protected].

On Jan. 21, 2017, I joined what are now estimated to be 800,000 other people at the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. (and an estimated four million fellow marchers around the U.S. and the globe). The results of the Presidential election sunk my hopes for this great country, and inspired personal fear as a woman, a person of Jewish descent, as well as for the many marginalized folks whose rights Donald Trump staked his campaign on overturning.I felt alternating bouts of rage and despair that we elected a president who is on record making abusive and derogatory statements about women, people of color and the disabled, as well as bashing our venerated intelligence agencies, to name just a few. Not to mention he has no prior experience in any political office.At first, I was more nervous than excited—I feared reprisal from Trump supporters; I feared that in this frustrated and angry time, a tightly-wound lone shooter might express his dissent in bullets.Fortunately, that was not the case. If the counter-protesters were there, I never saw them. I was packed densely into the center of the National Mall, near Independence and Fourth Streets, with a direct view of the nation’s Capitol. My friend and I arrived by 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and by 8:30, you could no longer see streets in any direction—just bodies upon bodies carrying clever signs announcing their fears and concerns, many bedecked in the now-iconic pink hats.For five hours I stood and listened to fierce, passionate, committed speakers and artists plead for the rights of women, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, and against a Muslim registry and a wall at the Mexican border. Speakers included Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Michael Moore, Ashley Judd, Alicia Keys, Van Jones, California Sen. Kamala Davis, D.C. Mayor Muriel Brown, the mothers of slain black children and so many more activists, politicians and entertainers.Despite this enormous outpouring of energy and effort around the country, people are criticizing the movement. What did you want to say? What purpose did it have? Why can’t you all just shut up and accept things as they are?Last I checked, this country is still a democracy, albeit one that’s under threat. The Trump administration has already made clear it is hostile to media criticism. It has made steps to defund women’s health and climate science, and to repeal healthcare. Protest and demonstration are our Constitutional rights and one of the many ways we can create change.Change comes when we the people put pressure on our leaders to let them know what matters to us. As President Trump’s loss of the popular vote by nearly three million votes reveals, he doesn’t speak for many of us.The Women’s March was a fierce rallying cry as we launch into the beginning of many battles: for women’s bodily autonomy, for civil rights, for a decent world where we take care of our own and stay in good stead with the rest of the world.I’ll be bringing the same fierce energy to my own community in the days to come.Jordan Rosenfeld is a local freelance writer and author of seven books. She can be contacted at [email protected].