School board ignoring real numbers on what’s best use of bond funds for Burnett
Dear Editor,
This is in response to the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s decision to use 11% of the Measure G funds to renovate the existing Burnett Elementary School campus in northern Morgan Hill into a use other than an Elementary School.
We are a group of concerned neighbors and community members. Morgan Hill Unified School District is being very short-sighted and not considering the near future needs of the Northern Morgan Hill area.
Currently there are 216 homes in the Capriano development just across the street from Burnett Elementary. Within the next 18 months there will be 108 more homes added to Capriano for a total of 324. Other developments that are approved and expected to be start construction within 18 to 24 months are 45 homes east of the school, 16 homes west of the school and 14 homes at Llagas and Wright avenues. Once just the currently approved homes are completed, there will be 397 homes within 1 to 2 miles of the Burnett campus.
In order to estimate the number of potential students that would be attending Burnett Elementary, we conducted a survey of neighbors to arrive at a sampling data. We were able to survey 87 homes, and we found:
n 13% have high school aged children in the MHUSD
n 11% have middle school aged children in the MHUSD
n 34% have K-6 school aged children in the MHUSD
n 26% have pre-k children that will, in the next 1-3 years be in the district
n Only 16% of households have children in private schools
Based on this data, we are able to estimate an average of 1.6 children per household. When it is applied to the projected growth outlined above in the northern Morgan Hill area over the next 1 to 3 years, it clearly demonstrates the desperate need for a neighborhood elementary school. Assuming that roughly 34% of the kids living in those 397 homes will be in kindergarten to 6th grade, that gives us 219 students who would be eligible to attend Burnett. This number grows by another 67 students when the soon to be approved developments at Monterey Road, Cochrane Road and Dougherty Avenue are included.
If we go back to look at the population of Burnett School in relation to the developed homes at the time it was closed in 2009, you will find 172 homes and a population of 333 students at Burnett. This leads us to estimate an average of 1.9 children per household were attending Burnett. If we apply this estimate to the aforementioned growth in the surrounding community, we would see over 340 kindergarten – 6th grade students eligible for enrollment at Burnett Elementary. In addition, if a Pre-kindergarten class was added, the number of students could climb dramatically to 600 students.
The most fiscally sound decision looking at the forward development and greater need of services in the northern Morgan Hill community is to reopen Burnett Elementary School. Instead the over taxing of our other elementary schools is selected, which is truly unfair to the teachers, staff, students and families.
MHUSD intends to use 11% of the total $198 million dollars of Measure G funds, which are to be divided and used on all 14 campuses, to upgrade and repair the existing Burnett campus. While we appreciate and applaud the achievements of Central Continuation High School, we do not believe that the conversion of the district’s largest campus (11 acres) to service one of its smallest populations is a prudent decision.
We believe there are many other options the district could explore to accommodate the 60 projected additional Central High students. The district has a golden opportunity to modernize Burnett Elementary and re-open it as the shining beacon of high quality elementary school education. Our children deserve a community elementary school. We call upon the Board of Trustees to reach out to the community and work with us on real solutions aimed at helping the children of north Morgan Hill.
For more information or comment, please email:
re*********************@gm***.com
Or join our cause on Facebook: www.facebook.com/reopenburnettelementary.
Robin Benzanson, Morgan Hill, on behalf of the Action to ReOpen Burnett Elementary group
