Opposition to Juan Soria School Site

Re “Site for Juan Soria School,” Ventura County letters, Jan. 21.

Susan Alvarez, past Oxnard Elementary school board president writes that 20 parents testified at the Local Agency Formation Commission hearing in favor of building the Juan Soria School at the Emerson Street site. What is significant is what she doesn’t write.

No one can deny that the immigrant parents who testified came to this country so that they and their children could have a better life. Many testified in Spanish. Most probably don’t read a newspaper. Their source of information is the propaganda fomented by the Oxnard Elementary School District. They have been told that the Emerson site is the only place their school can be built, that the site is safe, that there are people who don’t want them to have a school.

They are not told that the issue of chemical drift was never fully addressed by the environmental impact statement or the school board. These parents were bused to the LAFCO hearing compliments of the Oxnard school district (and the taxpayer). They were obviously told to speak at the hearing to further the administration’s spin.

The Oxnard school board, the administration and the City Council continue to ignore the truth--that children going to school next to active agricultural areas are continually threatened with exposure to dangerous chemicals. Because most of these poisons are particularly harmful to children, many are under review by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Parents who are fieldworkers and know from experience that the chemicals are dangerous assume that they have to risk their children’s health in order to have a school. Their ignorance, naivete and trust are being used to promote the Oxnard agenda.

Are the rest of us willing to support a government that allows the poisoning of children? Absolutely not. We are people who care enough to arm ourselves with the facts and stop the sort of government that is taking root in Oxnard. We ask you to support the efforts of Supervisor John Flynn in this matter. His actions come from the heart as a responsible citizen of Oxnard and Ventura County.

MARCIA CUMMINGS

President, Safe Air For Everyone

Oxnard

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Three years ago, when Supervisor John Flynn, Jane Tolmach and I were taken by the Oxnard Elementary School District to view and comment on the Emerson Street site for the Juan Soria School, we said no.

We looked at the site again recently. The eucalyptus trees seem more bedraggled and the land is terraced and gouged. We hear that the district has spent $200,000 to learn that the soil was contaminated and $185,600 to have some of the soil removed. For some unfathomable reason the district just won’t give up.

You have to ask: Why would intelligent people focus on just one site and spend $1,314,063 (as of November) even when the siting committee they formed found 30 other possible sites?

A year or so ago, the week before the school board chose that location, several community leaders and I met with each member one by one. We repeated our opinion, emphasizing that Lemonwood School could handle all the children in that area. The students to Emerson would have to be bused to it, they admitted.

One by one, we took them to the gorgeous, big Mandalay Bay site, pointed out that the city’s plans will place residences all around a school there (two sides already have homes). That’s where a school is needed. We also named several other appropriate locations. But the board voted 3 to 2 to ignore the problems, shot down all the other locations we suggested and stubbornly voted for Emerson.

Now, despite rejection by the Local Agency Formation Commission and potential pesticide hazards, the district persists in trying to persuade the Oxnard City Council to approve connection to utility services.

The district’s other new school, Thurgood Marshall Elementary, is moving forward smoothly. It will fill the needs and be located where the students live all around it in the growing northwest community. Admirably, the district rebuilt Ramona Elementary School, reopened Elm Street School and plans to change the three intermediate schools to year-round education. The district really is handling the crunch for space.

Perhaps soon, board members will realize their unnatural focus on an inappropriate site and be open to their constituents’ suggestions. If not, Lord help us.

JEAN HARRIS

Oxnard

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I am one of the many more than “only four people” plus Supervisor John Flynn who Susan Alvarez claims are in opposition to the Emerson Street site for the proposed Juan Soria School.

My family has farmed the property next to the proposed site for move than 110 years. Over the past three years, along with what I believe to be a great majority of the community, I have tried to tell the school district trustees that this site is not proper for a school. It is in the greenbelt, it is outside the city of Oxnard, it is land covered by the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiative that supposedly protects farmland.

All of my efforts have been ignored. Even worse, the district has misrepresented to the state regulatory body that I have made an agreement to use buffer zones and controlled spraying of pesticides. No one from the district has even asked me to consider such an agreement.

When I wrote to the trustees about the misrepresentation, no one cared to respond to my letter. This is consistent with the single-minded desire of the trustees to buy the Emerson site from the developer; no matter that there are other locations within the city of Oxnard that should be considered--sites nearer homes, sites publicly owned.

JOSEPH H. MAULHARDT

Oxnard