Past and present board members of Liberty Union High School District said in a recent election forum that the district should stick with the site it has chosen for another high school.
Incumbents Holly Hartman and David Dal Porto, along with challenger Ray Valverde, agreed that Delta Road and Sellers Avenue in Brentwood is the best place to build a fourth high school.
The trio is vying for two four-year seats on the school board.
The televised forum will air multiple times on Comcast Channel 24 at 8 p.m. Oct. 12.
Although she acknowledged critics' concerns about the campus' proximity to railroad tracks and the danger that might pose, Hartman noted that another track runs near Liberty High School and at least one elementary school in downtown Brentwood.
It's more important to tend to students' education needs, she said, noting that the district needs another high school to accommodate all the students who already are in the lower grades and eventually will need those classrooms.
Finding another site large enough to put a high school would be difficult, added Dal Porto, who pointed out that the district considered seven locations before settling on this one.
"We're not going to make every person happy," he said. "Ultimately, it needs to be built."
Valverde, who previously has served on the board, said he was a trustee when the district settled on the location. It was by far the best option, he said, noting that Advertisementthe school board didn't want to appropriate private property by exercising its right of eminent domain.
What's more, the public had a chance to speak up about this site before the school board decided the matter, Valverde said.
Asked about the three-story parking garage the city plans to build next to Liberty High School for its new civic center — a project that has generated criticism for the congestion, traffic dangers and noise it might create — Dal Porto said the school district will do its best to help the city minimize those problems, possibly by persuading the city to build when school's not in session.
He also intends to remind the city's police chief of his comments at a public hearing on the project, at which he said Chief Mark Evenson promised to keep an eye out for problems in the parking garage such as loitering and crime.
"We're going to hold his feet to the fire," he said.
Valverde expressed a wish that the city would share details of its plans and give the district a chance to comment on them.
As for the superintendent's recent recommendation that the board put Liberty and Heritage high schools on the so-called A/B block schedule utilized at Freedom High, none of the candidates indicated whether he or she would follow that advice.
They said only that all three sites should follow a common format, offering classes with the same frequency and duration so students can transfer from one campus to another more easily.
Hartman said that a standardized schedule also would save the district money by enabling full-time instructors to divide their time between two campuses that each need someone to teach a few class sections.
As it is, the district must hire a full-time instructor for each site because the different schedules don't mesh.
0 comments:
Post a Comment