GFN wrote on Mar 7, 2008 7:23 AM:I love the question by Jim Gibson: "I'm still confused why we now have a third final guaranteed maximum price," said board President Jim Gibson. "Halfway through the project and we're still negotiating a price?"

Gibson asked Caperton (Donna Caperton, the district's chief business officer) if she believed the individuals involved in planning and negotiation were incompetent or if they "lied or misrepresented the facts." Trustee David Hubbard jumped in to say that the issue should be discussed in closed session as a personnel issue.
Therein lies your problem: The school districts take your tax money; asks for more in bonds, and won't disclose what really is behind this fiasco. I want to know what happened or I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR ANOTHER BOND ISSUE AGAIN.

foolednomore wrote on Mar 7, 2008 8:53 AM:So GFN will never vote for a bond again. Question is when did GFN ever vote for a bond in the first place?

My family and I spent over twenty years working with other pro-community groups trying to get a school bond passed in Vista. We were opposed time and time again by a tiny group of malcontents. Because of Prop 13's two thirds majority need for bonds passage, the will of the majority was thwarted on three previous bonds before one was passed.

The children in Vista spent those twenty years in shabby over crowded schools. The high schools were especially hard hit with overcrowding. None of my children all of whom graduated from Vista High School had the opportunity to go to a high school that was not grossly overcrowded.

With David Hubbard voting with the two person school board minority who are anti-public education, the new high school opening has been delayed until after the November election. There is a very real chance that the anti-intellectual school board dual may be joined by a third "hater" of public schools on the VUSD board this November. With a three person anti-public education majority, the newly elected school board members can deep six the hard work of so many good and decent people of the VUSD. They can and likely will vote to cancel the high schools permanently. The “haters” will celebrate their victory over the “evil” government schools and those of us who care about the future of all children will weep.

The good and decent people of VUSD have lost a crucial battle with this board vote to “delay” the opening of the high school. But if the good people of VUSD lose in November all our work for decades could be lost.

to foolednomore wrote on Mar 7, 2008 11:47 AM:At least get your facts right - obviously you were not at the Board meeting last night. The vote to delay the high schools was unanimous, 5-0. And, as President Gibson said at the previous meeting two weeks ago, they cannot possibly cancel the high schools, because far too much has been invested. They cannot open the high schools this year because VUSD's budget is showing an $8 million deficit without the extra million or two to open the schools, and a woman from the County was there letting the members know that if they don't provide a balanced budget by July 1, 2008 the county will start taking over VUSD's financial decisions. There's a citizens' budget committee trying to deal with these issues. Are you on it, doing your part?

Steph wrote on Mar 7, 2008 7:18 PM:This article was front page local today. Why isn't it anywhere to be found without the search engine online? I am sure a lot of people have things to say about the board meeting.

Observer wrote on Mar 7, 2008 9:09 PM:To foolednomore I say you are undoubtedly closely tied to VTA. Persons who opposed this project were and are not malcontents nor haters of public education. They are only sensible taxpayers who can see the poorly run VUSD building of schools. The high school is in one of the most dangerous, edge of the district physically possible. For a magnet school this is inappropriate which makes it all the more evident a comprehensive high school was planned all the time. Oceanside offered more than one site to VUSD and they would'nt even take the time to look at it. Surely, 5 entities that lodged lawsuits couldn't have the malcontent education hater logo.

Samuel wrote on Mar 8, 2008 2:45 PM:It really gets frustrating listening to the same comments repeated time after time. At the 3-6-08 Board meeting several people spoke saying that the overcrowding at the two high schools is so bad that the students seldom have time to fight the crowd to go the restroom during the day. Most added that only about 25% of the students have the time to eat lunch. I agree that the single lunch period makes it very difficult to accomplish those needed tasks. So, why do the students and their parents put up with it? There is no reason not to have multiple lunch periods so to allow the students to eat as their parents do at their jobs. If the students and their parents would organize and insist that the District institute staggered lunch breaks I believe that the District would listen to you. My high school had about 1250 students in three grades and either 4 or 5 lunch periods. I simply do not understand why parents allow this serious mistreatment of their children.

FrustratedAgain! wrote on Mar 9, 2008 10:46 AM:Too many personal agendas are being bandied about concerning the new magnet high school. The bond was passed years ago. The longer the delays, the more it costs! ANY relief for the two comprehensive high schools is better than what is happening now. Vista High School and Rancho Buena Vista High School were made to have approx. 2000 students - NOT the current 3300!! This money is earmarked and ready. There is no need for discussion. The lawsuits against this school are over and they lost because they were ill-founded. The community needs to start supporting the kids and stop trying to push their personal beliefs because the public school "didn't meet their needs". The fact is that public education is full of highly qualified, well intentioned teachers who are underpaid and overworked. When is the last time one of the board members tried to meet the needs of 38 teenagers simultaneously -in a class that is only big enough to comfortably hold 30?!? With the ever growing demands of this technology based society, the teachers are at the forefront. It's time to give support and stop thinking,” What is this going to cost me?" The answer is nothing. The money is waiting and the longer it takes to finish, the more it's going to cost. Stop pointing fingers and start lending a hand.

to FrustratedAgain wrote on Mar 10, 2008 10:04 AM:The money is NOT waiting. Facts from Thursday's Board meeting: this article's price "between $43 million and $62 million" is for the Edge contractor finishing the project; this is in addition to what VUSD has already spent on the land, modulars, grading, etc. They actually have about $49 million left, so can't do whatever the $62 million is for, but they can pick and choose and build something. The problem comes in when they try for staffing, supplies, textbooks, electricity...the $1.2 million number, because they CANNOT use bond money for this, it has to come out of the operating budget, which is already $8.2 million in deficit, due to unexpected loss of State money. It is a really sad situation, but VUSD is between a "rock and a hard place".

Frustrated Too wrote on Mar 10, 2008 10:25 AM:I'm now looking into homeschooling because I refuse to send my middle schooler to Vista High.

Dumping Mission Vista is the last thing that should have been considered.

Meanwhile the cuts in admin staff were aggregiously low compared to teaching staff. Its very obvious that the concerns of VUSD are not related to children.

to Frustrated Too wrote on Mar 10, 2008 11:59 AM:Many people would agree with you that Mission Vista should not have been delayed, but in fairness to the board, this year's freshmen could have been accomodated last Thursday if David Hubbard's suggestion to start "feeder programs" at VHS and RBHS had been heeded. These kids would have "belonged" to Mission Vista, and transferred there as soon as the school was ready. The Mission Vista principal didn't think he could adjust his planned curriculum to accommodate this; it was "all or nothing", so nothing. The Vista magnet middle school principal was willing to try to bring his cost for expansion down to practically nothing by increasing class size, so he's getting his chance. Believe me, the board tried very hard, and they are going ahead with the construction just in case the State relents and provides more funding.