VUSD needs a small high school now!

By Stephen "Doc" Guffanti

Your Vista school board plans to build a $100 million high school in Bonsall along a dangerous stretch of Highway 76. It will be the largest and most expensive high school in the district's history, and the district is attempting to build it at the very time when its high school enrollment is dropping rapidly. By August 2008, when the district plans to open this Taj Mahal, enrollment will have fallen to 6,700. The school will be empty and the taxpayers will be left to foot the bill.

By the time the district completes the mega campus with its sports megaplex that it is planning to open for operation in 2008, it will no longer need such a large facility. Worse, the district has no assurance that it will be able to build on the property that it has acquired. It faces multiple litigation that will be expensive to contest, and that may kill or delay the project. The district may also be forced to pay more for the land than it can afford. In short, this is a roll of the dice that is not in the interest of taxpayers or students.

Currently, the district has high school enrollment of more than 8,000. However, by 2008, this enrollment will drop to only 6,700. By the time the district completes its $100 million Taj Mahal, it will have no need for it.

Unfortunately, the taxpayers in the district will have to pay the price in property taxes for years to come.

At the moment, the district's two main high schools are acutely overcrowded, and need relief now. The district claims to want to launch two specialty high schools on its planned mega campus. These schools, one focusing on science and technology, and the other on media and art, would be schools of choice. The district would not be able to force any students to attend them. Given the inconvenience of the Bonsall location, how many parents will want to make the daily drive to what many will view as an experimental specialty high school?

For two years, the district has had the means to open either or both of these schools on a small basis and on a small campus. The advantage of doing this is obvious. The schools need to start small so that staff will be able to work through the challenges that all new concept schools face. Over time, staff will fine tune its program, and will be better prepared to grow. By opening the schools now, the district will be able to provide immediate relief from acute overcrowding to its two main high schools.

Unfortunately, it takes three votes on the board to make policy.

Since joining the Vista school board in 2000, I have heard the repeated chants that the district was overcrowded, particularly on it high schools campuses. The board majority claims that it can do nothing about this. It's always someone else's fault. We are now over $18 million over budget and have had to scrap two schools to come close to building this $100 million Bonsall boondogle.

This November, the community will have the opportunity to pass judgment on the current board leadership, inasmuch as two of the proponents of the Bonsall boondoggle are seeking reelection.