Candidate for
Board Member; Pleasant Valley Elementary School District

When I tell people I am running for the PVSD Board of Trustees, the first question I am asked is, "How are you voting on Measure U?"

I usually reply that I have one vote like everyone else and that I don't believe unfication should be a significant part of the PVSD board.

Regardless if someone is for or against Measure U, I don't believe monies meant for education in the PVSD should be spent for a cause such as unification. I do believe, philisophically, that unification is in the best longterm interests of our children. But I am not willing to spend the meager amounts of money we have for the children we are educating today on unification.

I am a member of the PVSD Unification Task Force because if Measure U passes, the PVSD board will cease to function June 30 of next year. I have asked to be on the task force's facilities committee because I believe that determining the best way to eventually housing our students is the biggest issue we will face if Measure U passes.

But when it comes to our K-8 district, I believe all monies for unification should come from citizens in our community who wish to see Camarillo have a K-12 district. We as citizens should be willing to support this cause if it is indeed what we believe to be the best for our children.

But I don't beleive that spending significant amounts of money on an issue such as unfification is in the best interests of the children we are educating today.

GATE Symposium for third-graders was cut after last year and the fourth-grade symposium may be cut after this year. GATE is a program we can not afford to stop investing in. This is just one example.

The district has cut programs over the years because of budget contraints, although I am not convinced the correct things were cut.

Last year, the PVSD board determined that three schools needed to be closed to save the district more than $1 million. Instead, two were closed -- Los Senderos and Los Altos. A third closure, thankfully, was not followed through on.

Although closing Los Altos because the city does not have the students to support three middle schools was needed, I do not think closing Los Senderos Open School was in the best interest of our children, our district or our city.

For example, I believe interim Superintendent Dr. Moffett said the district would save about $700,000 by closing just two schools, which was done. This summer, the district eliminated busing except where it is mandated by law. This created a savings of $400,000 according to the district.

Why was reducing busing not put on the table last spring when we were closing schools? Could we not have closed Los Altos and cut busing back and kept Los Senderos?

Instead, parents were forced for form a charter school, CAPE, and more than 300 of our Camarillo kids attend this fine school. This has resulted in the state funding for these students being removed from the PVSD.

I believe if parents had been involved in the school closure issue much sooner, a better solution would have been achieved. One of my primary goals is provide better on-going communication with the community about the major issues facing our district, especially those with longterm implications.

For example, I believe about 1,500 housing units are being planned for the Springville corridor between Las Posas and Central Avenue. These are planned to be primarilly entry-level housing, which means younger families with youg children. An elementary school cannot be built in this area because of its proximity to the Camarillo Airport. Where will these children go to school? Las Posas cannot handle this influx as well as the likely increase in children from the rebuilt Navy housing project next to the school.

Springville may be 5-10 years away, but we need to be talking about the implications on our district now.

Thank you for your time.

Rick Hazeltine