4-8-04 The Acton-Agua Dulce School Board met and decided on new elementary school boundaries to assign an equal number of students to Meadowlark and Agua Dulce Schools.
Previously the school board decided to close Acton School, which is the largest elementary school in the district, to save money. The district's budget has been severely impacted by the cost of renting portable buildings for Vasquez High School and servicing a 7 million dollar COP (bond) that was issued without voter approval.
For example, the canvas covered pipe barn, which masquerades as a gym, cost the school district over $400,000 to build the pad and erect the pipe barn. Additionally, they have rented the pipe barn at $60,000 a year, which makes the total cost of the “gym” over a million dollars for 10 years.
To save about $100,000 the district voted to increase class size from 20 to 30+ in K and 3rd grades and take all of the elementary students north of the freeway, to the Agua Dulce School. Also, all of the students south of the freeway, and west of 42nd Street, will also go to Agua Dulce. This means the parents, who were driving their kids to school in Acton, will now have to drive 10 to 20 miles a day each way to Agua Dulce. The bus ride is estimated to be between an hour to an hour and thirty minutes each way.
More than fifty parents turned out to protest the decision, even though the board did not publish the map until the meeting started. Many stated that they were going to pull their kids out of school and go to home schooling, before they allowed their kids to spend three hours a day on buses. It will also have severe negative effects on community groups, such as 4-H and the Scouts, to mention a few.
As a side note, both Agua Dulce and Meadowlark are excellent schools with equal academic standards. The issues revolve solely around transportation. This board needs to save the $100,000 necessary to keep Acton school open, keep class size reduction in K and 3rd, and eliminate this crazed busing plan.
The obvious savings are the rent for the portables at Vasquez and the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on competitive sports. It is far more important that our students be educated in local schools instead of sending a football team at great cost to play against an unknown high school. These sports can be funded by the booster clubs and by grants. The good of over a 1000 students to have a life long learning experience far exceed the benefits of competitive sports.
The proposed 2004-2005 school calendar was rejected as proposed by the union. It would have moved, for the first time in 50+ years, the school starting date to before labor day, which would interfere with the kids' 4-H exhibits at the fair.
It probably was not what the union wanted, but as a lot of the teachers are not from our community they just don't know the community's needs. After several parents protested, the board rejected the calendar and asked the union to reconsider it based on this new information.
This board is now listening to the community, as compared to the imperial Dusick and Bandaras board.