7-28-04 - The whole grading disaster was just another ploy to build a permanent high school on a site that is totally unsuitable. On the Master Plan and on the EIR, the baseball field is in the northeast corner.
The EIR clearly states that the school intends to do absolutely nothing in the flood plain or the flood way. LA County approved the drainage diagrams that were part of the EIR. It’s the school’s intention to put portables where the baseball field was to be and to illegally build in the flood plain.
Here is another group damaged by the school. The parents and kids who donated the money, organized the grading contractor to contribute his work, and had nothing but positive motives to help the kids. Apparently, this has been planned for a long time, although the plans had not been presented to the school board or the community.
The principal of Vasquez High School told this group that the plans had been approved and they could start grading. It is assumed that Pinkston received approval from Dr. Wagner and her consultants. Unfortunately, the plans had not been approved, nor had they even applied for permits for the grading.
Then apparently, the school failed to notify this group of the written "Stop Work Order", exposing these well meaning people and the grading contractor to potential criminal charges, because they ignored the County order.
The community must support this group of parents, who were only trying to do good, by demanding that the school reimburse them for the money they have expended and reimburse the grading contractor for the fair market value of his donated services.
We need to find land not in a flood way. An obvious site is the vacant, adjacent property to the east owned by William Spears, who has previously indicated his support for the kids in the district. If we ask him for the use of the land, and provide him the necessary indemnity, we hope he will consider this support for the kids and the community.
Meanwhile the school needs to work in public, and stop using the kids as pawns in their single-minded objective of building a school on a defective piece of property.
It has been estimated that it could cost the school up to one million dollars to fix the damage they caused.