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As Dr Wagner in her continued effort to ignore the functions as required in the ED code for the Surplus Property Committee removed my name from the committee without board authorization she does not want my comment but here it is. She continues with her phony claim "As you also know, we have had significant difficulties meeting as a group for a number of reasons. At this point, it might be summed up as “irreconcilable differences”. She fails to conform with the brown act and has never allowed a single vote of the committee. Her view which she has publicly stated is to "remove anyone how does not agree with her" from the committee
Here is the proposed addenda she ignored Proposed agenda items for the 7-26-04 surplus property committee meeting.
The clearly stated purpose of the legislature in Code Section 17387 reproduced below demands community involvement in making any decision before the closure or other uses of surplus property. In fact this committee first section under the code requires the committee to determine the surplus property if any.
Dr. Wagner often repeated statement that the board has already determine what is surplus clearly violates state law As this committee's first job is to seek input from the community the first step is to bring the committee into conformity with the Brown Act. This requires the agenda is and meeting notices to be published.
I would propose the next meeting be scheduled in the evening when the public can attend it The first item for would be to a elect chair person and an assistant to run the meetings and. create minutes of the meeting to report to the community As this meeting and its related agenda has not been has not been published no action places at this meeting.
If we operate the rest of the 7-26-04 meeting as a steady session to determine potential uses for the Acton school and precisely which property is surplus in the district. That we adjourn to meeting to a date certain and submit the agenda the agenda to all three local papers to publish For reference have listed the entire educational code concerning this committee as opposed to the redacted version that the school has published.
CALIFORNIA CODES EDUCATION CODE SECTION 17387-17391
17387.It is the intent of the Legislature that leases entered into pursuant to this chapter provide for community involvement by attendance area at the district level. This community involvement should facilitate making the best possible judgments about the use of excess school facilities in each individual situation. It is the intent of the Legislature to have the community involved before decisions are made about school closure or the use of surplus space, thus avoiding community conflict and assuring building use that is compatible with the community's needs and desires.
17388.The governing board of any school district may, and the governing board of each school district, prior to the sale, lease, or rental of any excess real property, except rentals not exceeding 30 days, shall, appoint a district advisory committee to advise the governing board in the development of district wide policies and procedures governing the use or disposition of school buildings or space in school buildings which is not needed for school purposes.
17389.A school district advisory committee appointed pursuant to Section 17388 shall consist of not less than seven nor more than 11 members, and shall be representative of each of the following:
a) The ethnic, age group, and socioeconomic composition of the district.
(b) The business community, such as storeowners, managers, or supervisors.
(c) Landowners or renters, with preference to be given to representatives of neighborhood associations.
(d) Teachers. ( e) Administrators.
(f) Parents of students.
(g) Persons with expertise in environmental impact, legal contracts, building codes, and land use planning, including, but not limited to, knowledge of the zoning and other land use restrictions of the cities or cities and counties in which surplus space and real property is located.
17390.The school district advisory committee shall do all of the following:
(a) Review the projected school enrollment and other data as provided by the district to determine the amount of surplus space and real property.
(b) Establish a priority list of use of surplus space and real property that will be acceptable to the community.
(c) Cause to have circulated throughout the attendance area a priority list of surplus space and real property and provide for hearings of community input to the committee on acceptable uses of space and real property, including the sale or lease of surplus real property for child care development purposes pursuant to Section 17458.
(d) Make a final determination of limits of tolerance of use of space and real property.
(e) Forward to the district governing board a report recommending uses of surplus space and real property.
Here are my comments regarding surplus property. I do not presume this a dissenting opinion nor is it a majority opinion, since no formal vote was taken or any serious in-depth discussions undertaken by the committee.
7-24-04 The highest and best use to Acton school is to educate the children of Acton.
Because of past failures of the school district over one-third of the students in the district do not attend the local school. These parents have clearly voted their nonsupport of the school district. Both the parents and the community continue voting that nonsupport in their overwhelming defeat of three consecutive bond votes.
The best use of the Acton school can only be achieved by a long-term plan to stop and reverse the continued to rejection of the school which has led to the unprecedented loss of some of the brightest and best in the district.
This cannot be done quickly by insulting the community with forced busing, school closures and the elimination of class size As a stopgap measure the Acton school can be turned into a district sanctioned charter school to accommodate some of the thousand kids that been pulled from the district. This school will have only two community and district impose conditions and that is that 90 percent of the students must come from within the district and that its operations must conform to Acton standards District.
The Acton Charter School would be run under state law by a board elected from the student’s parents. The existing school board would have no control of the charter schools day-to-day operations. The charter school does not have authority to tax the community so its management would concentrate exclusive when on quality of education for it students.
The Acton Charter school would pay the district a fee to use the school site and would directly pay all the teachers, it administrators, staff, and expenses to run school.
This fee is entire profit to the district to without any expense. The community would gain a quality school for those students who do not trust the existing public education system in the community. Property values would radically increase because of this quality school.
The competition created by the Acton Charter school would also served to raise the quality of the existing Acton and Agua Dulce schools and possibly could bring the students back into the district by creating equality between these two competing school systems.
Please do not tell me with a quality school system exists now because the fact one-third of the students are pulled from it clearly shows it could be better.
This charter school could also co-exist on the same campus with nighttime adult education, community use, and the existing district office use along with proposed special class's for our students that cannot meet the disciplinary standards in the district This is clearly best use of the school and fully conforms to the public hearing, which showed education use as the highest and best use for the Acton school site.
and
I6-1-04t began with a ploy by the prior superintendent and the pro-bond committee to threaten to close schools in the community if the community did not vote for the bond the third time on the ballot.
After the bond was rejected for the third time, the school board vote to close the Acton School, eliminating all class size reduction and force busing of all elementary students north of the freeway and to the south, west of Crown Valley to Agua Dulce.
After the community erupted into howls of displeasure, the dividing line was moved to essentially Red Rover. There was then considerable talk at the school board about what to do with the Acton Elementary campus, which included comments about selling property and throwing the money into a permanent school at Vasquez, which the voters had thrice rejected. It was pointed out to the board that they first had to form a 7-11 committee, under Ed Code 17387, to determine what property was surplus and subsequently what to do with the surplus property.
The first committee was selected in early April, made up exclusively of bond supporters, contrary to the Ed Code requirements. On 4-15-04 the school board rejected this committee and subsequently followed the education code procedures and established this committee on 5-13-04.
The committee met first on 6-17-04 at 3:30 in the afternoon, a time chosen for the convenience of the school, but guaranteeing no public participation. At the May 13th, 2004 committee meeting we were told by Dr. Wagner, the school was already in negotiations with the Antelope Valley College to lease the campus for 5 years, except for the district office and three classrooms, which were to be used for students from our district with behavioral problems. The idea of renting the school to the college was acceptable in concept, but there was significant concern about parking. Dr. Wagner suggested that they tear out the play areas and pave over all of the dirt areas. This was not well received and many on the committee wanted further data before they took a position.
Another proposal that the school should be rented to a private company that operated a "non-public" school for youths that have been expelled from the Antelope and Santa Clarita Valleys was universally opposed by each and every committee member.
When it was pointed out that this committee has yet to determine that the Acton School was in fact surplus property, Dr. Wagner advised us that the board had already made that determination. She said she would get back to us with more information on May 24th, 2004.
On May 24th, 2004, the meeting was changed to 4:30 PM, making it a little easier for community members to attend. Dr. Wagner reported that because members of the community had called the college that "those few people made the decision for the community", because the college perceived them to be hostile. I will admit that I called, but only to ask how many students they intended to enroll on the Acton campus, and if they had given any thought to parking for the students and staff. I did not identify myself as a committee member, but expressed a personal opinion that if the parking problem could be solved, and the colleges improvements meet the Acton Standards District, that a satellite college campus in Acton would be a fine idea.
The issue really turned on the fact that paving over 5 acres for a parking lot could not be done without meeting county flood control requirements, including the necessary clarifier facilities to absorb the oil and waste runoffs from the parking lot before they entered the aquifer. Additionally, its probable the residents along Syracuse and behind the school would object to the 5 acres of parking lot lights, and the 300 or more cars that would be funneled every night onto Syracuse, which has only a 30 foot right-of-way at Crown Valley.
On the May 24th, 2004 meeting no information was provided justifying the determination that the Acton School was surplus. When these issues were raised with Dr. Wagner, she continued with the statement that it was our committees charge was to determine the use of the school as it had been determined to be surplus by the board. which violates 17390a At the May 27th, 2004 public hearing, the agenda was determined by Dr. Wagner and not the committee. Dr. Wagner would only allow comments from the public concerning the schools use not if the community considered it surplus.
Numerous persons attending the hearing and committee members took the position that the schools best use was to educate our kids and that class size reduction was its best use. The community was universally opposed to persons living outside Acton or Agua Dulce using the school for anything. The idea of bringing in expelled students was vehemently opposed. If the school is actually surplus, suggestions included child care, senior care, and similar community functions. Even though it was on the agenda, 7-11 committee members were not allowed to speak or discuss the issues before the public. The meeting was terminated by Dr. Wagner and she decided to cancel the only remaining scheduled meeting of the 7-11 committee, which was set for 6-1-04.
Dr. Wagner further announced that the school intended to move 9 of the modulars from Acton School to Meadowlark, High Desert and Vasquez to handle the over-crowding created at those schools by closing the Acton School.
How possibly can a school be surplus if you have to take away the buildings to house students that you removed from that school? Why waste hundreds of thousands of dollars doing the "Dance of the Modulars" when you could have just kept those students at the Acton School in permanent classrooms?
This type of thinking was designed to get us hardship money by moving these students to modulars from permanent classrooms. The real hardship on our kids is this incredible lack of planning coupled with the "lets improve the failed and voter rejected Red Rover campus" by stripping the assets from the rest of the district.
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5-16-04 Questions in no particular order Which school site does not have an indoor area for the students to eat?
Which school site pays over $200,000 to rent modular buildings when they have vacant modular buildings throughout the school site system?
Which school site has no trees, grass and nearly no landscaping?
Which school site has no library?
Which school site has a virtually unusable gymnasium made out of pipe and canvas?
Which school site is located less than the legal limit from the freeway and has no sound wall and is constantly polluted by freeway exhaust fumes?
Which school site totally violates the Acton Standards District?
Which school’s test scores are abominable compared to the rest of the district?
Which school site has most of its site in a designated flood way and flood plain?
Which school site has a site which was carved out to give others the usable land and the school site the floodable areas?
Which school site has such a small site , that a high school large enough to accommodate the existing population ( if the parents choose to place their children in the school), cannot be built?
Which school site has had 3 bonds that would have built a permanent school site at that site overwhelmingly rejected by the community?
Which school site is so small that when a permanent school is built the existing temporary structures:
have to be moved to the playing fields and their pads and wiring demolished and scrapped, Playing fields must be destroyed and regraded New concrete pads and wiring installed and modulars moved to the new pads on the old fields, then moved again after the permanent school is built All the new pads removed and the playing fields rebuilt All at a waste approaching $2 million for absolutely nothing! All this after several million dollars had been spent setting up the modular structures in the first place.
Which school site has parents buying condos in Santa Clarita to avoid sending their kids to that site?
Which school site wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars on inter-district sports programs?
Which school site principal publicly stated that if students take time off for 4-H and other animal showings at the AV Fair that they would get unexcused absences on their permanent transcripts, but grants excused absences for his obscene inter-district sports program participants?
The answer is the Red Rover site, which is the real surplus property!
What needs to be done is:
A. The immediate movement of the high school students to the High Desert Campus renaming it Vasquez High School, the reconfiguration of Meadowlark and Acton schools as an integrated K-8 school.
B. Returning all of the high priced rentals immediately, and those savings should be held in an account to cover moving costs and the balance of the saving held to build a permanent high school.
The Red Rover site is inadequate. It needs the entire 145 acres that was originally purchased by Dusick’s patron with the nearly unusable portions traded for Wallace Canyon. The record indicates the property was bought for $300,000 and because of the floodway restrictions and lack of water on the remaining property, should be purchasable for a similar amount. Note that this is a tiny fraction of the $2 million that will be spent moving portables around Vasquez.
The voters didn’t reject a permanent high school, they rejected the crazed plan to build an inadequate school on an inadequate site, based on a plan that continues the financial malfeasance that Dusick and Bandaras practiced.
We want a better high school, large enough for the community’s needs and conformed to the Acton Standards District. Strip mall high is not acceptable.
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5-11-05 - by Ron Bird. It seems that good old-fashioned concepts eventually return. In the 1900s K-8’s were the norm. But in the 1950s the norm had become K-6 followed by either a 7-8 or a 7-9 junior high. By the 1990’s the in vogue scenario was K-5 followed by a 6-8 middle school. Now the tried and tested K-8 is coming back into the picture nationally.
In the 1990’s, Dr. Robert Offenberg conducted a study to compare Philadelphia’s K-8 schools with other schools in the district operating on the "normal" elementary/middle school concept. He adjusted his study to account for any socio-economic factors and came to the conclusion that students performed significantly better academically with the K-8 configuration. He compared SAT-9 scores in reading, math and science finding dramatic improvements in math. He also found that as a school’s number of students per grade increase, the K-8 schools' performance becomes more similar to the middle school approach.
Keith Look wrote an excellent short paper called "The Great K-8 Debate" . He cites upon implementation of K-8 in Philadelphia principals listed the following additional K-8 advantages:
1. It is easier to fill vacancies in the middle grades of a K-8 school than in a middle school.
2. A K-8 school is safer than a middle school because older children with younger family members attending the same school take on the part of protector, tutor, and role model. In a middle school, the same children must posture for a reputation, which often leads to the disruption associated with larger middle schools.
3. Parental involvement is greater in K-8 schools because parents remain connected to one school longer and are more likely to have more than one family member enrolled in the school at the same time.
4. In a K-8 school, younger and older siblings can travel to and from school together, avoiding the stress of elementary and middle schools beginning or ending at different times.
5. School staff members feel more connected to the community because K-8 schools serve a smaller geographic area than a middle school. Staff members are able to see their influence as the students grow from small children into young adults under their supervision.
One of the strongest cases for K-8 schools is one Catholic school's cite in maintaining most of their elementary schools as K-8 schools: more students are more well known by more adults.
By 2004 K-8 conversion has become much more than a Philadelphia experiment . Baltimore uses this approach extensively: An excellent PowerPoint can be found on the district's web site: Their data reveals that in a quarter 86.8 percent of their students passed the math exam in K-8 schools versus 68.8 percent in K-5, 6-8 configurations. Schools in Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington and California have been converting to the K-8 concept. Priscilla Pardini has written about this in the School Administrator, Locally, as of 2002, Ann Verde in Palmdale is a K-8 as is Arroyo Seco in LA Unified, Lake Los Angeles Elementary, and schools in Long Beach. San Juan Capistrano is in the process of converting many of their schools to K-8. Some valuable information can found at Capistrano’s website : How does this apply to our local Acton–Agua Dulce District? We are currently in the process of adjusting our elementary boundaries, so that many of our students will not be attending their local elementary school. Granted the revised boundaries are much better than the originally proposed arrangement, but there still are geographic issues with this approach. As part of this plan, all sixth grade students are being moved to the High Desert campus thus converting this junior high school to a true middle school. The student’s prior fifth grade teacher will no longer be readily available to tell the sixth grade teacher that Johnnie knows his times tables, but is still having trouble with 7 times 8 and 9 times 7.
If Agua Dulce were converted back to a K-8 configuration with the current 2003-4 boundaries kept intact, then it would house about 110 additional students and be filled to capacity. No school in Acton is big enough to house all of Acton’s K-8 students, Meadowlark is not configured for older students and High Desert is not configured for younger students. If Meadowlark houses Acton’s K-4 students and High Desert houses Acton’s grade 5-8 students, then the existing boundaries can be kept intact with the movement of only one portable to High Desert. A side benefit of this approach is that CSR can be restored to Kindergarten without utilizing any additional rooms, if morning and afternoon sessions are held in the same rooms. This approach is consistent with what other districts are doing by gradually phasing in this tried and true K-8 concept.
Charles Brink – Surplus Property Committee member – 08/01/2004
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