School trustees and citizens who are suggesting that building
plans for a second high school should be shelved are forgetting one
important detail: The Morgan Hill School District and its trustees
have a legal obligation to do just that.
School trustees and citizens who are suggesting that building plans for a second high school should be shelved are forgetting one important detail: The Morgan Hill School District and its trustees have a legal obligation to do just that.
Voters passed Measure B on June 8, 1999 – nearly four years ago – after reading the following language at the ballot box:
“In order to permit the Morgan Hill Unified School District to finance construction of a new high school, renovations to Live Oak High School, and construction of a new elementary school, shall the District be authorized to incur bond indebtedness for the acquisition and improvement of real property authorized for school purposes, in the principal amount of $72,500,000, to bear interest at rates not exceeding the statutory maximum?”
Measure B’s approval bound the district into a moral contract with the community. That obligation was strengthened when trustees approved the issuance of the bonds – $38 million in June 2000, and $34.5 million in February 2002. Property owners have paid increased property taxes and investors have purchased bonds based on the district’s promise.
The talk then was that Sobrato High School would open in the fall of 2001. Parents are now registering their middle and high school students for the fall of 2003, and Sobrato’s opening is optimistically just two years away.
Another class of ninth-graders – this time, the class of 2007, like more than two decades of freshmen before them – will start “high school” on one of the district’s two middle school campuses.
Another set of students, parents, teachers and administrators are dealing with the hassles that come with having high school students attend middle schools. If you’re a ninth grader who is ready for advanced foreign language classes, for example, you likely have to find midday transportation to and from the Live Oak campus, or not take the classes.
The same hassles apply to many other high school activities, which the “Live Oak” freshman are invited and encouraged to attend, including sports, bands, dances and clubs.
Another year means another filled-to-capacity Live Oak campus, instead of a school with a reasonable student population. Studies show students in smaller high schools perform better academically, graduate at higher rates, experience lower drop-out rates and enjoy a safer environment.
The school board has authorized the sale of all $72.5 million in bonds and has kept to some degree two of its three promises for the use of that money. They’ve built – although late and over budget – Barrett Elementary School. Live Oak High School renovations are underway but a long way from being complete and making it more or less equal to the new, yet-to-be-built high school.
Then there’s the desperately needed Sobrato High School. Besides questioning the wisdom of building a second high school at all, some trustees are foot-dragging on eminent domain, which they apparently find distasteful.
Eminent domain, or the forced sale of private property to a government agency for the greater good of the community may be unpleasant, but it’s necessary. The failure to acquire the property will greatly damage thousands of Morgan Hill School District families.
Trustees need to get the whole job done now. And it’s way beyond too late to drag up enrollment and overhead concerns.
The district has taxed property owners, sold bonds and promised to build a second high school. Trustees have to move forward with due speed and complete the task that the community endorsed and deserves.
Build Sobrato High – now.
