A Trick or a Trade? Another Thing to Ponder

Here is a notice I received in my snail mail box on Saturday.

Click over notice to enlarge

It seems to some folks that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has caved in on their attempts to build a 1,205-seat senior high school, South Region High School #15 (SRHS 15) on the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur.

Rod Hamilton, the administrator for new facilities in the area has always stated that LAUSD would build an "81-seat" campus at what many call "Angel's Gate", then after about 3-4 years of operation, add another 405-seats to the site.

Now it seems LAUSD wants only a 810-seat high school there, after all.

Should we believe them?

I don't!

The scheme to change the plans to 'only' build a campus of 810-seats seems to fit with Dr. Richard Vladovic's wishes to have only that size school, built on the site.

It also may be a ruse to find more support within the community for building a smaller campus.

One thing that is certainly now known to the entire community is that Neighborhoods Organized and Involved to Support Education has made one "H" "E" double toothpicks of an impact on the facilities division of LAUSD and some in leadership rolls of the district.

LAUSD claimed that if they didn't use all the available land at the site, a charter school might take property there.

If that is the case, LAUSD is basically permitting a charter school the attempt and using the rest of the site, IF they actually only intend on building an 810-seat campus, like they now claim.

People should not forget that the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center will be redeveloped and may become the jewel of LAUSD and no other Outdoor Education Center in LAUSD has a school right next to it.

So IF LAUSD gets to build SRHS 15 at the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur, and IF they only build it with "810-seats", what's to stop them 3-4 years down the road from saying; Oops! We didn't build enough seats. We need 405 more.

But perhaps the community can live with a 810-seat campus at Angel's Gate. I think there will be a lot more members of the community who will come off the fence, concerning the new school.

Maybe this is the best the community can hope for. Maybe it is something the majority of the members of the San Pedro area might want.

Of course, it would also make it much easier to suggest that an 810-seat campus could fit on 'possibly' available land in northwest San Pedro.

When LAUSD changed their plans for South Region High School #14, planned to be built at Ponte Vista, they suggested they only needed "6-8 acres" for a school of that size.

Might members of the San Pedro community demand that a new school to ease over crowding of San Pedro High School be built on some of the 61.53 acres of Ponte Vista?

Might members of the community state that they would be able to live with greater density at Ponte Vista if a school site were included into the plans for Ponte Vista?

Even though the Ponte Vista site is within the Narbonne High School student area, could it be changed to allow San Pedro students to attend it if it is built?

This new turn of events will mean there will be a lot more to ponder on a variety of subjects.

I hope we all ponder well and try and find the best answers to all of the questions coming forward.