Critics of the school have forgotten the positive benefits

I was glad to see The Acorn is interested in presenting the issue of a new campus for the Heschel West School. However, after reading the opposition letters in the Nov. 21 edition, I hope the newspaper staff will go the extra yard to obtain and present the facts of this project so that our community will not need to rely on inflammatory statements that distort the facts.

The very vocal minority of the Old Agoura Homeowners’ Association has made it clear from the outset that they don’t want anything built on the land other than horse stables. This I believe is a most unfortunate distortion of American values.

What could be more important for us as parents, and as a society, than to educate our children? Having more and better schools in a community is a measure of the quality of that community. Homebuyers across this country look for communities with good schools, and the better the schools, the higher the property values.

The children that attend this school live in this community. If they did not attend a private school, there would be still more overcrowding of the local public schools, more cost to the taxpayer, and there still would be vehicle trips creating exhaust when students are driven to whichever school they attend. Traffic concerns all of us. That is why an access road to the campus is planned that would obviate the need for additional cars to drive through the community of Old Agoura.

Some very good people have been working arduously for years now to assure that Heschel West be good not only for its students, but for the community as well. Some less vocal residents of Old Agoura realize this already. It’s about time that building a new school would have the support of the community, just like in the good old days of the wild, wild West.

Remember, education and schools are good things.

Evan Bachner, M.D.

Agoura Hills