OPUSD's 'Extreme Makeover- School Edition'

Oak Park voters should take special note of the new Yerba Buena Elementary School located at Lindero Canyon and Reyes Adobe roads. This beautiful new campus includes six buildings encompassing more than 20 classrooms, a library with computer lab and a multipurpose room building. This is a state-of-the-art school built to current construction standards, on difficult terrain, for 440 students. It cost $36 million to build. That's what you get for $36 million dollars.

Now contrast that with the $71 million the Oak Park school district was seeking last year in order to "repair Oak Park schools."

Twice as much money for repairs to five campuses. If the schools truly needed that much money for repairs, doesn't that say something about how the schools were maintained, or not maintained? Or does it really mean that "repairs" were a smokescreen for an "Extreme Makeover- School Edition?" OPUSD believes it is more important to hire someone to teach Chinese than someone to fix the roof.

Granted the Repair Oak Park Schools campaign was perpetrated by outside consultants, but it was still approved by local advocates. The next time OPUSD comes looking for money, voters should ask themselves if these are the same folks who brought the H6 campaign. And they should, if they've a mind to, take advantage of the two open seats on the school board. The rubber stamping of the superintendent's agenda doesn't have to go on forever. Glen Wilcox Oak Park