With student count dwindling, school bond not needed

Most of us moved to Oak Park for its world-class neighborhood schools. We never imagined a time like now, when more than 740 students—20 percent of the district's total enrollment—are recruited from outside Oak Park to maintain enrollment and revenues from the state.

Now, rather than scaling down the facilities to fit the needs of the local student population, the school board, through Measure R, wants to raise our already high taxes to subsidize hundreds of students from outside Oak Park.

The argument for measure R says the money would go to "repair and upgrade" schools, but the county counsel's independent analysis notes that funds can be used for much more, including acquisition and construction.

The Oak Park Unified School District is not telling us the whole truth.

Measure R would raise nearly $30 million. That's about $6 million of "repairs and upgrades" per school.

Oak Park schools have done fine with fewer students. They won significant national and state awards when enrollment was lower than it is now. Now we need to scale down and not spend millions and millions of our hardearned dollars enhancing facilities the local enrollment doesn't justify.

The Oak Park school bond tax rate is already the highest in Ventura County. We can keep our quality up and costs down by planning intelligently to serve Oak Park students, now and in the future.

Vote no on R for sustainable neighborhood schools.

Tom Gray Oak Park