Oak Park's Measure R doesn't add up

I'm writing to express my deep concern about Measure R in Oak Park.

I've been a parent in Oak Park for almost 17 years. And even when the district had fewer students, we were still Blue Ribbon schools. It's hard to understand why we need so many students from out of our district. We offered a rich range of classes to our students then, and we can still offer them, even without having 20 percent of our enrollment from outside of Oak Park.

The more we know about Measure R, the more surprised and concerned we become. Most people have no idea how expensive it will be.

For example, if your house is assessed at $800,000, your school taxes alone would be about $2,000 in 2009. That's in addition to the other assessments you're already paying on top of your property taxes. This is just not in line with the taxes imposed by other school districts. Our school taxes are already the highest in Ventura County.

People will also be surprised to see what some of the money will be spent on. For example, the school district says they plan to spend about $600,000 providing air conditioning to the middle school and high school gyms. Even private schools like Oaks Christian don't have air conditioning in their gyms. And that capital cost doesn't include the electricity expense once the air conditioning is installed.

They also want to spend about $3.5 million to repair or replace portables. Would we need all those portables if we weren't taking so many students from out of the district?

I encourage you to vote no on Measure R. Adding a fourth school tax to our annual property tax bill is just too much. Jenni Voltin Oak Park