East City Resident[-] wrote on Oct 5, 2008 10:16 AM:To non-VUSD Oceanside residents: the 7:29 AM comments are in error. The Board never voted on the strawberry hills property so there was no way a fourth vote could have been made. There are a lot of details on the high school project that have been misrepresented. Please be assured that Jim Gibson was not responsible for the enormous increase in the cost of the project. The true facts can be found in the NCT archives. Jim will make an excellent addition to our Council. Thank you NCT.
So I checked for the "true facts" in the NCTimes archives here is what I found:
STORY ONE
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2002/10/30/export21822.txt
Two VUSD candidates attack magnet high school site
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Incumbent school board Trustee Jim Gibson and the candidate he endorses ---- Steve Bradford ---- said this week that they oppose putting the campus, which would accommodate two magnet high schools, on the property the district is studying on East Vista Way between Mason Road and Osborne Street in an area called Strawberry Hill.
---------------------------
STORY TWO
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/02/16/export3600.txt
New Vista high school project picking up steam
Saturday, February 15, 2003
In the latter case, the district board of trustees would be faced with a difficult decision. Two of the five members ---- Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti ---- have said they oppose putting the school on the Kawano property (Strawberry Hill).
------------------------------------------
STORY THREE
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/08/10/news/inland/vista/8_10_0323_00_12.txt
Vista still searching for home of magnet high schools
August 9, 2003
Three board members say they wanted to build the high schools on a 50-acre tract known as Strawberry Hills in Bonsall. But the other two members said they want the district to put more effort into looking at smaller sites around the city.The board couldn't agree on the Strawberry Hills site…
Board members Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti said they refuse to support condemning the Kawano property (strawberry hill)
------------------------
STORY FOUR
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/05/29/news/inland/vista/22_38_385_28_05.txt
VUSD sees Melrose campus as key project
Saturday, May 28, 2005 10:48 PM PDT
The long road
Vail said the district seriously considered three other sites before settling on the Melrose property. Those sites included property south of Highway 76 off East Vista Way that didn't work out for environmental reasons; the "Kawano" or "Strawberry Hill" property that failed to generate enough support among school board trustees; and the Lincoln Middle School/Vista City Hall site that fell through because the state wouldn't provide necessary funding.
STORY FIVE
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/03/23/export6438.txt
School district exploring new high school campus proposal
...there are very few properties left big enough to accommodate a high-school campus serving around 2,000 students. District trustees voted 5-0 on March 13 to abandon the most recent possibility, a produce farm (Kawano property aka Strawberry Hill) on East Vista Way in the unincorporated area just north of Vista. The proposal encountered opposition from neighbors and the property owner was unwilling to sell. Two of the board trustees objected to the site (Guffanti and Gibson), which would have left the five-member board short of the four votes needed to institute an eminent domain proceeding that would be needed to obtain the property.
Blog editor note: The three pro education candidates finally gave up the fight to get either Gibson or Guffanti to be the fourth vote needed for the third high school. So the three rationals decided to table the Strawberry Hill site as Gibson and Guffanti told them over and over that they would not be the fourth vote. Gibson and Guffanti gleefully joined in with this vote that acknowledged the Strawberry Hill site could not be obtained thus a 5-0 vote. Nevertheless it was the intractable opposition of Gibson and Guffanti and only Guffanti and Gibson that killed the Strawberry Hill site and cost VUSD high school students to endure at least five more years (six?) of overcrowded high school campuses.
Story Six
School board drops rural site for new high school
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/03/14/export5702.txt
...Kawano himself said he was unwilling to sell his property. Also, a couple board members(Gibson and Guffanti) had said they opposed the district pursuing the Kawano property. For the district to go forward with an eminent domain proceeding to forcibly acquire the property would have required four votes on the five-member board.
Story seven
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_675be210-95ff-5b76-bda0-4f74980ce7aa.html
Vista still searching for home of magnet high schools"
By: DAVID STERRETT published on Saturday, August 9, 2003 11:14 PM PDT
Don Petros, chairman of a citizen committee overseeing the spending of the bond proceeds, said he was disappointed the board refused to go forward on the Strawberry Hills site, which is now a berry farm owned by Jay Kawano.
"The Kawano site would have worked, but it didn't because of the political realities on the school board," Petros said.
Board members Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti said they refuse to support condemning the Kawano property because of existing high traffic volumes and lack of sewer service.
"The Strawberry Hills site is unacceptable," Gibson said. "That's not the only site out there, and there are other possible sites that they could look at.""Board members Jim Gibson and Stephen Guffanti said they refuse to support condemning the Kawano property because of existing high traffic volumes and lack of sewer service.
What is it about the Guffanti group do they think we are too stupid to check on their ridiculous re-writing of history? Have they forgotten? Are they deliberately deceptive? Whatever the reason, they are wrong. Stephen Guffanti and Jim Gibson with their delaying tactics have cost our district six years. Given a generous estimate of two years for construction, our children could have had been in a new high school for the last FOUR YEARS! Our kids have been crammed into two over crowded high schools--each at almost twice its capacity--for at least FOUR EXTRA YEARS of OVERCROWDING due to Guffanti and Gibson.
Millions were lost when the highway 76 site had to be used instead of the much cheaper Strawberry Hill (Kawano) site. One million would have paid for a Strawberry Hill high school site (according to VUSD School Board records.) It cost seventeen million for the Highway 76 site . The difference is SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLARS!
As much as nine million more in construction delays, increased costs for materials and labor, changes in architectural plans, increased site grading and prep costs, and fighting numerous lawsuits increased the total cost of of the GUFFANTI/GIBSON HIGH SCHOOL DELAY to at least 25 MILLION DOLLARS!
Had either Guffanti or Gibson provided the fourth vote we would have a new high school today. It would be in at least its fourth year of having students on campus. The money from Proposition O would not have run out. We might have finished school construction in VUSD with a surplus.
Guffanti and Gibson take no responsibility for their expensive and perverse resistance to the building of a new high school and then have the gall to blame others for proposition O money running out.
No comments:
Post a Comment