Problems with the Secondary Melrose High School Site that the Primary site Kawano/Strawberry Hill did not have

The only secondary site left in our district boundaries that is big enough for a full sized high school was located at the far north end of our district at Melrose and north of Highway 76. The site was hilly and ungraded. It was zoned residential increasing its value and cost compared to the Kawano site which was zoned agricultural. The secondary site had a number of problems that Gibson and Guffanti could have reasonably expected to cost the district far more than the cheap level Kawano site they rejected.

First this secondary site was FAR more expensive to purchase (18 million dollars as opposed to one million for the primary site--Kawano Strawberry Hill).

Next problem for the secondary site was that it had a boundary issue with Fallbrook school districts that had to be resolved.

Thirdly, the secondary site was in the City of Oceanside not the City of Vista. The Oceanside City Council has had a long twenty year history of disregard and abuse of the VUSD even though the boundaries of VUSD includes nearly one third of the city of Oceanside. The VUSD boundaries were established DECADES before either the city of Oceanside or the City of Vista incorporated and set their own boundaries. The boundaries those two cities set were completely different than the school district boundaries whose names those cities took.


Fourth--the secondary and only site found to be available after Jim Gibson and Dr. Stephen Guffanti prevented the taxpayers from building at the cheap level Kawano/Strawberry Hill, that secondary site was HILLY, NOT LEVEL, and NOT GRADED and cost million and millions more to grade and level. Even so parts of the site are so hilly that they can never be used for building or athletics.

CITY OF VISTA'S HISTORY OF WORKING WITH THE SCHOOL DISTRICT--VUSD

The Kawano Strawberry Hill site was inside the City of Vista which has a history of working with the district. On more than one occasion the City of Vista has cooperated in land swaps with VUSD. Some City of Vista Redevelopment funds have also been set aside for the school district.

THE CITY OF OCEANSIDE'S HISTORY OF MISTREATMENT OF THE DISTRICT--VUSD

In the eighties and nineties, Oceanside City allowed construction of massive very dense housing tracts in the part of its boundaries that was in VUSD without charging the full developer's fees for school so VUSD got much less than it needed to build new schools for those students many of whom then were shipped by bus into schools inside the Vista City limits. VUSD protested but the Oceanside City Council did not care. They got a tax base. They got money from the developers for their political campaigns. So it was a bonus that the students generated by those houses had to be taken care of by a neighboring city and not their own schools.

Sure enough the city of Oceanside screwed VUSD again with the secondary site for the new high school being in their city limits. They added onerous, unnecessary and expensive grading and road building requirements including several turn lanes, and even a pedestrian bridge over the highway to the cost of the new high school construction costing MILLIONS more of VUSD taxpayer money. Again the City of Oceanside City Council did not care what impact it had on the VUSD school district as more than two thirds of the taxpayers for VUSD do not live inside the city limits of Oceanside.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/10/news/coastal/22_48_873_9_07.txt

JIM GIBSON HAD CLOUT ON OCEANSIDE CITY COUNCIL BUT DID NOT USE IT TO HELP VUSD
Interestingly enough we had a VUSD board member with a great deal of clout with the City of Oceanside when the increased construction demands were being discussed by their council. That trustee was Jim Gibson. Less than two years later a MAJORITY of Oceanside City Council members endorsed Jim Gibson's run for Oceanside City Council. Yet when VUSD needed help reducing expense of the added requirements, Jim Gibson did NOT use his influence to help VUSD reduce those costs. He said nothing. He lifted not one finger to help VUSD taxpayers.
(Jack Feller, Rocky Chavez, and Jerry Kern--all endorsed Jim Gibson in his 2008 unsuccessful candidacy for Oceanside City Council--Note Jerry Kern is currently(as of 10/17/09) facing a recall election in Oceanside.)

Of course that was not his biggest insult to the taxpayers of VUSD. The doubling of the cost of construction of the new third high school from a projected 50 million dollar cost to current cost of 100 million is Jim Gibson's fault.