VUSD new schools are trailer parks with leaky roofs?

Recently our ANTI friends have taken to inaccurately attacking our new elementary schools in VUSD as trailer parks with leaky roofs. Here is an example of ANTI rhetoric from a blogger who calls herself "Roxy"

"You talk about building schools? Which schools? You mean those trailer parks with leaky roofs, and moldy classrooms? These trailer parks look more like prisons, what the heck I guess preparing kids for their future penitentiary is a noble cause right?"

You can read the rest of Roxy's January 29, 2010 comment made at 9:06 pm here:

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/vista/article_5d484135-59db-577e-8f37-22631a428030.html?mode=comments

Roxy is a venom tongued example of the inaccurate charges and challenges from our ANTI friends that all good taxpayers, teachers and students face.

Let me correct some of her inaccuracies.

Classrooms at the new schools are brand new, state of the art, modular classrooms not cheap trailers. These state of the art buildings have many advantages over traditional stick and mortar schools.

First they are cheaper to build.

Second they contain more bells and whistles--built in AV equipment and a microphone and speaker system for the teachers so that all students are given equal opportunity to hear the instructors voice. Teachers love these modular classrooms and actively compete to be placed in one.

Third, these modular classrooms make more sense for school districts with changing student population centers then do the the old fashioned stick and mortar buildings of schools built decades ago. The modulars allow the district to affordably shift classrooms from one location in the district to another to quickly accommodate student populations changes. Virtually all California districts are using these modular classrooms for new school construction for just that reason.

In the past as neighborhoods aged and student populations declined, the only choice a district had was to close down schools with declining enrollment or bus students long distances from areas of rapid growth to these older schools. With modulars, VUSD will be able to shift classrooms to new sites as the population shifts. This ability to move modulars will reduce the need for bond issues to build new schools.

Modulars are a win win for taxpayers. Cheaper to install now and cheaper in the future when they are moved to existing school sites to accomodate growth rather than the district being forced to build new schools at taxpayer expense.

Our ANTI friends could not be more wrong about the need to use modular buildings.

Roxy was a little bit correct in one area, there was a problem at one of our schools with one contractor who provided and erected some of the modulars. There were leaks. They have been repaired. That happens in construction. Not all workmen and not all contractors work to the standard we all would like to see. When that happens they are required to fix the problems by contract. Who does not expect to see some glitch with new construction?

Our ANTI friends concentrate on one small problem and miss the glorious whole of seven new schools in VUSD and the renovations at several others. (Maybe the number of new schools should be counted as eight if the Mission Meadows is a dual magnet high school?)

Our ANTI friends opposed each of our four school bond attempts, Prop K, Prop L, Prop LL and Prop O. Thankfully we finally crossed the two thirds of the electorate hurtle with Prop O and were able to build new schools in spite of our ANTI friends best attempts to stop all new public schools from being built in VUSD.

Here is a list of new schools built by Prop O bond: Hannalei Elementary School, Major General Murray Raymond High School, Maryland Elementary School, Mission Vista High School, Rancho Minerva Middle School, Temple Heights Elementary School, Guajome Park Academy permanent buildings, and major renovations at Vista Magnet Middle School among others.