Experts: Cunha
The Cabrillo Unified School District empaneled a committee of experts to find out where a new middle school could be built most quickly and economically.
The answer wasn’t surprising -- the best site was Cunha -- but the details were stunning. The school could be built in half the time and at half the cost at Cunha.
The expert analysis put a lot of things in perspective, including the positions of this year’s City Council candidates. But it raises as many questions as it answers.
We’re left with unanswered questions
Why did it take a panel of experts to tell the school board that Cunha was the only logical choice? And why did it take the school board nine years to get around to asking?
Why are former School Board Chairman Ken Jones (the architect of the Wavecrest debacle) and CCWD board member Jim Larimer (who donated $1,500 to campaign of one pro-Wavecrest school board member) still saying in 2005 that the school should be built at Wavecrest?
Why are Jones and Larimer blaming the League for Coastside Protection for the delays in Wavecrest, when they know that Wavecrest has been held up by poor planning by the district’s development partners, litigation from other developers, and state and federal regulators?
Why are CUSD board members still flogging the notion building the school at Cunha risks a lawsuit over the district’s Measure K bond, when the CUSD’s legal expert mocked the idea by saying, “Well, people can sue over anything, can’t they?” A simple reading of the language of the measure would confirm that the district never risked a lawsuit.
Why did it take a committee of experts to show that the usable space on the Wavecrest site was virtually identical to that at Cunha?
Why will it take the district more than five years (the same as for a brand-new site) to do its environmental homework on Wavecrest? After all, they’ve been “working” to build a school at Wavecrest for ten years. What have they done in that time?
Why did we squander $15 million in increased building costs between the $17 million estimated by the district’s 1996 Facilities Master Plan and the $32 million the experts tell us it will cost now?
Who are the real authors of this expensive farce? Is it the people who have said from the beginning that we could have a new school at Cunha just by deciding to build it, or those who refused to accept the reality that Wavecrest wasn’t a viable building site?
What are the issues in this election?
The League for Coastside Protection has said from the beginning that Measure K didn’t require a location other than Cunha, that Wavecrest wasn’t going to provide additional space, and that Cunha could be renovated faster and cheaper.
Who knew? Mayor Jim Grady made a presentation two years ago that laid the issues out clearly. Steve Skinner spoke up at the school board meeting to offer his support to the Cunha decision, as did Mayor Grady on behalf of the city council. Meanwhile, Wavecrest’s owners endorsed Grady and Mike Ferreira. They obviously don’t hold them responsible for the delays.
Who didn’t know? Bonnie McClung, in her unsuccessful run for the City Council in 2001, made “Building the new Boy’s and Girl’s Club and Middle School” at Wavecrest one of her top three priorities. George Muteff and Naomi Patridge, alone among this year’s candidates, endorsed Ken Jones for reelection in 2000, when his top priority was building the new middle school at Wavecrest.
Muteff, McClung, and Patridge are supported by the “No More Delays” PAC. Marina Stariha, treasurer of “No More Delays” is a former pro-Wavecrest CUSD board member. Stariha blames the current City Council for the school board’s failure to build at Wavecrest.
In 2003, Naomi Patridge signed the argument against the Measure D “Build It Now” initiative that began, “This initiative claims to ‘solve’ the middle school issue by forcing us to rebuild on a site [Cunha] that is too small, compromising educational needs and restricting open field space for the entire community.” Where did she get the idea that Cunha is too small, or that Wavecrest is any bigger?
Bonnie McClung signed the rebuttal to the argument in favor of Measure D. She claimed, just two years ago, that building at Cunha would “Violate the bond terms” and “Promote delays and continued costly lawsuits”. Where did she get the idea that Wavecrest could be built faster or that the bond terms required a new school site?
A lot of Coastsiders supported Wavecrest. But we weren’t given the full story, and it’s time to hold the community leaders who led us down this path accountable. And it’s time to recognize the vision of those who tried to keep us from making an awful mistake.