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Your editorial [“San Pedro Students Deserve Better,” RL May 2-15, 2008] supporting proposed SRHS15 is deeply disturbing and lacking in understanding of the serious reasons why this proposed school is a very bad idea. As members of NOISE – Neighborhoods Organized and Involved to Support Education, we will outline here why the “conditions of support” stated in your editorial cannot and will not be met by LAUSD.
• Gaffey Street Entrance – There is no confirmation from either the Department of Recreation and Parks, or the Los Angeles Unified School District that Gaffey Street is approved to be used. The proposed Alma Street alternative offers a narrow, steep and winding residential street unsafe for such traffic. • It is naïve to believe that LAUSD would never exercise eminent domain. In fact, an LAUSD employee has approached a homeowner on 30th Street to ask what their home was worth. And LAUSD stated that if houses were taken by eminent domain, they would pay well! • 1,215 students constitute a full-size campus with a 600-seat amphitheater. Public schools do not have to abide by the same rules of increase in population so that after the school is built, LAUSD can just add bungalows as they see fit with no further approval. • According to Mr. Rod Hamilton, LAUSD South Region Development Director, LAUSD is required to provide 2.5 parking spaces per classroom and not required to provide any student parking. Rod Hamilton stated clearly that “California state law does not mandate us to build student parking.”
NOISE has made several viable less costly suggestions to LAUSD too numerous to mention here. Most importantly, evidence of a decrease in LAUSD population is documented in LAUSD’s study, “Why is LAUSD’s enrollment declining – when the Los Angeles area is growing?” LAUSD has also stated that SRHS15 will not reduce class size.
Since the land was once owned by the military, unearthing this ground may release environmental toxins. But most importantly, LAUSD is both the REVIEWING and APPROVING organization for all of its environmental reports, thereby making oversight nonexistent.
If you are TRULY interested in the real issues, email NOISE at
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Please remember, the burden of proof is on LAUSD.
NOISE Neighborhoods Organized and Involved to Support Education
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