Editorial:
It is hard for us to wrap our mind around the fact that a school board and the district superintendent would think that it would be a good idea to put a charter high school on a public elementary school district campus! Yet that is what has occurred at Silver Wing Elementary School in Southwest Chula Vista.
What is even more befuddling is the fact that parents and the community of the public elementary school district were left out of the loop, there was very little public communication and little if any public input into the decision.
What started out as the temporary placement of a few portable bungalows to house the Dual Emersion high school quickly turned into a permanent home! A two-story complex is set to be built on Silver Wing Elementary School property. The high school and the elementary school will be separated by a chain link fence!
Compounding the issue is that Chula Vista Elementary School District is guaranteeing the loan which will be taken out by the private enterprise for the construction of the edifice. If the private enterprise defaults on the loan, the Chula Vista Elementary School District is on the hook for the balance due. When does an elementary school district become a business partner with a private enterprise?
And to top it off the private enterprise that runs the charter school is not even going to pay rent for the use of public school land!
This has turned out to be a one-way deal that totally favors the high school charter with no discernable benefit to the school district. As a business deal, it is a bad deal. The District will provide both the land and the money for the private enterprise with no income in return.
As an educational benefit, again we see no direct correlation that benefits the District. The Silver Wing Elementary school children will not even be able to attend the new charter high school on their campus due to the rules and regulations pertaining to enrollment at the charter high school.
Why this would occur we don’t know. That is the real problem with this whole deal: the parents and the community’s right to know was abducted by the Superintendent, Francisco Escobedo, and the previous school board.
For parents of students who attend public schools, education is a very personal and vital matter to them. For a school to succeed in the education of the children it requires parent participation, openness, and communication. The openness and communication did not occur; the overall deal was done behind school board doors with very little, if any, transparency. It is reprehensible that a Superintendent and School Board would act in such a manner!
The new school board, with three newly elected board members, found their hands tied to the deal. Backing away from approving the bid to build the campus could have resulted in a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The building of the campus will move forward.
The parents of the Silver Wing community vow to continue the fight opposing the school. The best tool available to them will be with the next school board election where they can register their disgust at the polls. And the parents should hold the Superintendent accountable for his actions.
One thing we know for sure this sort of action would have never taken place on the East side of Chula Vista, at Cameron School for example. But because it was a school in South West Chula Vista, District leaders felt it was okay to ignore the residents of the area – reprehensible!