AMEN Xrayman!!!

I have been a resident in H.B. for over 30 years and my children have attended some of the school sites that are on the list to be sold. The board should consider many factors including the real estate market, the loss of income from existing leases, and the possibility that the residents of H.B. do not want the sites sold. This is still America and the will of the people and what they want and not what elected officials want is still the law of the land. I served in Vietnam and I fought for the right to be heard and for what I believe are my choices. The Board seems to believe that they are right and the residents are wrong.

Yes, it is time for action! How can the board think that the sale of these properties are a good idea when the market is slumping?

Hello Everyone,

The email below was sent out by School Board member Rosemary Saylor. According to the email, she does not think that certain groups (e.g. “We need to hear also from more of our public school parents whose children are in our schools now and employees who work at our schools” ) are included or respresented amoung those who have:

Signed the Petition on the SaveHBCommunity web site,

Attended the past School Board meetings and

Sent letters and emailed the School Board.

If you are a member of one of the groups she feels has not been respresented on the School Sites issue, please email Rosemary Saylor and the rest of the School Board, to let them know the group(s) you belong to and your position on the School Sites.

The email address for the School Board is: Board@hbcsd.k12.ca.us

If you do email the School Board, please “copy” us on your email.

Thank you for your help on this, and for your support of Our Community!

This is a copy of my letter to the board:

Our family does not want the Huntington Beach City School District to sell school sites to developers. I want to have them preserved for school and community resources, both now and in the future. We use these sites for numerous things such as baseball, soccer and meetings. They are very important to the health and well being of our kids’ futures. They need to be preserved!!!

I think that you considering that 2200 people speaking out isn’t enough. I take this personally.

How can you think that this would benefit us as residents?
We do not want the sale of any school site to occur!!!

Count us as 6 people, also!

Respectfully,
Tony

HBCSD Community Input Is Desired

Dear PTA/PTSA Presidents and HBCSD Parent/Employee Communities,
As you know, the HBCSD Board has been collecting information for the last 3 years (at least!) on our closed properties (LeBard, Gisler, Burke and Kettler), their potential uses, and potential market values. We are hoping very much to finally close out this very long process and begin making decisions in February or March. Our next study session where we will begin discussion to determine some kind of consensus will be Tuesday, 1/22. We would very much like to hear from our schools’ parent and staff community at that meeting and/or at our upcoming meetings next month on 2/5 (study session) and 2/19 (regular meeting). So far our oral comments, emails and letters have been almost entirely from the following community members who are only presenting one view:

# Residents immediately surrounding the closed school sites
# Youth sports groups utilizing the site fields
# Parents w/ students enrolled at the two private schools
# Senior citizens interested in leasing Kettler (although we have had no communicated interest from the city for a lease there)

Understandably, most of these folks do not want the board to consider any possibility of a sale of any property or of particular properties. But we are only hearing from the same people over and over. Many of them claim that they are representative of the entire community, but we have nothing official on which to base that declaration. On the savehbcommunity.org web site, the only declared listing of those wanting to “save our school sites,” there are 2200 people listed but that is certainly not all of our HBCSD district residents, assuming all of those listed even live within our district. We need to hear also from more of our public school parents whose children are in our schools now and employees who work at our schools, all of whom are affected by facility and program issues. Because the opponents of a sale have been so vocal, it is intimidating for anyone to stand up and present an opposing or alternate view, and I certainly appreciate that difficulty. But we need all community input. I am not stating that I want only input from our school community members that are for a property sale. I am saying that those of you who will be most affected need to let us know what your views are, whether or not you feel that we should sell any closed sites (and I want to emphasize that if we decide to sell any property, it certainly will not be all of the closed sites!). Ultimately, we board members will vote after considering all of the information (from professional consultants as well as from our affected community) that we have collected and what we feel is best for our district’s financial health as it affects the education of our students now and going forward, but it is important that our own school communities “weigh in” on this important issue.

I am hoping to galvanize the people that we as a board are serving and ask them to either attend upcoming meetings, (whether or not they wish to speak their opinion), or send letters or emails to the board with their views. It is their students’ programs and facilities that are always affected in a process such as this that involves hard financial decisions and we should be hearing from you.

As our PTA/PTSA leaders, I am hoping you will pass on this request, not only to your parents but to the staff members on your sites and your neighbors who might not have children in school but certainly deserve to have their opinions heard. We are only hearing from the same few people at each meeting and need to know whether or not they are fully representative of the whole community as they seem to indicate.

Anyone interested may contact me directly through the email/phone number info at the bottom of this message, or contact the board as a whole at Board@hbcsd.k12.ca.us or by mail at 20451 Craimer Lane, Huntington Beach CA 92646

Thank you so much for your time and concern, and just as a reminder, I had sent an email out to all the PTA presidents at the beginning of the school year requesting the opportunity to attend one of your upcoming PTA meetings. Thank you to those who responded. Some meetings I have attended already and some are upcoming, but there are still a couple of you that I have not had a reply from. I would love to attend a meeting at all of the schools just so your members can put a face with the name and have an opportunity to ask questions or present concerns about any district topic.
Thanks so much also to those of you who volunteered your services at our recent community forums. Your time and assistance were very much appreciated!

Rosemary Saylor
HBCSD Governing Board Member
rsaylor@surfcity.com
714-536-0609

I am a lifelong resident of HB and even though my children are now grown, feel very strongly about the possible sale of school property. It seems very short-sighted to me. Once the land is sold it cannot be retrieved. We need to preserve the space for possible future school use. Two of the 4 sites are currently being used for educational purposes (private not public) and providing lease income to the district. I understand that a 3rd private school would like to lease another property. Why not continue these relationships thus keeping the property for the school district while receiving income from lessees who are providing great benefits to the community? I would think the district offices could be improved as necessary without having to provide “state of the art” facilities for administration. I am more concerned with the students and their education. DO NOT SELL THE SCHOOL SITES!

I am a parent of a current student, a resident, a voter and a taxpayer in this school district.

My daughter attended Kettler, she was in the last 5th grade graduating class. I find it very upsetting to see that the our tax funds were used to repair a school that the school board knew all along they were going to try and destroy.

I am also very disappointed in the boards self serving interest and lack of consideration for the community, which are the students for whom they are supposed to have the best interest for.

I know several families that live in the areas of the schools that will be affected, whom voiced their disagreement, of the properties being sold. For Rosemary Saylor to claim she’s not heard from any of the Parents, Residents that will be affected is just a plain lie. I know that I have actively sent emails and signed the petition along with hundreds of my neighbors, friends and family. I find it hard to believe that she has not read or seen the petition.

I say we take up our signs that are posted throughout the community and picket the school board offices, so that they can hear and see us, so there aren’t any further false claims that they have not heard from the people. Have the students in this school district who will be affected by the sell do a walk out and show our strength. Contact the newspapers and T.V. news cameras, show them that this is a special interest and the people are speaking and want to be heard,

Resident & Parent
Elsa

I’m also a parent and a tax payer here in Huntington Beach. Here is a copy of the email, I had sent to the school board:

Dear HB School Board,

It is imperative that we don’t sell LeBard nor any other school sites.
The reason for this is our children and their future. We support the
Hunting Beach Public School district and our child goes to Eader
Elementary so I’m not one of the private school parents concerned about
losing their private school site. I think this issue affects the whole
community and not just the private schools in question and their parents
and children. These schools sites are being used for recreational
purposes such as Seaview Little League, AYSO soccer practices and games
etc. These sites play a huge part in our kids health and well being and
it’s very important that we will preserve that, regardless of the cost,
for the future of our children and our community. Also the fact that
some of these sites are being used by private schools helps to maintain
a certain social economical level in the district which in return will
keep the parents, who want to keep their children in private schools,
living in the city of HB bringing revenue in. There are other measures
to balance the budget than selling these school sites. What about
possible raising the rental rates of these facilities? Wouldn’t ongoing
revenue make more sense than a lump sum? Also the problem we have right
now is a down market.
This is NOT the time to sell real estate, especially commercial real
estate. I work in real estate finance and have a lot of inside with this
issue. It would be foolish to sell these sites right now. To sell them
would truly be a desperate measure and I’m sure the possible bids
received would reflect that. The developers would laugh all the way to
the bank getting an awesome deal on these prime locations. As a HB
community parent I pledge you not to sell these sites. We have to come
up with an alternative. Selling these sites is not an option if we wish
to preserve the future of Huntington Beach and our children.

TO THE BOARD : Please don’t sell our school sites! We need them for our children to play baseball and soccer. Please consider this when you will have your meetings. It means allot to us residents. I pay taxes here and someday you will be up for re-election Thanks!

If indeed the feedback received is all relaying the same message, than shouldn’t seem obvious the position of the community? If the Board wanted to have their finger on the puls of the community look at the responses recieved. If the responses are one sided, or if 2+2 continues to be 4 we might have to accept that.

In response to “only 2200″ responding I would consider that a tremdous representation when considering the average neighborhood consists of approximately 100 homes. What the board determines affects the residents in the school neighborhoods. It would seem then, the neighborhoods are largely represented.

To sell the sites to developers in a time when lenders are holding back on NEW DEVELOPMENT/HOMES thus reducing new home prices, further lowers the home values in existing neighborhoods (think tax base for schools). Good luck to those who must make this difficult decision and still reside in the community.

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace!

The School Board of the Huntington Beach City School District is scheduled, in approximately 2 weeks, to vote on what will happen with 4 of our community’s school sites.

This coming Tuesday, February 5th, at 5:30 pm, at the District Office, the School Board will be holding a Study Session to discuss possible scenarios on what to do with the 4 school sites. Four scenarios that have been brought up so far by the School Board are:

Scenario A
Move Huntington Christian to Kettler and renew their lease
Sale of Burke
Sale of LeBard (District Office)
Renew lease of Gisler (Brethren Christian)

Scenario B
Sale of Gisler (Brethren Christian’s campus)
Lease LeBard
Lease Kettler
Renew Lease of Burke (Huntington Christian)

Scenario C
Sale of LeBard (District Office)
Lease Kettler
Renew Lease of Burke (Huntington Christian)
Renew Lease of Gisler (Brethren Christian)

Scenario D
Sale of LeBard to City of Huntington Beach
Renew Lease of Burke (Huntington Christian)
Renew Lease of Gisler (Brethren Christian)
Move District Office to Kettler or Lease Kettler

If the School Board votes to Lease 3 of the 4 school sites and uses the 4th for the District office, the School District could receive a minimum of $1.3 million a year in lease income, for years to come!

Attend the meeting this Tuesday and “Speak Out”, before it is too late! Even if you do not feel comfortable speaking in public, just your presence at this meeting will let the School Board know that the Community is interested and concerned about what happens to these school sites.

Thank you for YOUR support of OUR Community!

Would you turn down $1.3 million a year?

That is what the HBCSD School is considering doing by considering selling the school sites.

Brethren Christian has proposed paying $600,000 a year to lease the Gisler campus.

Huntington Christian is currently paying $330,000 a year to lease the Burke campus.

And, Lycee, a French bi-lingual school, has offered to pay $360,000 a year to lease either the Kettler campus or the LeBard campus.

That is approximately $1.3 million a year, for years to come (and increasing each year).

Take this poll. CLICK HERE

Now is the time to make sure the School Board knows that the Community is supportive of negotiating leases for both the Burke (HCS) and Gisler (Brethren) school sites.

It is also important to let the School Board know that the Community wants the District to negotiate in Good Faith, keeping in mind that both schools have been good tenants, and that other school districts (e.g. Ocean View) are willing to lease to these schools (for less than their current lease payment to HBCSD) if HBCSD is not willing to offer lease terms that are a Win-Win for both HBCSD and the 2 tenants.

Please send an email to the School Board and let them know of your support for the leases and the tenants. The email address for the School Board is:

Board@hbcsd.k12.ca.us

If you were on the School Board, and facing a $2.5 million budget cut from the State, would you be in favor of spending $7 million to $9 million on a new District Office?

At a recent meeting of the School Board, a presentation was given that showed the School District will lose approximately $2.5 million in State funding in the upcoming budget year. The Board discussed various cuts in school programs and the possibility of no pay raises for the teachers.

Then, later on, in the same meeting, several of the Board members stated they are in favor of spending $7 million to $9 million for a new District Office. A new District Office for approximately 40 administrative staff members.

Does this sound like good financial management to you?

If you were a teacher for the District, what would you think about the School Board not giving the teachers raises, but then turning around and spending millions of dollars to buy or build new offices for approximately 40 administrative staff?

Is this the priorities for how we want our tax dollars spent on “education”?

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Sell all of the closed Schools sites now!