Every once in a while something happens in my community that makes me ashamed of my profession. As a lawyer of nearly 20 years I understand that reasonable people can differ and everyone is entitled to their day in court. However, the recent lawsuit brought against the San Mateo Union High School District over the decision to tear down and rebuild San Mateo High School leaves me shaking my head. In November 2000, the voters passed a $137.5 million bond measure to repair and rehabilitate our schools. Money that was desperately needed to not only repair, but actually rebuild portions of our aging schools. Last year, it was discovered that San Mateo High School was not structurally sound. The school was evacuated and plans made to address the rebuilding of the school. Not all decisions have been made in this process, but the consensus seems to be that it is more economical to tear the school down and rebuild from the ground up than try to patch and repair a building that has no interior structural bracing or support. Of course, plans are being made to preserve portions of the original building for historical purposes that will be incorporated in the new construction, i.e. the fireplace in the library, certain archways.
The school district must also comply with all of the environmental requirements under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). And, the final decision of how the repair or rebuilding of the High Scholl will proceed will be decided after the CEQA report is presented and the Board of Trustee has an opportunity to receive additional public testimony. However, there are those who are not satisfied with this process. A group called ?Save San Mateo High School? has gone far beyond that. They have filed suit against the school district to stop the plans to repair and rebuild San Mateo High School. My level of dismay over this action is exceeded only by my outrage as a taxpayer.
The SMUHSD desperately needs the bond funds (and more) to make repairs to the schools in the district. They need to focus all of their resources in bringing San Mateo High School back on line as a complete campus as quickly as possible and focus on the remainder of the repairs needed at the other schools. Instead, they are distracted, and rightly so, by a handful of individuals, many of whom do not even live in this county or State, who want to bring this construction to a grinding halt. SMUHSD has already had to spend over $100,000 in attorneys fees in this lawsuit. No doubt many more hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent by the school district before the matter is resolved.
As a taxpayer I am OUTRAGED at the individuals and the attorney who filed this suit. If they are so interested in saving San Mateo High School, then why don?t they go out and create a fund to save the high school, raise some money and build community support to help pay for preserving the building. It is clear that to keep the building intact will costs millions of dollars more. Not just to reinforce the current building, but to bring all of the wiring and plumbing up to code and modernize the entire facility for the next 80 years. Instead, they have chosen to be destructive. Destructive because they are siphoning off time and resources that the school district desperately needs to operate. I say, stop playing legal games and maneuvers that will keep our kids in temporary trailer for years. If this group is so intent on saving San Mateo High School as it stands, then I say let them raise the money and pay for it.
Deborah can be reached on this topic and other concerns by e-mail dwilder@fostercity.org.
print 