Crystal Kerins: School District Should Sell School Sites to the City

Last night HBCSD Board Members Catherine McGough and Rosemary Saylor stated they would not review any of the proposals the District has received and rely only on the consultant’s recommendation of proposals to consider.

The timeline is as follows:

1. Currently they have 18 proposals.

2. The board may view them in Mike Curran's office on Monday, October 22nd.

3. The consultants have the proposals and are weeding through them in order to offer the board "The Short List" of 6 or less they would recommend on October 30th.

4. After the Board meeting on the 30th, a information committee comprised of Ron Bennett from California School Services, Jim Robertson from California Financial Services (The consultants), The Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent along with Brian Rechsteiner and Celia Jaffe will personally interview the 3 or 4 considered to be the best offers from the 6 or so presented on the 30th.

5. After the personal interviews the Board can then do one of three things; they can do nothing. OR, They can set minimums they would accept on the properties and issue "OFFICIAL RFPs" (Last night the Board heard for the first time that the RFPs already issued are apparently not considered to be "Official") OR, They could apply to the state for a waiver from the negotiation process set by law and ask for the right to negotiate directly with any initiator of proposals.

The consultants pay is significantly raised in the event of a sale. If you were in their shoes, what would you recommend?

This is our message to the board. If you must divest yourselves of property, the only sale FOR the citizens of Huntington Beach and the students of HBCSD is a sale TO the citizens of Huntington Beach

Board Members Celia Jaffe, Brian Rechsteiner and Shirley Carey have accepted their duty as Trustees seriously and seemed focused on protecting the District. They stated they would review ALL proposals and not rely solely on the consultants recommendations.

In the event of recall of School Board Members, Rosemary Saylor and Cathy McGough should be recalled based on their irresponsible fiduciary actions. How can they vote on something affecting so many when they have not taken steps to be informed?

The HBCSD Board Members' attempts to clarify to the public that they haven't taken any action on the 4 surplus school properties yet and that the public's reaction to the RFP's they have issued is premature is ridiculous.

What they fail to understand is it is the action of the RFPs alone that has the public outraged. They are not listening if they question the public response as, the message is clear. The sale of property to be developed is not acceptable to the community. If the RFP's had gone out for lease only, the Board and the District would have the public's full support.

What I do not understand is why the elected Trustees did not negotiate in closed session with the private schools leasing sites for an increase and save the feeling of insecurity in the community and their reputation? Why didn't they have a specific, concrete plan and costs associated with their plans prior to beginning this process?

It is time for the City of Huntington Beach to relieve the taxpaying citizens from the threat of the loss of open space in the community by negotiating with the HBCSD to purchase these sites and in doing so, making them available for the thousands of people using them now for the thousands who will use them in the future. Otherwise, the threat of the loss of open space in our City will go on forever as, funding from the State of California to our School Districts is anything but stable, forcing Districts everywhere to take such drastic steps.

Crystal Kerins
President
Huntington Beach Tomorrow

Comments

[Michelle]

I agree with Crystal 100%