Critic of trustee distorted the facts

As a former principal in Los Angles Unified School District who follows closely the performance of Conejo Valley School District School, I was offended by Cathy Carlson's misrepresentation of the facts in her letter to the Thousand Oaks Acorn on Oct. 26.

At school board meetings, forums and brochures, board member Tim Stephens has stated that the district's 2006 median API score of 855 is in the top 10 percent of districts in the state. Mrs. Carlson states, "No, it is 81 percent." If she had done her homework by going online, as I have done, she would have discovered that there are 1,024 school districts in California. Of those districts, 100 have API scores of 855 or above, hence Conejo is in the top 9.8 percent.of the districts in California.

She correctly states that in 2005, Meadows School had a Similar School Rank of "1." Similar School Rankings are based on socioeconomic factors, average class size, the number of English-language learners, along with other criteria.

What she fails to mention is the statewide rank in 2005, which reflected an API score of 858 and the 2006 API score of 874. The statewide rank is the score most people look at when judging the quality of a school, and the above scores exceed, by a wide margin, the 800 API target set by the state.

By continually spinning information about our schools, which is designed to place Conejo Valley Unified School District in a negative light, Carlson does a tremendous disservice to the hardworking, dedicated teachers and administrators in a great district. Phil Somers Thousand Oaks