Meadows should be a charter school

Conejo Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) is wasting our time and your money.

The well-chronicled debacle called school closure took one more decidedly painful twist last week when the Board of Education voted to deny the Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School (MATES) charter petition.

Rather, CVUSD has chosen to spend your tax money on legal efforts to dissuade the parents of the Meadows Elementary School community from solving our dilemma.

Our dilemma, as board member Tim Stephens stated during the discussion, is that "no viable option was presented to the Meadows parents."

So, our options are to go to private school or transfer out to a neighboring district or form MATES.

As was pointed out in a prior board meeting, more students are now transferring out of the CVUSD to neighboring districts than are transferring in.

Rather than addressing this issue, the district focused on closing two of the three Distinguished and Blue Ribbon schools. This should concern all of us.

The formation of MATES will ensure that we keep the many kids in our neighborhood in the public system and in CVUSD's boundaries. We believe the school will draw children back from home schooling and the private sector. These kids will funnel back into our middle schools. Without this option, many of these kids will remain outside the district.

Unfortunately, the legalistic path taken by CVUSD will continue to communicate uncertainty about our children's education and the future of the campus we so enjoy at La Granada and Erbes.

What a waste of time and energy. We need a change of leadership. John B. Hollister Thousand Oaks