Still hopes the district won't close any schools

I applaud the recent developments in the school-closing debate where the Conejo Valley Unified School District board has modified its criteria for school closings to include consideration of certain needy segments of the school population.

I wonder if the board could also go one step further and add this item to its list of criteria: Don't close any schools.

There's another way to help narrow the funding gap we're now faced with. Every school I have visited in the district during my time here as a parent has been littered with things called "portable classrooms."

These modular classrooms are usually parked out back, away from the main part of the school campus, and are an eyesore. In times of need, these portable classrooms are added to support an influx of students. Now the student population is ebbing and the school district must keep their promise and remove the portable classrooms.

School closings should, in general, be a last resort used in special cases where there are permanent, demonstrated needs for reallocation of school facilities.

With a shrinking school population and the overabundance of portable classrooms, we're clearly not in one of those situations. While I don't know specifically what plans are being laid for the school properties which would be closed in Thousand Oaks, I have lived in other places with similar situations.

There, schools were closed and subsequently sold or placed in long-term leases for other purposes, to make condominiums or space for businesses. In the end, this proved to be a mistake once the student population pendulum swung back and a resultant shortage of school facilities became a serious logistical and financial problem.

In our community of ever-shrinking buildable real estate and skyrocketing construction costs, it's imprudent, and perhaps even shortsighted, to consider getting these facilities back at a later date.

Most schools have nicely designed campuses with attractive permanent buildings, grass and trees. We should return our neighborhood schools to their natural state where the removal of portables gives back some of the play area to the students or parking for its employees.

So let's keep our neighborhood schools open--all of them.
Kevin Redner
Thousand Oaks