This is an open invitation to Conejo Valley Unified School District board members Buckles and Phelps- who has a bachelor's degree in mathematics- to explain how school closures help students.

The closure process started before their election, the board aiming to save $1.3 million, or 1 percent of the budget, by closing 6 percent of the schools. If both properties are leased, they expect revenue of about $450,000 per year.

However, the district may have to spend untold or uncalculated thousands of dollars to make elementary school facilities suitable for teenage high-school students.

CVUSD will have to pay to fight the MATES (Meadows Art and Technology Elementary School) lawsuit because they misinterpreted Education Code 47614: "The school district shall make reasonable efforts to provide the charter school with facilities near to where the charter school wishes to locate, and shall not move the charter school unnecessarily."

CVUSD will have to pay to crowd 800 students onto the Glenwood campus.

CVUSD may incur legal fees or awards related to traffic, lost property value and other associated costs involving Glenwood, Meadows and University.

CVUSD may incur legal fees related to potential religious instruction at a CVUSD property.

And if only half of the children signed up for MATES attend, the district loses $1.3 million per year in per-student funding at 2005-06 rates.

Notwithstanding any of the variables cited, that puts the school closure savings at a loss of $850,000 per year. If MATES wins the Meadows site and takes 300 students from the district, the deficit will be more than $2.1 million per year.

Can the new board members explain how "saving $1.3 million" by losing $850,000 to $2.1 million a year is best for any student? G.R. Whale Thousand Oaks