Something To Think About

Hey, let's spend about $89 Million Dollars to build a new campus in San Pedro because San Pedro High School is so over crowded!

Do you or did you buy that line? If so, please think about it, for just one minute.

I have occasionally addressed the fact that when I attended S.P.H.S., the Classes of 1972, 1973, and 1974, made up the largest student population ever at San Pedro High School, during the time it was a three year institution.

Between September, 1971 and June, 1972, according to graduation records, 2,953 students crammed the halls and classrooms of a smaller school site, with fewer classrooms, than is seen now, at the campus.

Well, the current student body population at San Pedro High School is currently 3,437 students divided into four grades, with one-two story classroom building added, and with more bungalows on the larger site.

The difference is 484 students.

How about we divided the $89 Million Dollars by 484. That would give us the dollar amount LAUSD wants to spend per student to build a new campus to ease "overcrowding" at San Pedro High School.

Let's see, wait a minute, my calculator is overheating. There! $183,884.30 per student just to build SRHS 15 at the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur.

Surely there must be alternatives to building such a costly campus. Shouldn't we look more carefully at all of the alternatives?

Now I know what you are thinking, how come there are 1,202 9th graders at S.P.H.S. and by the time students become seniors, like the current senior student population of only 574 students, it all must be because the halls are too crammed with students who have to share lockers, sit on floors, and create massive havoc in the cafeteria.

But wait a minute. If it is so true that there are over 1,200 9th graders who start S.P.H.S., but fewer than 600 to make it all the way to becoming seniors, you MUST NOT blame just the overcrowding of the halls and classrooms on this terrible problem.

Something else is terribly wrong and the fact that a new campus in San Pedro would NOT REDUCE class size at S.P.H.S. per an LAUSD Board of Education member, doesn't necessarily mean we need to create a whole smaller problem with another campus that may very well find the same dismal results.

"FIX PEDRO HIGH FIRST" is one of the sayings on the three different yard signs that are cropping up in the area from the Pacific Ocean all the way to sunny Rancho Palos Verdes.

Why must we rush to build when we may be transferring problems from one campus to a brand new site?

I know I have been repeating myself when I state that a new campus is "PROBABLY" needed, but I am more sure than ever, that new campus CANNOT be next to the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center, where real great accomplishments in education are just on the horizon.

Furthermore, if smaller learning communities are the true assistance to the best learning possible, why don't we look at alternatives that include campuses of no more than 500-550 students?

We have all been given numbers as to the student population count at San Pedro High School. Those figures range from a low of "859" on a Web site, all the way up to 3,900 students, as some have been quoted as saying.

3437. It is not 3,600, it is not 2,953, it is not even 3,700. We know the number. It will shrink in the short term and most probably rise in the years to come. But it is a number we can now work with to create alternatives that are less costly to taxpayers and the environment, provide more possibilities for other means of educating our high school age students, and come to common grounds with all the facts, to do what is best to support education.

This is something Neighborhoods Organized and Involved to Support Education is trying to do. It is not simply to oppose SRHS 15 at the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur. It is here to provide the best possible outcome for all students, including high school students and students attending the Outdoor Education Center.

Working together, we will work as hard as needed to find resolutions to the things that divide us and allow all of us to work for the best education experiences of all students, no matter where they are from, or what grade they are in.