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Come to our meeting on Wednesday the 20th and give is your input.

Our next regular meeting is February 20, 7:00 PM, Northridge Hospital, 18300 Roscoe Blvd. for map see

http://www.northridgecouncil.org/images/Northhospital.gif

For an agenda see http://www.northridgecouncil.org/notices/020220ag.htm

See |Update from the Education Committee | Notes from the 2-13-02 Education Committee meeting|

Update from the Education Committee

LAUSD 6-28-02 meeting

This is to remind everyone that the LAUSD meeting scheduled for 2-19-02 has been changed to 2-28-02. It is possible it will be changed again. Before going downtown check our web site or call LAUSD at 213-625-6273 to confirm the meeting and ask to be placed on the speakers' list.

We’ve heard various stories from people in LAUSD either saying that you have to be on the list to speak, or you don't have to be on a list, and that each person can speak for three minutes or they will limit the total public input to some short period.

With LAUSD one can never know what they're going to do.

Info about the proposed school

Unfortunately a recent mailing, in haste to get out, presented some potentially misleading information. The school as being proposed in the current environmental review is for 880 students, at one time, in a multi track system. It cannot be expanded to 3500 without a new EIR and considerably more property, unless they change from a four-story building to a 16-story building and a 4- level underground parking lot.

The process

LAUSD is the only agency that has to approve the EIR. CSU system does not approve the EIR and has already approved the concept of the school and the land swap at their January 2001 meeting. It fine to let CSU and CSUN know your feelings on the school.

In the council’s November response to the DEIR, we ask for a number of documents, which include the agreements between LAUSD and CSUN. These have not been provided to us and we are again going request them in writing.

LAUSD is supposed to provide to us a final EIR for us to comment on and review before they approved it. If they approve it, and it isn't acceptable to the community, the only action is to file, within 60 days, a writ of mandate to block the project. To do so we would have to raise from $5,000 to $10,000.

Need for school in our community

The attendance data we received from LAUSD on local schools shows that none of them, with the exception of Monroe and Langdon, will be overcrowded by local students. Local is defined as students living within the attendance area.

LAUSD has adopted a policy of busing in students where there is space within local schools. This is reasonable and understandable to fill empty seats, but when the busing in of students makes class sizes to be too large or requires the school to go multi track, it diminishes the educational quality for the community and its resident students.

The question is, should LAUSD be allowed to place schools on multi track basis just to handle the bussed in kids, or should the local residents expect a conventional 2-semester with a summer break. Overcrowding and multitask tracking, reduces education time for the students, and normal participation in outside school events and family vacations.

As one Member of our education committee pointed out, when you have several children attending different tracks it is impossible to have a family vacation.

Come to our meeting on Wednesday the 20th and give is your input.

It is clearly the proposed high school is strictly a reliever for Monroe. There is a considerable body of people who feel that the money should be spent on high-school facilities nearby to the student’s homes east of the freeway instead of asking the students to commute up to 4 mi. each way.

For information on the education committee see

http://www.northridgecouncil.org/education/index.htm

Charles Brink

Notes from the 2-13-02 Education Committee meeting

A CSUN newspaper dated 2/11/2002 that is mailed to some residents shows 25 long-term campus projects that are scheduled for construction dating 2002 -2004 with a drawing of where the projects are located. A new soccer field is scheduled to be located to the west of the tennis courts (where the domes are being demobilized).

With regard the response on the revised traffic Draft EIR, see

http://www.northridgecouncil.org/education/revisedtraffic.htm

 we need to take into consideration the following:

Medtronics - A second phase is scheduled. One more building where the current football field stands now is scheduled. The original plan was for four buildings around a core. The construction ends after the fourth building is completed.

Prairie School  There is NO other agreement made for that property. CSUN claims it has no funds currently to demolish Prairie Street school. However, long term planning is for it to turn into a parking lot.

A letter was received from LAUSD dated 2/8/2002 regarding the meeting downtown on the Valley New High School No. 1 at CSUN advising the meeting has been postponed from 2/19/2001 to 2/28/2002 at 1:PM. I advise those planning to attend on 2/28 to call the Executive Officer of the Board at 213-625-6273 to affirm the meeting is taking place as scheduled and the time has not changed. The letter indicates no prior sign-up for addressing the committee is necessary. The Board of Education is scheduled to consider certification of the EIR for the project at its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at or about 3:00 PM. If you wish to address the Board regarding this project at the meeting you must first register by calling the Executive Office of the Board at 213-625-6273 no later than 10:00 AM March 12th. Board rules limit the number of speakers to seven on this matter.

The agenda for the Northridge Community Council meeting on 2-20-02 will be to take input on our final position on the EIR report to present to LAUSD. Please attend this meeting on February 20, 2002 and make sure your concerns are heard and we Northridge neighbors plan our future, not downtown interests.

Anita SantoSpirito