Claremont Insider: Reader Mail - CUSD

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Reader Mail - CUSD

[This entry was posted this morning. Since then, we've been contacted and asked to take down the reader comments. We have honored this but are concerned at the the ability of the Claremont 400 to chill free discussions.]

There's much news to talk about this week, and we'll try to squeeze all of it today and tomorrow. From the hidden costs of keeping the nickname "City of Trees" to affordable housing, Claremont's plate is pretty full.

We wanted to start off, however, with a bit of mail we received. A reader wrote in to comment on the Claremont Unified School District's (CUSD) discussions about tearing down their building on Base Line Rd. and allowing an RV park to go in there. Apparently, School Boardmember Mary Caenepeel thinks this is a smart move. According to the reader, though, CUSD spent a lot of the 2001 Measure Y bond money to upgrade the building while other promised Measure Y projects went unfinished.

Now the Measure Y money's running out, and CUSD may have to come back to the voters for more in another school bond vote, perhaps in the not-so-distant future. The Claremont Board of Education is a wholly Claremont 400 institution--all five seats are controlled by the 400. So it's not surprise that they'd misspend the money they claimed we so needed or that they're breaking promises. Recall that in order to help get the bond passed, they promised residents near Claremont High School that the new "temporary"football stadium would not be lighted. Now, there's been talk that it may end up with lights after all. They got the votes they wanted, now they're free to break their promises - an old pattern (see our LLD discussion).

In any case, here's our reader:


[Since posting this, our reader has contacted us and, concerned about negative reactions, asked that the comments be removed. So the comments have been removed at the reader's request.]


The reader added some clarification in a second note:

[Comments removed at reader's request.]