Let's not have another delay, let's fast-track the 3rd high school

By Paul Diffley

I will insist on a high school that is truly comprehensive, offering vocational as well as college prep courses.

B. The District is planning to hold off the opening of the 3rd high school until 2007! Elementary schools are being delayed until who knows when? That will produce still more crowded school conditions, and be fiscally irresponsible. We all know land and construction costs will rise dramatically in the next four years. Build now and keep the costs down.

C. Let's incorporate a 2,000-seat auditorium to allow full class assemblies & serve as our city's cultural arts & music attraction. It would be the only large auditorium qualified to host off-Broadway traveling shows. Our kids can't have their choir shows in Murrieta because the biggest of the little theatres is only 551 seats! Sadly, they have to go out of the city to perform.

D. Vocational training is a dirty word at the District level. Let's scrap the nonsense that "every kid will be prepared for a 4-year university" and ask the tough questions. How many of our students actually graduate from a two-year school? From a 4-year university? Who will be our mechanics, our designers, our builders, plumbers and machine tool operators, our printers? We have a chance to offer some changes in the entire middle and high school programs to serve everyone, not just the elite.