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| School board should know better than to dabble in land use Published/Last Modified on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:56 PM PDT Last Thursday, by a vote of 4-1, the elected board of the Cabrillo Unified School District voted to support AB 1991, a bill that seeks to exempt the 129-house Beachwood subdivision from all state and local environmental laws. Why is the school board once again meddling in controversial land-use politics? Didn’t members learn anything from the last time they ventured into the development speculation game, i.e., Wavecrest? That fiasco delayed construction of the new middle school by at least five years and escalated construction costs by at least $10 million. Why can’t the school board just stick to the job it was elected to, which is to improve the quality of the local schools? Our schools have serious academic achievement problems. Student enrollment is declining because people who have the means to do so are taking flight from the district to obtain a better education for their children. It’s no wonder that five consecutive parcel tax votes have failed. A sixth failure is now assured. All of this demonstrates a failure of leadership. The parents, teachers and students of the school district are being ill-served by the current board. The lone dissenting vote in the board’s latest misstep came from John Moseley, who should be congratulated for having the integrity to stand up to the cabal that is corrupting the school board’s mission. Kevin J. Lansing Half Moon Bay |