It’s impossible to overstate the potential threat Ojai’s public schools face as a result of Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to education. As a community, we must come together now to call, email, and write our elected leaders and demand that education funding be preserved.

            If we ignore this threat, two or three of our neighborhood elementary schools may be forced to close. Really.

            If we are successful in forestalling school closures this year, the picture is still grim: school libraries and computer labs are on the chopping block, as well as a whole array of support services, too many to list.

            Ojai Unified School District is not alone in this crisis; dozens of school districts across the state face the same hardship this year, and by next year, hundreds of school districts statewide may be unable to put together workable budgets due to educational funding cuts.

            Ojai schools face a more severe crisis because, in addition to state funding cuts, our district’s enrollment has been dropping for several years. And as enrollment drops, per pupil funding drops along with it.  Add the Governor’s proposed cuts to the reductions caused by declining enrollment, and we have a real crisis on our hands.

Ojai’s elementary schools are much more than just classrooms, teachers, and kids. Closing an elementary school will eliminate the most vital gathering center in the neighborhood. It will force additional car trips for many kids that now ride bikes or walk to school. Opportunities for kids to connect to people and resources in their own neighborhoods will disappear. The schools that will receive our displaced kids will have to absorb hundreds of students from outside the neighborhood, few of which will be arriving on foot or by bike.

And a school site will be abandoned, turning a neighborhood’s most valued resource into nothing more than an attractive nuisance.

School district officials estimate that closing Summit School will net a savings of $30,000, while closing either Meiners Oaks or Mira Monte will save $300,000. One assumes that the savings from closing San Antonio would fall somewhere in the middle. I understand that at some point, the numbers have to be crunched, but how do we place a value on neighborhood connections? How much for our history, our heritage?

            The whole community must participate if we are going to save our neighborhood schools. Our schools need the support not just of individuals, but of other groups: businesses, churches, non-profits, other government agencies.

            The Ojai Education Foundation, (with whom I am not affiliated), has earned high praise over the years as the primary non-profit supporting our schools. And they are already working in partnership with school administration to provide support for lost services. They need your support. Their website is ojaief.org.

            The School Board will meet again to hear public comment and may take action on cuts on April 1 at 6:00 p.m. The district’s website is www.ojai.k12.ca.us.

            Also, please write or email Governor Schwarzenegger, Assemblywoman Strickland, and Senator McClintock demanding that educational funding be preserved. The next two weeks are most crucial. If we delay, we may lose several of our neighborhoods’ elementary schools.

Glenn Fout is the father of a 1^st grader at Meiners Oaks Elementary School.