Pinnacle Editorial: Economics trump need in school expansion debate

If high school district officials hope to gain voters’ trust in supporting a bond measure to build a second campus, they must adjust their current direction of rushing toward groundbreaking on this monumental proposal.
San Benito High School trustees recently voted 3-2 in hiring a consultant to analyze options for expansion that include acquiring land for a second campus, building a second campus or adding on to the Monterey Street site. Trustees Mary Encinias and Evelyn Muro showed restraint and understanding of these economic times, while Tim Shellito, William Tiffany and Ray Rodriguez don’t seem to understand the breadth of financial problems for local families.
Trustees must slow this fast-moving train and do it soon or they will end up wasting time and resources on a doomed proposal. In a county whose economic indicators are much worse off than most others statewide and nationally, it just doesn’t seem like an appropriate time to request that voters start paying for what could end up being the costliest public project proposal in San Benito County’s history.
Rodriguez even boasted that a bond could potentially succeed with voters in the near future because the district in recent years has been fiscally responsible. Perceptions of fiscal responsibility have nothing to do with decisions when individual residents simply can’t afford it or lack willingness to commit anymore of the little discretionary money they have left.
Reasonable people will agree: San Benito High School District needs a second campus – 2,900 students are more than enough. That doesn’t mean that people in this district, encompassing most of the county outside the San Juan and Aromas areas, can afford another campus right now.
High school officials, however, appear intent on moving ahead relatively soon. Finance official Debbie Fisher noted that school leaders five years ago conducted an expansion study – and how much of that information is now outdated and irrelevant because it “was based on a different vision and community.” That would seem to indicate that school officials would expect to break ground within the next few years, which amounts to a Hail Mary at best. Why else would they invest $45,000 on another study examining expansion options if the data would be clouded beyond repair by 2017?
It merely underscores they are out of touch with most of the community.