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Friday's Internet Edition, November 21, 2008.
Oak View seeking support of voters to expand campus facilities
Bond needed for multi-purpose room, computer lab and library
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Built in 1962, the Oak View Elementary School multi-purpose room/cafeteria is just too small to host the current enrollment at Oak View, forcing the district to employ three lunch periods, and host events outdoors only if they want the entire student body to attend.
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By Rachael Ackerman
Herald Editor
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Saying it is just too big a project to do on their own, the district board and administrators of Oak View Elementary School have approved placing a $3.7 million bond initiative on the June primary ballot to finance much-needed facilities expansion for that campus.
While adding only ten or 15 students per year to the enrollment over the past ten years may not seem like a real growth spurt to most area schools, adding that many to the campus of Oak View has pushed the district’s 40 year old facilities to the brink of their abilities.
Built in 1962, Oak View’s current multi-purpose room/cafeteria, while still in excellent condition, is just too small to host the entire Oak View student body at one time for any reason.
Growing over the past decade from an enrollment of 250 to an enrollment of nearly 400, Oak View has been forced to start running three lunch periods, and is looking at having to work in a fourth, but that isn’t even the hardest part of outgrowing their only indoor common gathering space.
“One of the most dramatic impacts is our inability to have any sort of assembly, indoors, with even half of our student population at one time,” said Oak View principal/superintendent William Chiechi. “We used to hold whole school assemblies at least once a week or so and do something together, something uplifting. That just isn’t possible now unless we do it outdoors when weather permits.”
According to Chiechi, the majority of the bond money being sought will be to fund the construction of a new multi-purpose room for the campus. Additional bond funds are intended for the remodel of the existing multi-purpose room into a permanent home for the Oak View library, a new computer lab, and some additional meeting space for teachers and staff.
Currently housed in a standard issued department of education portable, Chiechi said the Oak View library deserves to have a permanent home on campus.
“Not only could we have our library in a permanent building, we could add a computer lab to campus,” said Chiechi. “We have computers in the classrooms, but obviously, having a lab format would be extremely helpful in teaching technology concepts to the whole class at the same time.”
Named a distinguished school in California for reaching the state academic pinnacle of an 800 on the Academic Performance Index, keeping up with state standards and offering their students access to contemporary technology is a top priority at Oak View.
Adding access to sports programs has become one as well.
“We have no indoor facility for basketball or volleyball, but a lot of students who play and would like to play,” said Chiechi. “The new multi-purpose room will be large enough for a junior high school size basketball/volleyball court. We’ve had opportunities in the past to join leagues, but haven’t had the resource. We’d like to be able to offer our students the chance to compete in junior high because by the time they get to high school it is so competitive.”
Headed to the June 3 primary ballot, this won’t be the first time Oak View has asked the voters to support their need to expand.
Oak View has run for a facilities bond twice in the past nine years, failing to garner the necessary two-thirds of the vote necessary to carry the initiative.
Suffering a heart-breaking six-vote loss for a $1.8 million bond in 1999, the agony was only worse in 2005 when a $3.8 million bid for a bond failed by a mere four votes.
This time the district will seek a simple majority of 55 percent, hoping to keep the votes of Oak View supporters who have put them so close to success in the past.
“The last time Oak View passed a bond was in 1962, and that debt has been paid off since 1987. We have kept up with growth through local funds, adding three wings of permanent classrooms, all on revenue limits and developer fees. We are very careful with the people’s money at Oak View,” said Chiechi. “This is just way more money than we could possibly do with local resources. It just will not happen. If we could, we would do it.”
While first and foremost a resource and immediate benefit to the students of Oak View, Chiechi pointed out that new facilities at Oak View also mean new facilities for the rural community Oak View serves.
“This will also be a community resource that can be utilized in many ways,” said Chiechi. “It could be an enormous resource for other entities out there, and there just isn’t anything available for the community to use.”
A K-8 campus, Oak View Elementary School is located in Acampo in San Joaquin County. Students from Oak View can enroll at Galt High School.
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