SAUSD Parent Delegation Treks to Capital to Ask Governor to Vote for Clean Land for Schools

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For Immediate Release

SAUSD Parent Delegation Treks to Capital to Ask Governor to Vote for Clean Land for Schools

SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, Jun. 27 -/E-Wire/-- After travelling all night by bus, 100 parents from the City of Santa Ana arrived today at California's capital to secure support for their neighborhood schools.

Santa Ana Unified School District is the 5th most populous public school district in California -- larger than San Francisco Unified. Santa Ana is a land-locked, urban city, which follows Chicago on a national list of the 10 most densely populated American cities. The SAUSD population is 98% Latino and Asian students.

Half of the District's 60,000 students attend class daily in portable classrooms that have swallowed up land for recreation and athletic areas. At most campuses the population is 200% what they were designed to serve; 80% operate on Year-Round, Multi-Track schedules. In November 1999, voters approved a multi-million dollar bond issue for school construction. The money to build schools is now within grasp, but land for construction is nearly non-existent.

There are 1,600 acres of federal property at the closed Marine Corps Air Station located immediately south in the City of Tustin. This windfall to the community includes 160 acres within the school district's legal boundaries, but Tustin and the school district are embroiled in a land struggle that began in 1994 and led to Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Additionally, two lawsuits have been filed -- one challenging Tustin's environmental report, an essential part of the Base Reuse Plan, and one charging Tustin with discrimination against SAUSD students.

State Senator Joe Dunn and Assemblymember Lou Correa sponsored SB 874 and AB 212 to ensure that the school district receives land for schools. They are moving through the Senate and Assembly and should reach the Governor's desk next week, or shortly thereafter.

SAUSD has the support of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Navy to participate in the land redistribution. Still, Tustin refuses to provide land for SAUSD in the Base Reuse Plan. The only land offer they have made consisted of 22 acres so toxic that one expert said it might never meet state standards for school construction.

Dr. Denise Clendening, an environmental scientist, said, "As a mother and a scientist, I would not permit my child to attend a school built on that land.' Amazingly, Tustin still claims their land offers are good enough for SAUSD children and clings to their vision of golf courses and high-end homes. It was recently learned that a Wal-Mart is slated for construction on the land within SAUSD's boundaries.

Angel Navarro, mother and grandmother to several Santa Ana school children and a member of the 100 Acres Delegation, stated: "Offering our children 22 acres of toxic land, and withholding the land that rightfully belongs to our school district, is like asking Rosa Parks to move to the back of the bus. That was not good enough for her, and it's not good enough for our children.'

The delegation of 100 parents rallied at a news conference on the west steps of the State Capital where concerned parents spoke out about the eight-year struggle for land. They then spoke with state leaders including Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante about SB 874 and AB 212, which ensure clean land for Santa Ana schools.

Santa Ana Unified School District

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