The Cupertino Courier

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

High-density development
is shortchanging schools

Last week my son and I rode our bicycles to Eaton Elementary, where he enjoys playing handball. Half of the handball court was gone, covered by another portable classroom. Lawson, our newest middle school, just got two portables; Kennedy and Miller each has 10. Collins lacks room for more portables, and they're transferring students to Eaton. District-wide, more than 10 more portables are coming.

The developers and city council always claim the students generated by their high-density projects can be accommodated by the district, omitting the fact that they're accommodated by installing portables onto blacktops and playing fields. CUSD knows portables are the only solution; tax revenues generated by the new housing aren't nearly enough to construct proper buildings.

Each new portable means 30 additional students, but no expansion of the library, computer lab, gymnasium, auditorium, conservatory, locker rooms, café, playgrounds, playing fields, etc. Schools with many portables have even added portable restrooms. Portables were designed to temporarily handle unexpected influxes of students. Instead, they are permanently degrading the quality of our schools with the overcrowding they cause.

The developers and city council are destroying our schools by adding so much high-density housing, without the essential infrastructure. Rezoning commercial to residential ensures the schools will be underfunded and overcrowded forever; the developers don't care, nor does the city council.

Hopefully, the new CUSD superintendent will stop kowtowing to developers and the city council, and will speak out against the uncontrolled growth that's destroying Cupertino and its schools.

Steven Scharf

Somerset Drive