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Editorial
District better hope that timing isn't everything
The West Valley-Mission College Community College District badly needs to win support for Measure E, the $268,653,300 million bond measure on the March 5 ballot. Bond approval is needed to bring WVC's aging campus up to health and safety standards and to modernize and equip science and computer labs, classrooms and job-training facilities. Mission College needs to complete the building of its campus.
This is just about the time in a campaign when supporters should begin getting out their message to voters with brochures, phone calls and letters-to-the-editor in local newspapers. Supporters should be putting out positive messages about the good things that both West Valley and Mission Community colleges have accomplished.
Instead, the district is putting out fires.
The district--and more specifically, the West Valley College campus in Saratoga--has been the subject of a coordinated campaign, waged primarily by WVC neighbors, to discredit the district and derail the bond. The opposition's campaign is being waged on a foundation of innuendo and half-truths, leaving the district in a defensive posture at the very moment when it should be going full-steam ahead in a positive mode.
It seems clear that the real impetus for the opposition's fiercely negative campaign is the small portion of the bond money that would be allocated to improving and upgrading athletic facilities. Some 30 years ago, when the city of Saratoga approved construction of the West Valley campus, it made a condition of approval that the district not build a large-scale sports stadium.
A court has ruled that the college is not bound by the stadium condition imposed by the city, but the city is now appealing that decision.
The college says it doesn't want to build a stadium, just upgrade its inadequate facility with bleachers--so spectators don't have to bring their own folding chairs to games--and add the basic amenities common to most high school fields.
In the midst of all this turmoil, as the district tries to dig out from under the barbs and arrows that are flying from all directions, Chancellor Linda Graef Salter decided it would be a dandy time to announce her retirement. She's been thinking about it since Sept. 11, Salter says. She's looking forward to being able to sit down with a leisurely cup of coffee instead of gulping her coffee on the run.
It might make Salter feel better to know that she'll soon be able to put all the squabbling and stress behind her, but one has to wonder if she even gave a second thought to the damaging effect of such a badly timed announcement on the district she'll soon leave behind.
With friends like Salter, West Valley College really doesn't need enemies.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
