Don't Sell Our School Property

By Larry Sweeney, Jr.

Once a property is gone, we will never be able to get it back!

Under the current Master Plan, as proposed by the Administration and approved by the Board, our schools can be closed, and our property could be sold. Those students can be sent to different schools, and their teachers to different assignments, all this in the pursuit of raising money.

This is ridiculous! It is a short term fix for a long term problem. We need to be able to have adequate classrooms and facilities for our present student population, as well as for our projected future needs. Additionally, studies have shown, reducing the number of students in a classroom leads to an increased opportunity for higher, more productive learning.

In Fremont, all of our kindergarten, first, and second grade classes are now at a 20:1 ratio of students per teacher. Many of our third grade classes are as well. We are in the process of having all of our 9th grade freshmen math classes benefit from this same 20:1 ratio.

We are the fourth largest city in Silicon Valley, and we continue to grow. More families are moving into Fremont on a daily basis. It simply does not make sense to sell our school property.

If anything, we should be exploring opportunities to increase the number of classrooms we currently have, to be better able to accommodate our growing population.