Wiseburn Unification

By Joanne L. Kaneda

Unfortunately, the Centinela Valley Union High School District (CVUHSD) was so afraid to lose the Wiseburn tax base and the few Wiseburn students who attend CVUHSD high schools that they quickly filed 2 lawsuits that successfully blocked a unification vote in the community, spending millions of taxpayer education dollars on legal fees and stalling the Wiseburn unification effort. In addition, in the past year we lost Mayor Gordon, one of our strongest unification supporters at the State level, and our chief petitioner John Peterson moved out of the district.

We have a new chief petitioner, Lydia Rodriguez, one of the original petitioners, and the unification petition is in review at the State level at this time. We are exploring options for Wiseburn unification, and the petitioners and community will use the next several months to determine the course of action going forward. Unification has been a dream for Wiseburn for many years. We want to be realistic about the possibility of unification and explore alternatives for our own Wiseburn High School. If unification becomes an unreachable goal, the community will explore other alternatives, perhaps a charter school.