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Fight for Wiseburn unification
Daily Breeze, Letters to the Editor,
June 10, 2005
Effective July 1, I must resign as chief petitioner of the Wiseburn
School District unification effort due to my recent promotion for an
Air Force position in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, there is a
selection process to replace me.
I surely count it a privilege to represent the Wiseburn community
for better secondary educational options for our children. But, let
it be known to the Centinela Valley Union High School District and
its multiple staff of lawyers that this grass-roots community effort
will prevail and win with Lydia Rodriguez, Rosie Connor-O'Donnell
and my replacement at the helm.
Centinela has spent nearly a million dollars of public funds in
fighting our rights for better education. "That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among the People, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed -- that whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their safety and happiness."
The Wiseburn unification effort absolutely did that by collect
signatures in two months and by winning at the county level, at the
state level and in the courts. To date, the Wiseburn chief
petitioners has spent no money on attorney fees!
Wiseburn's six reasons for our unification were derived from the
summation of years and years of mismanagement and abuse in
Centinela's high schools. "But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is People's right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards
for their future security."
This is a call for those who are able to assist in throwing off the
appalling and ghastly management and operations of Centinela Valley.
There is a call for investigations by independent auditors on CV
expenditures of Measure C bond funds as well as the use of other
public funds. Parents and Citizens for a Better Quality Education
will hopefully pursue its fight against any future Centinela bonds
and for the recall two of Centinela school board members before the
Nov. 8 elections so five new CV school board members can provide new
district leadership.
Also, the Wiseburn community and Parents and Citizens for a Better
Quality Education should support the Lawndale unification effort due
to its willingness throw off the educational tyrants of Centinela as
Wiseburn had chosen to do.
There should be a public outcry, not by mere words but by action,
for change and the end of CV rule over our children's secondary
education! I wanted to make a difference as a chief petitioner, so
can Wiseburn residents, especially when it comes to our children. It
is our future, not Centinela's, and we must protect the children and
their future.
Get involved and make a difference.
-- JOHN PETERSON
Wiseburn Unification Chief Petitioner Hawthorne |