Closed Gate No Solution; School Must Move

If you think that closing the south gate to the Conejo Valley Adult School is a simple solution to a simple problem, then you do not have a complete understanding of the situation (“Time to Mend Fences,� Feb. 1).

As you took the liberty of using a picture of me standing at the south gate barricade, I am further incensed, because the article on the subject where the picture first appeared also failed to convey the real issue faced by residents of our neighborhood.

The barricade was erected at the Waverly Heights Drive entrance to the adult school by the city of Thousand Oaks for two reasons: The heavy traffic was endangering the residents of Waverly Heights Drive and the school was unresponsive to their arduous pleas to close the gate.

Not only would the barrier force the traffic issue, it would act as a wake-up call to the Conejo Valley Unified School District that the adult school had grown too large to be in a residential neighborhood and needed to be moved.

Councilman Andy Fox met with the residents on Montgomery Road, where I live, and assured us that although we would now have all of the adult school traffic on our street, he would help us in our effort to either move the school or push for alternative access to the school property.

We were not happy that all that traffic would be funneled down Montgomery to the Old Farm Road entrance, but we rationally agreed in order to work toward the ultimate goal of moving the school.

Our older equestrian neighborhood is experiencing a rebirth with new, younger families moving in. We would like the adult school to be converted back to an elementary school, in light of class-size reduction and an expanding student population.

A location for alternative access to the school could not be agreed upon. Moving the adult school in the near future is not financially feasible, according to the school board.

We have challenged the school district to mitigate the traffic and noise problems by staggering class start times, moving as many classes as possible off-site and denying access to out-of-town students. However, our ultimate objective is to move the school out of our unique neighborhood and return the site to the residents as their elementary school.

Use of this site as an adult school is incompatible with the equestrian nature of our neighborhood and creates an adverse effect on our property values and quality of life.