On Monday, June 16, 2014, the Simi Valley Unified School District will hold a Public Hearing on the potential closure of Simi Elementary School. This is not a board meeting and no decision will be made at the hearing. The hearing’s purpose is strictly to hear public comment on the issue.
Simi Elementary School has been the topic of many SVUSD School Board meetings and much public discourse for several months, beginning with the District Advisory Committee’s (DAC) request in January that the School Board decide what would be done to repair the front/main building before the DAC makes a recommendation on the school’s future.
Shortly after this, the entire school body was relocated to Mountain View Elementary, amid serious concerns about the safety of the entire Simi Elementary School campus. The physical campus has remained vacant since then, pending further School Board action, but the school continues to operate separately at the Mountain View campus.
The link below will direct you to a comprehensive timeline documenting the history of Simi Elementary School’s physical campus over the past 10 years, beginning shortly after the 2004 passage of Measure C4, the $145 million facilities and technology bond to modernize all of the District’s campuses. This information has been gathered to factually answer the many questions and concerns about how the campus was maintained over the years; what Measure C4 Bond funds and additional monies were spent on maintaining and improving the campus; and how the District and School Board responded to the rapid physical decline of the campus.
Simi Valley Schools Blog 
Unless you’re going to do this for EVERY school in the district that had repairs, and include ALL repair costs in the C-4 bond money allocation for each school, as you appear to have done for Simi Elementary, and show them all side-by-side, this is immaterial. Also, please be careful that your “facts” are accurate, as I’m sure you wouldn’t want to mislead the people of Simi Valley. Thank you.
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Ms. Hollander: The facts presented here are accurate. This timeline is NOT specific to Measure C4, though that information is included. It is a history of all of the work, inspections, reports and board actions involved with this property over the last decade. We are gathering some of the other schools’ info to show the comparison, but still believe that Simi Elementary’s history stands on its own. We’ve asked for the next oldest school (Lincoln Elementary), the newest school (Wood Ranch) and the physically largest school as comparison (that campus TBD still). If you have a question about a specific citation or reference within the timeline, please feel free to reach out to me directly and I will be happy to provide additional information. My email is jake.finch@simivalleyusd.org. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
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I realized that I misread the expenses as C-4 expenses after I posted the comment, but I couldn’t figure out how to edit my comment while it was waiting to be approved for posting, so I apologize for my misunderstanding. It doesn’t really change my main point about the comparison to other schools, though. Also, I don’t know if you were at the public hearing tonight, but Sue Koch was there and directly addressed your report. If there is a way for you to get in touch with her, perhaps it would be a good idea, as she had a lot to add in terms of context, and specific correction, and as hers is the name on many of the work orders, she would really be the person for you to talk to for clarity. Thank you for your response.
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p Please save simi elementary!!!!!!!!! from Chris Morin my first grader loves his school and so do I.
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Me too! We’re doing our best!
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