Wants charter school approved

I am a grandparent of a student in fourth grade at Los Senderos Open School. It has been a wonderful environment for her since kindergarten, and we were looking forward to her continuing there through eighth grade. The teachers, the staff and the parents are all dedicated to the philosophy of the open school, which will not be duplicated anywhere else within the Pleasant Valley School District.

I was deeply disappointed to say the least by the school board's decision to move Los Senderos to Rancho Rosal and eliminate grades six, seven, and eight.

I believe they were pressured by Dr. Ken Moffett and the district staff to make a hasty decision without enough study to prove that this will save the district money to increase teachers' salaries.

On the contrary, that decision and the decision to eliminate the upper grades at Santa Rosa Technology Magnet School will cost the district money because of the number of disgruntled parents who will put their children in private schools or home school them.

I feel the school board has no idea of the ramifications of their decision.

For many parents of students at Los Senderos, a charter school is the only option to maintain the open philosophy that drew them to Los Senderos in the first place.

Rancho Rosal is not committed to that philosophy, as was obvious when my daughter attended a meeting there with their school staff.

My granddaughter needs an open K-eight environment, and the charter school is the only thing that will give her that. I hope the board will work with CAPE to speed this process along. Bonnie Miller Camarillo