Union Mine High School conversion By Letters to the Editor From page A5 | December 22, 2014 It is time to recognize that the building of Union Mine High School was a mistake. It continues as a mistake and unless the folks of Diamond/El Dorado wish to see some major development it will always be a mistake. Given this truth, what can be done to fix the Union Mine dilemma? First: I would like to state that the schooling going on at Union Mine is not the problem. The problem is that Union Mine is in the wrong place and this letter only intended to address that issue. Second: What can be done to fix this? Union Mine should be converted to a community college or other upper education facility. This could be to make it a part of the Los Rios Community College District or the preferable site for the University of California at Davis to have a satellite facility. There are many other possibilities that could be determined by studying this issue. On Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. the El Dorado Union High School District (EDUHSD) Board of Trustees is going to put on a High School Boundary Line Placement seminar (my words) at Oak Ridge High School in the cafeteria. I want to thank Catie Phemester for her never-ceasing work to make this meeting possible. The public is welcome. But in the meantime I am creating a public committee to do a study on the possible transfer of this site to another institution. Third: What do we expect to achieve with this transfer? This change would create a place for the youth of El Dorado County to pursue their educations. The school might offer degrees in the medical arts such as nursing or X-ray technology, or have offerings in enology/viniculture/viticulture to produce students who could actually use their education to pursue a career. There will be many other opportunities that we cannot even dream of at this time. Fourth: What about the students that are presently enrolled at Union Mine? Where will they go to high school and who is worried about their commute? El Dorado High School and Ponderosa High School are presently about 280 students short of capacity and Union Mine is 535 students short of capacity with 1,065 students. The students would be transferred to El Dorado and Ponderosa to bring their enrollments to capacity and the remainder would be assigned to Oak Ridge High School or to a new high school at the south end of the El Dorado Hills Business Park, which is referred to as Iron Horse High School and will sit on about 60 of the 192 acres presently owned by the EDUHSD. This letter is intended to get the citizens of El Dorado County involved in the decision process and to give our best effort at securing a future for the young citizens of El Dorado County, giving them ever better commute opportunities and enhanced educational opportunities. I hope you agree. If you would like to participate please contact me at steve@steveferry and let’s work together. STEVE FERRY El Dorado Hills
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:21:47 +0000
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