Sorry to say that the Long Beach Unified School District could not find anyone to attend the community meeting held last night to discuss the proposed conversion of DeMille Middle School to a high school. I know there are graduations this week, but honestly, I cannot believe that LBUSD facilities management hands out diplomas. Someone should have been there from the school district to provide an update.
That being said, the City Traffic Engineer, Dave Roseman, did an excellent job explaining some of the potential traffic problems that actually exist today and would be made worse if more traffic trips were generated by a high school population.
I had to remind the 7o residents plus in attendance not to "shoot the messenger." As Roseman pointed out, LBSUD has no legal requirement to discuss the plan or the traffic impact with the City of Long Beach because they are governed by the Board of Education (5 members elected by the voters of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill and Avalon) and the State and County Department of Education.
I am compiling the commments made by participants last night and will foward them with another request to the LBUSD to hold community meetings with residents to provide updates. Afterall, not one person in attendance in the December 2008 meeting received a response from the LBUSD to the questions they wrote on the cards provided by school district staff.
Legal requirements aside. It is not being a "good neighbor" to ignore the good neighbors who live across the street from the project site.
