Time to Mend Fences

The issue is a school driveway but the level of bickering is strictly playground.

For five years, residents around the Conejo Valley Adult School have complained to the Thousand Oaks City Council about traffic taking shortcuts through their semirural neighborhood to enter the school through its back gate.

Finally, last August, the city blocked off that entrance with a row of plastic barricades. That eased the traffic problem along Waverly Heights Drive but left the Conejo Valley Unified School District trustees feeling infringed upon. And what should have been a simple exercise in problem solving has mushroomed into an absurd and potentially costly battle of egos.

“Get your barricades off our property,” the school board told the city council.

“Will not,” replied the council.

“Will too,” replied the school board. “We’ll sue!”

And there things sat for five more months.

At a Jan. 15 meeting of school, parks and city officials, schools Supt. Jerry Gross said his board would forget the lawsuit if the barricades were torn down. In return, he pledged that the school’s back gate would remain closed to student traffic except in cases of emergency and rare special events.

And that, good people of Thousand Oaks, should be the end of that.

But no.

Last week the City Council wasted a hot 90 minutes debating whether the trustees could be trusted to do as they’d promised. The council sensibly rejected a recommendation that would have required a written agreement from school leaders to reduce enrollment and cap the number of classes in exchange for the barrier coming down. That’s not traffic control, that’s a hostage situation.

But the hostile reception left the school board on the verge of following through on its threat to sue the city, and Councilman Andy Fox was dispatched to mend fences.

Dave Woodruff, principal of the school, noted that if the city removes the barrier and the school closes the gate, the problem will vanish.

“This is taking more energy than it’s worth,” he said in an eloquent understatement. “Yes, this has become a turf war.”

Who will pay for this costly clanging of egos? And what will be gained by the expense?

These are the same school trustees who swore to voters last November that they needed an extra $97 million to keep up the district’s schools. For them now to spend even one nickel on this frivolous lawsuit is obscene.

Yet by getting the school board’s promise to close the gate, the City Council has achieved exactly what its constituents have sought for five years.

Quit while you’re ahead, folks. Remove the barricade. Lock the gate. Spend your time--and our money--on things that really matter.

Or else taxpayers should send the whole bunch of you to the principal’s office.