Parents Upset Over School Project Delays

After nearly a year of effort, Walnut Canyon Elementary School will finally receive a canopy for its outside lunch area.

It comes just in time for summer vacation.

And that’s what has Moorpark parents complaining. They say school officials are taking too long on school projects and are unhappy they have to foot the bill for certain improvements.

Jill Flyer, a parent, said the lunch area should have been finished long ago. The price of the canopy rose from an original estimate of $10,000 to $21,000, another frustration for the parents who raised the money to buy the cover.

“It is frustrating to have meetings with district officials and not get a straight answer,” Flyer said.

But Moorpark Unified School District officials say that parents need to be more understanding.

“Most people don’t understand the legal paperwork we have to go through to get something authorized,” said Steve Hayward, director of maintenance and operation facilities. “Not only that, we have more than just one school to worry about.”

Hayward said the canopy cost more than expected because school officials bought one that was more durable.

Other parents are concerned about having to privately raise funds for a public project. The newly constructed school is just completing its first year of instruction.

“The school district should have built these lunch covers when they built the school,” said Debbie Woerner, a Walnut Canyon School parent. “Since when do PTAs have to pay for school building materials?”

School board members said the reason is that school district officials opted for more classrooms.

“The state looks at school sites by the total amount of square footage,” school board member Mindy Yaras said. “If we included a shade structure it would take away from square footage that could have been used for a classroom.”