$1 • Friday, January 19, 2018 • Vol. 124, No.3 • morganhilltimes.com • Serving Morgan Hill since 1894
LOCAL SCENE Magical Bridge fundraiser Stratford School’s Morgan Hill campus will host a Family Benefit Game Night from 6:30pm to 8pm Jan. 19 to benefit the construction of a Magical Bridge Playground in Morgan Hill’s Community Park. Magical Bridge Playgrounds are designed to address the complex needs of the entire population living with disabilities, from the physical to the cognitive. Stratford School’s goal is to raise $10,000 for the playground. Stratford School, located at 410 Llagas Road, is a leading independent private school that offers an unparalleled education where tradition meets 21st century learning, according to the press release.
Oakwood open house Families and prospective students are invited to Oakwood School’s Jan. 20 open house, from 10am to 12pm. Learn more about Morgan Hill’s independent, non-sectarian, collegepreparatory school for students in preschool through 12th grade. The Open house is a fun, family event. The school is located at 105 John Wilson Way. For more information, visit oakwoodway.org.
Learn from UCCE Master Gardener Glen Lattig how to build a raised vegetable bed
➝ Local Scene, 16
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
JANUARY 19, 2018
A section of the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
OU T & AB OU T OF NDAR CA LE EN TS EV
Teaching for Life
Robert Eliason
Build a vegetable bed A KICK IN THE WALLET Oakwood School’s Jacobo Orozco battles for the ball during the varsity boys soccer team’s Jan. 16 match against Pacific Collegiate at the Morgan Hill Outdoor Sports Complex, which hosts local sports teams and regional tournaments throughout the year.
Youth leagues rip fee proposal MHUSD BOARD TO VOTE JAN. 23 ON THE INCREASED CHARGES
Morgan Hill’s Learning and Loving Center awarded Nonprofit of the Year
Inside this issue: Teaching to empower
THEATER AUDITIONS P8 | EXOTIC GARDEN SPECIMENS P14 | GETTING OUT P16
Scott Forstner Reporter
Morgan Hill school district brass are standing pat with their proposal to dramatically increase sports facility use rates to offset thousands in annual maintenance costs, while local youth leagues
are boiling over the abrupt plan that could severely impact their membership fees. Representatives from many of the affected leagues, including Orchard Valley Toros Soccer, PONY Baseball, NFL Flag Football and Spirit Softball of Morgan Hill, met with Morgan Hill Unified School District staff earlier this month to discuss the proposed change from a daily to an hourly rate. Those youth league representatives left the
meeting still discouraged by the district’s plan, which they said would cause some individual organizations’ annual facility rental costs to jump by thousands of dollars. The district has been charging a $15 per day, per facility fee to use school site fields. However, school officials are proposing a steady rate hike over the next three years with an hourly rate climbing to as much as $38.58 for nonprofit
leagues and $77.17 for commercial use, according to a breakdown of the latest figures produced by the district. After the Jan. 3 sitdown at the district office, district staff notified league reps via email of the slightly reduced hourly rates from their initial proposal, which will go before Morgan Hill’s school board for approval at the Jan. 23 meeting. “We want to continue to partner with our
community organizations to ensure recreation activities are available for our youth, but the district cannot provide access to facilities at a detriment to the district’s educational program,” wrote school district Executive Secretary Allison Murray in an email sent Jan. 12 to the local sports leagues. But how much additional funds the district will generate from their new plan is up ➝ Facilities, 11
Homeowners question city’s BMR program LETTER CAUGHT BELOW MARKET RATE OWNERS BY SURPRISE Michael Moore Editor
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Picture a school where...
learning is more intentional.
Janet and Tom Pocus are nearing the twilight of their 30-year agreement with the City of Morgan Hill that has established their home in the Sunrise Meadows neighborhood as part
of the Below Market Rate home ownership program. They’re looking forward to the expiration of that contract when, anticipating retirement, they will finally own their home without any further financial obligations or restrictions on what they can do with the property. But the Pocuses and some of their neighbors are worried that recent correspondence from the city’s affordable housing
administrator—as well as many changes to the BMR program since they moved in—might delay, or even eliminate their quest for the American dream. The Sunrise Meadows community—located off Calle Mazatan north of East Main Avenue—consists of about 60 homes. Janet Pocus said all of the homes were built in the early 1990s as part of the city’s vast affordable housing program.
On a tip from her sister, Janet said she and Tom— who had three small children at the time—put their name in the city’s BMR lottery when Sunrise Meadows, which was developed by now-defunct South County Housing, was in the planning stages. “They drew our name, and we got to choose the (home) we wanted,” Janet said in the family living room one evening in December. “We
got to walk through the walls” during construction. The couple in 1994 paid about $156,000 for the home, which was 75 percent of the fair market value. Under the city’s BMR program, home sales prices are marked down to varying levels that correspond to the new household’s percentage of the Area Median Income. In Sunrise Meadows, the homes sold to families at ➝ BMR, 15
At Oakwood we foster creativity, discipline, intelligence, and unbounded joy. Can you picture your child here? To learn more about our educational philosophy, come tour our scenic Morgan Hill campus, meet our teachers and students, and observe our learning in action. Our family looks forward to meeting yours.
Preschool through Grade 12 Morgan Hill pictureoakwood.com 408-782-7177
Please join us at our Open House! Saturday, January 20th 10am to noon