[SDCPJ] Southwestern College Board meeting July 8 at 6:30 p.m.

From Veronica Lavarello vlavarello1@gmail.com
Please contact her for more info

As you may know, Blackwater and Southwestern College (SWC) signed an
agreement that lets the SWC Police Academy students use the Blackwater
Otay Mesa facility. According to SWC, they couldn't keep using the
Sheriff's firing range for their students because of their inability to
schedule the trainings ahead.

This is a lie!

I personally visited all the firing ranges listed by the SWC staff,
which they claimed are not available to them. I found out that six out
the seven facilities are indeed available to use for their students. I
spoke with several people at the Sheriff's range who told me they were
surprised to find out through the news that SWC claimed not to be able
to use their facilities.

During the last meeting at SWC Governing Board on June 10, I informed
the Board Members and President of these facts. Last week, I sent them a
request to include a discussion of terminating the contract with
Blackwater in their next meeting agenda (this coming Wednesday the
8th). They have not responded yet. I sent another letter asking them to
terminate the contract with Blackwater since they have other options to
their students. I am attaching those letters and the table that they
provided to the public with the corrections the research revealed (in
green).

This is our moment of need. Ray will not be able to attend this coming
meeting. We need speakers to show up and keep pressing the issue that
they must terminate the contract immediately. They need to send their
students back to the Sheriff's range, which by the way they had used for
the previous twenty years without any problems.

The Sheriff's range is available to them at no cost for the next six
months and afterwards for a fee of $300 per group of 32 students for 4
hours. The Police Academy students only need 14 sessions of 4 hours to
complete their program, so the cost to their students is really minimal,
about $140 for the entire training. What is very clear to me is that
someone at the SWC Police Academy purposely misled the Board to believe
they had no other options but Blackwater. The Board should had known
better, of course. Some of the Board Members expressed in a previous
meeting that if we could investigate other choices, they were willing to
consider them, so we must keep pressing on the availability of the
Sheriff's range since is a public institution unlike the others.

I know you have one hundred other battles to fight. I also know there
is a great movie at the Public library the same night, but honestly, I
believe that if we keep pressing they will terminate the contract.

Today, I spoke with Horacio Rentería from El Latino newspaper who will
try to write an article this week. El Latino runs 80,000 issues and is
read by about 240,000 people, so I hope this puts more pressure on the
Board.

I sure hope you come. Please forward this message to people you know may
come.

The Place is SWC in Chula Vista, Ave L, Room 214 Time 6:30 p.m Be on
time because the Board is doing their best to avoid people from speaking up.

Saludos,

Veronica