Huron’s Mayor Rey León, Senator Ana Caballero, State Superintendent of Schools, Tony Thurmond, Coalinga Huron Unified School District Superintendent Lori Villanueva and Francisco Chavez, a CHUSD Board member from Huron, met in Huron City Council Chambers in Huron Friday afternoon, May 26. The discussion was focused on Huron’s need for a local high school. Parents and students from Huron have been asking for this change for more than a decade.
Championed eloquently and vigorously by León and several other community members including Ruben Rodriguez and others have been the driving force keeping the issue of a high school for Huron front and center in the attention of CHUSD.
While the details of how this project will be financed and how the programs will be able to function smoothly between the two locations still to be worked out, the major victory for students and their families in Huron is the certainty that the plan is official. A press conference was held following the meeting with multiple media outlets attending.
Following the press conference, attendees were invited to gather at a recently donated 50 acre land site where the proposed school will be built. It sits directly adjacent to Huron Middle School’s southern edge and the property’s western edge is on Lassen Avenue on the edge of Huron City limits.
Although a Huron High School appears to have been promised by the state of California, it remains to be seen if the CHSUD Board will approve this endeavor. With no actual money to support the plan, the board may choose to table the issue until such time that financial support is been established.
One excited Huron resident at the meeting asked when he could line up to help out with his shovel. Building this (or any) school requires a lot more than a lick and a promise.
This News story is extremely fresh and subject to change as more information is confirmed or becomes available.
