Poway Unified School District trustees voted Tuesday night to sell a piece of land to help pay its bills.
The Rancho Bernardo Water tower land was donated to the district. Now, the district wants to sell it to a private developer and put the money into its general fund.
One after another, community members asked the board not to sell now but to find a way to turn the land into a park.
"Their budget, they're doing a short-term fix to a long-term deal,” said Rancho Bernardo resident Nick Anastasopoulos. “It's not right what they're doing."
PUSD Superintendent John Collins disagreed saying every year the district is millions of dollars short of what they need.
"It is the responsibility of this board, and this administration to provide for the 35,000 students who attend this school district. It is not our responsibility to provide parks for the community," Collins said.
Despite that overwhelming opposition, the board voted to go ahead and try and sell the land.
Also on the board’s agenda was a 24-page report on whether the school district did anything wrong or illegal when selling $105 million worth of bonds that will cost roughly ten times that to pay back.
Collins told the board the report found no wrong doing. Reporter Will Carless with our media partner, the Voice of San Diego said the report "provides scant information."
The public will have two weeks to look it over, and then discuss it at a meeting next month.