By: Oz

Oz — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:56:57 +0000

“School closure is a sign of a community in the final phase of the death process, not a cause.” That’s how one study on school closings reported in the Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research concluded, with many other peer-reviewed studies showing similar findings. I’m a former teacher, having worked with a number of local school districts (including the FCUSD) and the Sacramento County Office of Education. Only a few years ago I served on the PTA of a Rancho Cordova public school. When my oldest child was in Kindergarten, you could usually count the number of parent participants at our monthly school PTA meetings on one hand. Years later, the number and parents in attendance was not much different. I can remember how I and other school PTA volunteers even went door-to-door, passing out fliers, and hoping to get some of our Rancho Cordova residents and neighbors to help volunteer. How many Rancho residents living near the elementary school did we find that were willing to help tutor elementary-aged kids in basic math, or help a local child learn to read? Zero. Going door-to-door, I saw how television reruns of Jerry Springer and Wheel of Fortune shows were much more important to R.C. residents than the needs of youngsters living nearby. With more-than-I-expected adults puffing on cigarettes and indulging in alcohol-laden drinks at home in the middle of the day, it was apparent that R.C. residents living on depression, unemployment checks, welfare, social security, and meager-feeling retirement had little inclination to help others. Other R.C. residents told me they were too stressed, overworked, or busy already to even be involved in helping youngsters. These days my children come home from FCUSD schools with notes and newsletters asking me to provide a ream of paper, pencils, and other basic school supplies. That is how pitiful our local school district has become: Local kids reduced to begging for pencils. Throughout the FCUSD teachers and administrators spend their energy and game students and parents into running bake sales, selling coupon books, provide materials for raffles, and doing other fundraisers to keep in operation–instead of focussing on what they were hired to do (teach and provide educational leadership). Yet, because of local school district fiscal mismanagement and the finagling that California school districts must play to spend taxpayer funding, the FCUSD still has plenty of millions of dollars to apply on SMART boards, new HVAC systems, computers, new buses and playground equipment, school remodeling and fixtures, relandscaping and other taxpayer-provided expenses. So close a couple of local schools. This insanity of educational spending on the wrong priorities has to end.

By: Richelle

Richelle — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:28:43 +0000

I think it is absolutely ridiculous that one of the factors for closing Cordova Lane is the Title 1 funding and newcomers program! Our school is punished because we are not a lower income school, or not an immigrant. When did we start turning away middle class or non-immigrants in order to help those migrating to the USA…something is definitely wrong here.

By: Larry Ladd

Larry Ladd — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:05:05 +0000

I’m wondering if there is any way they can finagle diverting Measure N funds from Lane, Riverview, Kinney, Walnutwood, Cordova High, etc. to jumpstarting Mather High/Morrison Creek Middle Schools, which are Measure M (developer community property taxes, i.e. Aerojet, Elliott Homes, AKT) schools. Are Mather High/Morrison Creek still scheduled for construction in 2013?

Comments on: FCUSD Recommends Closing Riverview and Cordova Lane Elementaries

By: Oz

By: Richelle

By: Larry Ladd