Sunday, October 12, 2014

[Solano County] Paula McConnell: Use your vote to fix our schools


October 10, 2014
Vallejo Times-Herald
My Turn

When it comes to what's going on in the Vallejo school district, you can't make this stuff up. Teachers in fear of being hurt by students. Low morale among some of the lowest paid teachers in the county. Recalcitrant students calling teachers names.
All school administrators can do is implement the school board policy concept called "Restorative Justice" wherein the perpetrators are asked to discuss their behavior and "apologize" to their victims. Excuse me? This behavior should be unequivocally forbidden and never condoned. Many years ago a student conducting such violent behavior in a classroom would be thrown out, expelled, sent to a continuation school, or prison. But the Vallejo school board and current superintendent maintain that the violent students just need to talk about their actions, discuss the reason for their negative, angry behavior, and apologize to their victims.
Really?
But it gets even worse. People who were there say that at a recent school board meeting, teacher after teacher (some in tears) beseeched the school board for increased classroom safety and increased pay. Observers say the board members listening looked bored. No one should be treated with the dismissive disdain that those teachers were at the board meeting. These same school board members have also openly attacked the three Solano County Grand Jury reports outlining safety issues within the Vallejo school district. Indeed, at one meeting, it was suggested that the Solano County Grand Jury reports were motivated by race. That is preposterous! The lack of respect exhibited by the school board for these laboriously researched reports is appalling!
At that same school board meeting, just when we thought we had heard it all, another shoe dropped. A mother went to the meeting's microphone to relate her tragic story. She explained that her son had his ear almost severed by another student. He had been attacked from behind. In that case, thankfully, the student/attacker was sent to jail for assault and battery. After serving his prison sentence, the former student/prisoner has been recently returned to school "to complete his studies." Meanwhile, it seems that the policy of "Restorative Justice" is a classic case of coddling violent attackers and condoning violent behavior, while punishing the victims. Where is the structural discipline of yesteryear? Enough already!
There is furthermore talk of friends and relatives being hired in the district at high salaries, while at the same time, teachers cannot keep up with California's inflation, and students too suffer badly without a safe learning environment. What will it take before people finally get involved? Will it take more violence on our school campuses for people to finally respond? Why is there such apathy among voters?
"I don't have children in Vallejo schools, so I have not paid attention to any of this," someone told me recently. Whether you have children in Vallejo schools or not, please know this: Good families are leaving Vallejo every single day because of our low-scoring and dangerous schools. Some families even refuse to move here because of our schools. Businesses will often not relocate to Vallejo because of our schools, and we are in severe trouble as a city because of these losses and abject conditions. Vallejo school board members brag about a 65 percent graduation rate, (up from 50 percent) while the city of Benicia boasts of a 97 percent graduation rate. The district has even sent out long, expensive full color glossy reports at taxpayers' expense in celebratory propaganda. Are the current high school dropout rates, and low graduation numbers all that we can expect?
Please people, pay attention to the travesties happening within the Vallejo schools, and get out and vote on Tuesday, Nov. 4. There are some excellent alternative school board candidates on the voter's ballot. You have until Oct. 20 to register to vote if you have not yet done so. You may register to vote at the Vallejo Farmers Market on Saturdays between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. downtown on Georgia Street. The registration table is usually set up near Marin Street. Please help save our Vallejo schools, and by extension, save Vallejo.
The Vallejo City Council can only do so much. Without a good school district, the members of City Council and City Manager are limited in their ability to attract new and viable businesses. Please use the power of your vote. It is our right as Americans to do so. Not one of us can afford to ignore the upcoming election on Nov. 4. Vallejo property values are greatly suffering by comparison to surrounding cities. If we don't act we shall ultimately be left with only the prostitutes, drug addicts, victims, homeless and parolees on our Vallejo streets.
Each of us has it within our power to make the change and move Vallejo forward again. Let's make it happen!
Paula McConnell/Vallejo

No comments: