School Board Prioritizes Achievement Gap During Retreat
Late on Saturday afternoon, Superintendent Winfred Roberson sent an email to the Vanguard and the Enterprise, indicating,…
Diversity as a Guise for Inequality? Jann Murray-Garcia’s Take on GATE/AIM
Today in her column, Jann Murray-Garcia reemerges in the GATE/AIM debate, laying out a history of her…
Mother Speaks to Council to Complain About Treatment of Daughter Based on Race
During public comment at Tuesday’s city council meeting, a mother came forward to speak of her six-year-old…
Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue
by Gloria Partida The parent engagement workshop “Parenting beyond Pink and Blue” at Cesar Chavez Elementary on…
Local Data Shows Same Racial Gap on Suspensions, Calls for Reform
The national discourse on police stops has focused discussion on issues such as racial profiling and distrust…
Special Commentary: Unaddressed Problems For Children of Color in DJUSD
In the last week, the Vanguard asked the school board candidates to respond to a question on…
Moving Toward a Restorative Justice Approach in the Schools
At the school candidate’s forum last week, when the issue came to climate issues and promoting…
Hate Is Not a Davis Value
by Gloria Partida and Madhavi Sunder In 1983, an Asian American Davis Senior High School student, Thong…
Why We Named A Davis School After Fred Korematsu
by Madhavi Sunder This is a story about an effort I was privileged to participate in to…
Roots of Empathy
by Matt Williams Last year we had a lively discussion here on the Vanguard about empathy ….
My View: When You Have to Explain Why It’s Wrong… Worry
I have to admit while I have gotten used to some people in this community apologizing for abhorrent behavior, I was taken aback by the lack of concern about the banner and behavior at the recent soccer game between Davis High and Jesuit.
What do you mean you don’t understand why it’s homophobic to have a sign at a soccer game that says “Jesuit (Hearts) Wieners?”
Superintendent Apologizes For Inappropriate Homophobic Banner at Soccer Game
The Vanguard received a few notes and a photo about an incident that happened last weekend at a soccer game between Davis High and Jesuit. It has now become completely clear what occurred, based on two letters to the editor of the local newspaper.
One letter writer in the newspaper reports, “Homophobic slurs were being hollered out throughout the game and a large banner with homophobic language was displayed to the crowd as they paraded in hot dog costumes in front of the stands.”
District Looks Towards Program Changes as Means to Solve Inequities in South Davis Elementary Schools
The Vanguard covered the school board’s March 8 special meeting at Harper Junior High, where they listened to opposition from parents, particularly parents of Pioneer Elementary School students, to a recommendation possibly splitting the elementary schools.
On Thursday of last week the board gave specific direction to the superintendent to follow up, in the form of three options. First, they asked the superintendent to look into the extension of Spanish immersion that would go from K-6. It is currently K-3.
Strong Opposition to Notion of Split Schools in South Davis
It was a meeting attended by over 250 parents, teachers, and community members at Harper Junior High. The parents, particularly those at Pioneer Elementary School, expressed strong opposition to one recommendation which would combine the two schools – Pioneer and Montgomery – and divide the students by grade level.
Betsy Hyder, the PTA President at Pioneer spoke of “unintended consequences from particular strategies.” She was not part of the committee who made these recommendation, by choice, saying, “We wanted our parents to be able to speak freely there as parents.”
White Flight? Changing Demographics and Achievement Gap Highlights Critical Issues at Montgomery
Last week, the Davis Enterprise reported on a large audience of more than 250 people who packed in at Harper Junior High, as the school board discussed changes to two South Davis elementary schools.
Of particular note is Montgomery Elementary, which as Associate Superintendent Clark Bryant noted, while the school ranks as a high-performing school, “we’re not hitting (that) mark for all our students, and that is not an issue just for Montgomery Elementary, but district wide.”
School Starts Today: Be Sure To Pack Lunches, Snacks, Books, Pencils, and Oh Yeah, the US Constitution
It is still about an hour or two before our second grader will excitedly get up and head off to school. Like many kids, he will have his backpack filled with snacks, his books, paper and pencils. But this year we have done something new for him, we told him about his constitutional rights, should he ever be confronted by a situation where the police want to talk to him.
It is sad that it has come to that, but just as we describe to children in great detail what to do if they ever encounter a stranger, it is time to teach them their rights when confronted by police.
Commentary: DJUSD Cut of Climate Position Threatens To Set Back Efforts by Two Decades
SchoolsWithin the course of cutting $4 to $4.5 million from the school district’s budget, you know that the cuts are going to – for the most part -be deep and painful. In fact, that is one reason I have mostly avoided hitting this topic head-on. I have a full understanding that there are going to be painful cuts for all.
That being said, with proposals now on the table, I think we also have to think about the bigger picture and along those lines I have some concerns about some of the cuts.
2007 Year in Review–10 Biggest Vanguard Stories of 2007
As the first full year of the People’s Vanguard of Davis comes to completion, we will countdown the top 10 stories from year. This is the second year we have done this.
Last year we counted down the 10 Biggest Stories in Davis.
This year we countdown the 10 biggest stories that we followed on the People’s Vanguard of Davis.
We continue with the 7th biggest story: Racial and Other Strife on the High School Campus.
School Climate Report
SchoolsLast night at the city of Davis’ Human Relations Commission, Mel Lewis, the Davis School District’s Climate Coordinator with assistance from Pam Mari, Director of Student Services presented a brief overview of the results from the Yale School Climate Survey.
For those of you who are long time Vanguard readers, you will recall back in May, we were critical of the use of this survey for the purposes ascertaining school climate. There were four versions of this survey: Elementary and Middle School, High School, Parent, and Staff. Last May we were able to obtain the Parent version and post it on the Vanguard. Mr. Lewis informed us that the results of this survey are proprietary, and therefore they cannot post the results of the survey. This is basically a $30,000 survey purchased at public expense that cannot have the full results posted–a problematic aspect to begin with.
Commentary: An Inappropriate and Insulting Choice For “Teacher of the Year”
Talk about burying your lead, buried toward the end of the Davis Enterprise article highlighting the Senior…
