Education

by Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald

The Davis school district’s 26-member Strategic Planning Committee participated in three intense days of discussion and adopted DRAFT DOCUMENTS that will be considered by the school board on Thursday, October 17.

There are four documents to be considered by the school board that include:

By Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald

When I read that the Davis school board was assembling a team of community members – including teachers, staff, administrators, parents, and students – to chart the course of action for the district over the next decade I wondered what it would be like to be part of the process and help put forth thoughts and ideas on the action plan, since we have one child in fourth grade and two more children that will attend kindergarten in the near future.

Even before we had children I had always followed the issues of the district and knew that even with challenges we were fortunate to have a very dedicated team of staff, educators, administrators, school board members and community members in our district.  I also knew that, like other districts, we needed to develop a course of action for the present and the future or we would not be able to provide the best educational experience for our children.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Davis Joint Unified School District sent the following letter to parents via email:

“This weekend the Davis Enterprise published a detailed and potentially traumatizing recount of a public pretrial proceeding.  Other media sources, including television, newspaper and social media have also made similar reports,” the letter from Jen McNeil, DJUSD Prevention & Crisis Manager, said.

For several years now the Davis School District has gotten largely a free ride.  The focus was on school funding, cut backs from the state, and preserving programs that have made the school district one of the few to offer an array of critical programs and services to student in times of crisis.

While the public is still willing to support the district with parcel tax money, as the result of another strong showing last November, in the past six months, the district seems to have fallen into misstep.

As an open government advocate, I have always been troubled by personnel confidentiality laws which are ostensibly put in place to protect employees from undue intrusions into private matters, but as often as not actually serve to protect those in power  and wrongdoers from transparency and accountability.

The truth is that whenever I inquire about these types of decision with members of the school board or staff, I get a dizzying array of gymnastics and mixed-martial arts as they adeptly avoid tough questions under the guise of personnel matters.

A couple of letters from the school district, regarding the recent arrest of a 16-year-old Davis resident charged with the murders of prominent Davis residents Oliver Northrup and Claudia Maupin, triggered concern from some residents who felt that the messages seemed more geared toward covering the district’s track record, saying “we didn’t do anything wrong” rather than acknowledging potential problems in the district.

One letter that was sent last week to all DJUSD families from Superintendent Winfred Roberson stated, “As you are probably already aware, a Davis teenager was arrested on suspicion of a double homicide that occurred last April.  To some degree, such news affects everyone in our community–students, families and staff members alike.”

A month or so ago, the Vanguard suggested that the school district look into bold and innovative ways to move forward as it embarks on a strategic plan.  The question, of course, is what that bold and innovative path might look like.

From the publication California Economic Summit comes an account of how one community, Sonoma, is working to close their achievement gap.