Category Archives: Schools

Harding principal’s future uncertain

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Supportive parents and staff are rallying behind embattled Harding School principal Marlyn Nicolas, but her future is still up in the air. As of right now, she is still principal, and according to her husband, Frank Nicolas, her preference is to stay.

Her future was apparently discussed in closed session at the July 12 board meeting, but according to Board of Education president Lynn Rodriguez, it will not be decided until July 22 whether the matter will even be on the agenda for the board’s next meeting on July 26.

“We have potentially an item on the agenda next week but that’s not certain yet,” said Rodriguez, who is also a Harding parent, a situation she said has been uncomfortable given the current rumors surrounding the school’s principal. “It’s tough, because especially in elementary school, there’s such a connection between the parents and the school and the staff, and it can be very uncomfortable. … I personally in this situation, especially since I am a parent at the school and have been for seven years, am trying to sort of leave it to staff as much as possible. They have the expertise more than I do about principal performance issues.

“But I can unequivocally say that the principal at Harding is very well liked. … It’s an extremely hard situation. I think it is good for the public because I don’t think people really understand a principal’s job duties, what they’re really supposed to do and how they are evaluated and how they are held accountable because it does take more than being a nice person to be an effective principal,” said Rodriguez.

Harding teachers have speculated that the discussion of removal of their principal was based on an evaluation they filled out last month out about Nicolas’s performance, at the request of Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education, Robin Sawaske.

“We were under the impression that our comments would be used to help her, not to remove her,” teacher Jeanette Pinedo told the board. Other teachers who did not want to speak on the record echoed that sentiment.

Sawaske is on vacation this week, and unavailable for comment,

When asked about the district’s principal evaluation procedures, Rodriguez said she thought evaluations had been done on a regular basis in the past, but with turnover in staff (Sawaske is the fourth person to hold the assistant superintendent position since 2002) ” I think it’s been a little spotty.” She added, “In common practice, well in our district anyway, the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education oversees the principals, meets with them regularly, and good practice would say that they get an evaluation every year.”

Principals have annual contracts and typically if it is not going to be renewed they are told in March, in order to allow the principals, many of whom have teacher tenure, to reapply for classroom positions. Layoff notices must legally be given to teachers by March 15, which would have been the case if a principal with more seniority were to bump them, according to Rodriguez.

Mr. Nicolas said his wife has been in the district for 31 years, and at Harding School for 27 years, first as a teacher and for the last seven years as principal.

If her fate is not discussed in closed session at the July 26 board meeting (the agenda will be posted at www.sbsdk12.org/board/agenda/index.shtml in the late afternoon on July 22), the next board meeting is not scheduled until August 23, the day staff reports to Harding for duty, with school starting on August 29.

Closed session board agenda items are often vague, for example the July 12 item was listed as “public employee discipline/dismissal/release.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on July 21, 2005.

Honors program sticking

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The Santa Barbara School Board reluctantly agreed to maintain junior high honors classes while moving to elevate the general track classes to college preparatory level at the request of Superintendent Brian Sarvis and the principals of Goleta Valley, La Colina and Santa Barbara junior high schools.

“The principals agree with me that a change like this should not be this contentious,” said Sarvis, alluding to the public outcry that erupted from parents when they learned of the plan to drop the honors program last month.

In addition to raising the bar for all students by putting average and above-average students in class together, the principals had expected that eliminating honors would help to encourage diversity in the classroom.

Trustee Annette Cordero, who cast the lone vote against maintaining the honors program, expressed regret that the new proposal doesn’t show the same concern for desegregation.

“We have to stop sticking our heads in the sand about the fact that while the schools overall are not segregated, the programs are,” she said.

Comments from the public were mixed, with some advocating for the status quo and others, like LULAC’s (League of the United Latin American Citizens) Ernesto Hernandez, speaking out in favor of the principals’ original proposal.

“Our community has consistently advocated for improvements,” he said. “For us the norm has not been working out.”

Board members lauded the principals’ initiative, even though the plan proved to be a tough sell to parents.

“I’m not interested in a contentious kind of change,” said board member Nancy Harter, however she added that she would like the schools to be “really vigorous in moving forward” with phasing out the honors classes and elevating the general track.

“I hope that we move forward with a widespread dialogue,” said Board President Lynn Rodriguez. “There is a tremendous amount of gain to be had from diversity in the classroom, even various education levels that that can bring richness to the classroom and right now some of our classes lack that based on the homogeneity that’s there.”

Board member Bob Noel took a proactive approach and presented his plan, “Project Arriba,” for closing the achievement gap in junior high by focusing attention on students in grades four through six.

“If you want to stop tracking in the junior high schools, stop graduating sixth graders who are unprepared,” he said.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on July 15, 2005.

Teachers get Technical

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Learning doesn’t stop in the summer — for students or for their teachers — and some local educators are just as excited about using new technologies as, well, kids in a computer store.

In four separate training sessions this summer, teachers can learn strategies for integrating technology into their classroom to help take advantage of the resource they now have — thanks to the Computers for Families program — every student has a computer at home.

Teachers from Brandon School, Carpinteria Family School, Cesar Chavez Charter School, Hollister School, Isla Vista School, La Patera School, Santa Barbara Community Academy, Solvang School and Vieja Valley School were visibly excited at a session led by Steve Keithley last week at the Santa Barbara County Office of Education.

“I think what we have to offer is pretty much cutting edge in education,” said Keithley, the county’s coordinator of instructional media services. In addition to sponsorship from Computers for Families, Keithley offered special thanks to Coldwell Banker and Bob Ruccione for sponsoring lunch for the trainees and providing each teacher with a free custom website, which they learned to use that day.

“Fold your hands and put them in your lap, so you won’t be tempted to surf while your colleagues are teaching,” joked Keithley, as La Patera School’s Judy Jenkins and Tara Svensson guided their fellow teachers through a “really thorough lesson plan” about the physics of roller coasters. This is just one of many teacher tools found on Unitedstreaming, a county service which makes over 40,000 video clips available, all of which are correlated to the California state standards.

Teachers now have the ability to make a play list of films available for students who finish their class work early, as well as insert video clips into homework, along with quizzes to ensure that students understand the material they’ve just viewed.

“Are they going to want to take a practice quiz with movies in it more than practice with a book? Of course they will,” said Keithley.

“This is great as a study device. It gives them immediate feedback and they know the right answer now,” said Hollister School teacher Kimberley Shingle, who was excited to have another month to fool around with the technology before she goes back to teach with it at school.

“I never knew about any of this before,” said Carpinteria Family School teacher Lori Lee Collins.

“It’s really cool,” agreed Leanne Patterson, from Cesar Chavez Charter School. She and her colleague Nate Monley were particularly interested in the bilingual selections, since Cesar Chavez is a dual language immersion school.

“Having visual stimuli available, such as photos and videos, to go with a written request really helps EL (English Learner) students,” Keithley said. “It also helps teachers assist students in multiple grades and with differing ability levels.”

In addition to learning to create websites and integrate digital media into their lessons, teachers also learned how to use the new pen drives and scan converters they were provided with, free of charge, for attending the training.

With so much to learn in just one day, how can the teachers possibly absorb it all?

They can’t, said Keithley.

The learning really doesn’t stop in the summer. “When you’ve got so many resources … it’s really much better to master a piece of it,” he said.

“Then share it with a friend.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on July 7, 2005.

Hope trustees ratify principal reassignment

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In recognition of the “diversity of opinion” with regard to Superintendent Gerrie Fausett’s reassignment of the Hope School District‘s principals, the board of trustees voted unanimously to ratify the decision, despite that they were not required to do so.

Joseph Liebman was not at the July 1 meeting, where his colleagues took the opportunity to publicly query Fausett about her decision to move Hope School principal Patrick Plamondon to Monte Vista School, Monte Vista’s Judy Stettler to Vieja Valley School, and Vieja Valley’s Barbara LaCorte to Hope.

“What are the key benefits of principal rotation?” asked board member Todd Sosna.

“The most important thing is to have administrators who are well –versed in more than one section of the district,” said Fausett.

Board member Elizabeth Owen asked Fausett to address rumors that the principal rotation was connected to the possible closure of Hope School.

“We have no plans to close Hope,” countered Fausett, adding that any decisions about whether to minimize or maximize enrollment in the three school district, which has about one-third transfer students, would be made in a public forum.

The possibility of the district switching its funding to Basic Aid — the model used by the Montecito and Goleta Schools to ensure funding even with declining enrollment — has been floated in the Hope District for years, and will likely be on the table again in the fall, along with trying to cure the district’s budget woes with a parcel tax, a strategy that failed with voters in 2003.

As for the timing of the principal move, Fausett said “our scores are so close” that it is likely that one or two schools may be designated with program improvement status under the No Child Left Behind Act, and she was concerned that doing a move after that would be perceived as punishment for the principals.

Unhappiness over the rotation has already had some fallout. Fausett said that the Hope District Foundation Auction, which raised over $70,000 last year, would probably not happen this year. The controversy has also motivated some parents to become more active in board politics. Hope School parent Craig Malley brought a video camera to record the meeting for others.

Ed Adams, a Hope School parent who has said the board and superintendent didn’t follow the proper process in making the rotation decision, told them, “Guaranteed we will be here watching what goes on to see that in all decisions you follow the process that you’re supposed to.”

A few people have suggested that the news would have been accepted much more favorably if the principals had been part of the announcement. But Fausett said that wasn’t possible.

“Trust me when I tell you I would have done anything to keep this board and this community from going through what we have gone through. There is a reason why I did it the way I did it. It wasn’t the easiest way, but I had to do it that way. ”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon in 2005.

Honors program gets reprieve

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An outcry from parents about the principals’ decision to drop the honors programs at Santa Barbara, La Colina and Goleta Valley junior highs has prompted the school board to put the item back on its agenda next week.

While La Cumbre Junior High will roll out a new curriculum in the fall — offering separate learning communities for Core Knowledge, Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)/ pre-advanced placement, liberal arts/college preparatory and intensive English development/newcomers — the other three principals have said they are raising the bar for all students by putting average and above-average students in class together. Some parents believe that the decision will have a negative effect on the roughly 15 percent to 20 percent of students who have been on the honors track, a group that performs well but doesn’t qualify for GATE.

With affluent Montecito parents talking about forming a charter junior high school and others considering moves to private school, many fear that the elimination of honors will make it more difficult to for the schools to remain socioeconomically and ethnically diverse, particularly Santa Barbara Junior High.

“The Honors Track is an attractive option that influenced our decision to leave private school,” wrote SBJH parent George Gonzales in a letter to the board. “While we can’t fault the outstanding level of instruction provided by the district, the general environment causes many parents from different ethnic backgrounds to proceed cautiously. Continuation of the Honors Track will reassure many of us that sending our children to public school is the right decision.”

Indeed the percent of Anglo students at SBJH has shrunk from 41 to 31 percent, since the 2002-2003 school year, according to Lanny Ebenstein, a former board member who has contracted with the district to create enrollment projections.

“To eliminate honors programs at Santa Barbara Junior High would intensify this detrimental trend,” he said.

SAGE (Supporters of Advanced and Gifted Education), a new group formed to advocate for high achieving students, has also come out in support of continuing the honors programs.

“Every taxpayer wants value for their money. Tracking, or segmentation, enables instruction to be geared, paced and outcomes evaluated appropriately making the highest and best use of both time and money,” wrote SAGE president Denice Adams in a letter to the board.

The trustees are expected make a decision on the honors program at its next meeting at 7 p.m. July 12, 720 Santa Barbara St.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on July 7, 2005.

Principal’s passion is no fluke

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A strong believer in the importance of ocean literacy because “you’re only going to care about something that you love and you’re only going to love something that you know,” Vieja Valley School principal Barbara LaCorte, who will move to Hope School in the fall, spends most of her time away from school either on or near the water.

LaCorte’s dedication to the ocean and its creatures is so strong that she was recently honored as Volunteer of the Year by the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, traveling to Washington with her daughter, Lindsay, to receive the award.

Contributing more than 200 volunteer hours to the Channel Islands Naturalist Corp. (“like the park rangers of the islands”) last year, LaCorte was involved in a number of projects, including creating a multimedia presentation for the speakers’ bureau, The Channel Islands A-Z; and volunteering for a research study on Xantu’s murrelet, an endangered bird species that only nests on the Channel Islands.

“They are this just amazing little bird,” LaCorte said of the murrelet. “We’re out in the middle of the night in zodiacs counting birds and crawling in the back of caves looking for eggs.”

Imagine what a kick her students at Vieja Valley School would have gotten from seeing their principal climbing in caves.

LaCorte also worked on another research project doing photo identification of blue and humpback whales, conducted numerous community outreach events, and gave regular whale-watching tours on the Santa Barbara Condor.

While it’s hard to fathom someone with such a demanding job doing so much volunteer work during her “off” time, LaCorte said, “I think that you make time for the things that you love to do. It’s been a wonderful thing for me.

“The intensity of my job, I have the balance of the end of the week I go out on the water and I watch whales. It just restores me.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 30, 2005.

What I learned in kindergarten this year

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Kindergarten, photo courtesy Lucelia Ribeiro, Flickr.

The tears started when I began to compose a thank you letter to my son’s teacher. Trying to put down on paper all of the amazing things he had learned in kindergarten — about the “bossy E,” who was simply silent when I went to school; about raising your hand to get attention, rather than shouting or pulling on shirtsleeves; about using sign language when you need to go to the bathroom; about taking turns and waiting patiently; that gray wolves mate for life and that little acorns grow into great big oaks — proved an impossible task. I just kept smearing the ink with my big, sloppy, sentimental mommy tears.

Kindergarten is such a big year in so many ways. Sure, we felt the influence of the outside world in preschool, like when Koss thought it was odd that his father and I didn’t have tattoos, like all of his 20-something teachers. Or when he picked up phrases like, “Let’s skedaddle,” or “Excuse me, sir,” that he would never have heard at home.

But kindergarten was different. Even I could remember kindergarten, which meant so would Koss, and any mistakes that we made here would go on his, gasp … permanent record! There were goals, standards, expectations, even report cards.

At Back to School Night, when Ms. Geritz told us that every one of the students would be reading by the end of the year, I just about fell out of my teeny, tiny, fake wood chair. They were just babies, many of them clinging to mom and dad for a few precious moments before running off onto the playground, with some stray glances back for reassurance.

Every milestone Koss encounters feels like a mixed blessing, as I give another bit of him away to the universe. As much as I want him to be independent, I dread it too.

Someone recently asked me when I most rejoiced, when he got out of diapers or when he could strap himself into a car seat, which he will soon strap himself out of permanently when he turns 6 next month. Koss can hardly wait. He’ll probably wake up at midnight to throw it out of the car.

As for me, well sure, ditching the diapers did inspire a little happy dance, but even the most celebratory milestones make me feel a little sad. Call me crazy, but I missed those 2 a.m. cuddles when he began sleeping through the night.

In kindergarten, each child greeted Ms. Geritz with a hug. That’s what I’ll probably miss the most. For the simple sweetness and also for the deeper symbolism. These children adore their teacher. For right now she is school to them. I wish I could bottle that love of learning, that openness to all of life’s possibilities and put it in a time capsule to bequeath to them when they’re 13 or 11 or 9 or whenever that seemingly unavoidable teenage ‘tude starts.

I’m a little bit comforted when I see Ms. Geritz’s past students — 1st and 2nd graders and even some 6th graders — stop by and give her hugs. She’s a part of them now and she always will be.

I’ll never forget the dejected look on Koss’s face when I explained to him that not only would he have a different teacher for first grade, but that there would be some different students too. He really liked his classmates. So did I. While neither one of us found a new best friend, we did meet a lot of nice people and I know that most of them will remain in our lives for a very long time.

But we’ll never be in kindergarten again and I can’t help but wish I had spent a little more time volunteering in the classroom. Maybe baked a cookie or two, instead of always buying them. Maybe re-learn how to bake, so that I could actually mean it when I say that. Although, I know that I would still feel guilty even if I had never missed a volunteer opportunity and had been a Martha Stewart lunatic about making perfect goodies for every event.

Koss would rather have Oreos anyway, I reminded myself, as I un-packaged the cookies after the end-of-the-year play.

Whether it was their first child to enter kindergarten or their last, all of the parents marveled that their babies had finally reached this stage, reading well enough to memorize lines and stand poised in front of the audience waiting their turn to perform.

For the finale, when the children signed and sang along to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” there wasn’t a dry eye in house.

Then Ms. Geritz gave them each a memory book with a poem that said they would take a piece of them with her wherever they went.

Sorry if my big, sloppy, sentimental mommy tears smudged your paper. I’m sure I’ll get over it by the fall.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 23, 2005.

Parents plead to retain principal

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Superintendent remains firm on transfer decision

Despite impassioned pleas from some parents to either delay or rescind her decision to shuffle the principals in the Hope School District, Superintendent Gerrie Fausett held firm to her plan to move Hope School principal Patrick Plamondon to Monte Vista School, Monte Vista’s Judy Stettler to Vieja Valley School, and Vieja Valley’s Barbara LaCorte to Hope in the fall.

At a board meeting on June 6, Fausett admitted, “the manner in which this decision has been disseminated to staff and parents was less than artful. It could have been communicated in a much better fashion,” a complaint which was at the heart of the comments from many of the approximately 300 parents and teachers gathered at the meeting.

Fausett outlined the scenario in which she told the principals of her decision, then visited teachers at each site, one by one, and urged them not to speak to each other until she had the chance to visit each school individually.

“Some parents knew about the change before others did. Please know, that was never my intent,” she said.

However, what many speakers took issue with was the fact that parents, teachers and the principals themselves had not been consulted prior to the decision, an area in which Fausett held firm.

“Staffing is one of my unique responsibilities and I have the perspective and the responsibility to make these kinds of decisions. It’s not a responsibility I should or will delegate,” she said. “The legacy of this district is to include parents whenever possible in the decisions affecting schools. Some of those decisions about personnel should not include parents.”

“We believe that you’ve made an honest mistake … I truly believe that it was not the correct process,” said Hope parent Ed Adams, who has been instrumental in organizing a petition “to object to the process by which this involuntary transfer of principals was done.”

Some Monte Vista parents also organized a petition, presented by parent Mary Vance, expressing their support of the principal rotation, thanking Stettler for her service and welcoming Plamondon to the school.

While the 60+ people who spoke at the meeting were about evenly split for and against the decision, the school board members all spoke out in favor of Superintendent Fausett’s judgment, citing her long track record in the local education community (she is a former Monte Vista School parent, as well as the former principal of Santa Barbara Junior High, principal of Washington School and Santa Barbara’s Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education) as rationale for their support.

“She has a lot of experience in education, I don’t,” said board member Joe Liebman.

“There is always a better way,” said board member Elizabeth Owen. “I don’t believe she made a rash decision.”

Concluding the long evening, board president Steven Weintraub said, “I hope we’ll allow an incident like to become a stepping stone and not a stumbling block.”

Fausett hopes to be able to coordinate another meeting with the teachers before the end of the school year, “to try to send them off on a summer vacation with a sense of calm and security.”

LaCorte will get a head start at Hope School by serving onsite as summer school principal for all three schools. Fausett said, “Barbara likes doing it and I think looks at this summer especially as a chance to get to know the campus and some of the folks there, which is, of course, a great idea.”

Fausett said she also hopes to offer several summer opportunities for parents and students to meet their new principals before school begins.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 9, 2005.

The tassle is worth the hassle

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Graduation from College, image by Bluefield Photos.

Graduation from College, image by Bluefield Photos.

Graduation wisdom for the easily amused

Graduation and the accompanying commencement speech frenzy is upon us, and unless the phone rings like, right this second, I won’t be giving the keynote at a prestigious university, trade school, internet college, high school or junior high ceremony this year. I’m shocked, I’m appalled, and I could have used that honorarium for some new shoes, but I won’t let pettiness get in the way of sharing my accumulated wisdom. Lucky you!

Most graduation speeches are soaring invocations meant to raise your spirits and send you joyfully into the next phase of your life. Phooey! How’s that going to help you learn the best way to say, “Do you want fries with that?” Here’s some practical information from someone who’s been there.

For those of you who are proudly graduating from preschool, let me give you this advice: if it’s moving, don’t eat it, clean up your own mess, stand up straight and stop fidgeting, and no tickling unless the other person agrees. It’s time to grow up. Kindergarten’s a blast.

For those of you leaving elementary school, remember: be yourself. And if you can’t be yourself, then be one of the really cool kids that everyone else wants to be. If you’re not a cool kid in junior high, then think about what the 13-year-old Bill Gates must have been like. And please remember, no means no when it comes to tickling.

If you’re in high school and going onto college, this may be the single most important piece of information you’ll ever receive — don’t schedule 8 a.m. classes. Schedule classes that you’ll actually go to. You can always do the reading later on in your life, but you will never have the opportunity to hear these professors again. As George Bush has proved, even C students can go on to be president of the United States …you know what? Do the reading….

If you’re thinking about celebrating your graduation with alcoholic beverages, drink the best ones you can afford to avoid hangovers, and never mix your liquors. Eat something before you go to bed and remember, Jack in the Box is open 24 hours. If you ignore this advice, the whole “hair of the dog” theory only works for alcoholics. Take two Tylenol and remember how sick you feel the next time.

If you’re thinking about celebrating your graduation by having some kind of a symbol tattooed on your person, take a good look at your father’s belly and your mother’s behind before you make that decision.

And while you’re looking carefully at your parents, scan the aisles and memorize your classmates’ faces. If they are your friends and you remain friends, they will look fabulous at your 20th reunion. If you don’t see them again for 20 years, they will age with an unnatural speed that is quite terrifying.

If you’re moving out of your parent’s house and you’re taking a mattress with you, remember to tie it down on the truck. Trust me when I say that it’s embarrassing to have to fetch your mattress from an inside lane of Highway 101.

Here’s something for all you graduates, even the preschoolers — ignore all but one of the 327 credit card offers you will receive in the near future, and use that one only for emergencies. And by the way, a sale at Blue Bee does not constitute an emergency.

Separate your whites from your colors, and if someone offers to teach you how to cook more than Easy Mac and Top Ramen, jump on the opportunity. Your bank account, your significant other, and eventually your children will thank you.

Most new grads fall off the cliff of student life and land with a Wile E. Coyote-like ‘SPLAT!’ on the pavement of the real world. Before you get creamed by dump trucks full of utility bills and falling anvils of student loans, if you can possibly swing it, take that trip to Europe or go work for that nonprofit in Mexico.

And if you’re going to Europe on your parent’s dime, you’re also going to want to take me.

However, if you’re stepping from your cap and gown into the beckoning arms of the working world, remember that boss is not a four-letter word, and if your boss proves worthy of more colorful expletives, keep in mind that who you work for and who you work with is every bit as important as what you do.

On the other hand, there’s always graduate school.

Say yes to any opportunity that sounds interesting, challenging or gets you in the room with people you can learn from — even if you already have too much work to do. You will never have more energy than you have at this stage in your life, so you may as well take advantage of it.

And, seriously, you really have to stop tickling people.

To all my graduating friends, none of whom saw fit to give me even the teensiest honorarium or an honorary degree in applied mathematics, I leave you with this final piece of advice from Oscar Wilde: “The best thing to do with advice is to give it to someone else.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 9, 2005.

La Cumbre principal goes recruiting

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La Cumbre Junior High, courtesy SBUnified.

Touting a closer-knit junior high community, one school aims to turn tide of enrollment

The vibe is different at La Cumbre Junior High these days. While the enrollment numbers are still down, new principal Jo Ann Caines’ dynamic energy seems to be resonating, at least with the people who know the native Santa Barbaran.

Students at Adams School (where she was principal until a few months ago), once a symbol for white flight, are now flocking to La Cumbre.

While only about 450 of the approximately 600 eligible students will attend La Cumbre in the fall, “the composition of our student body is going to be drastically different,” said Caines, “with more of the middle-income and middle- and high-achieving students that didn’t come here before.

“We’ve turned a huge corner thanks to Adams School,” she said, with all but 11 of the more than 100 sixth-graders planning to attend La Cumbre. “So while we’ll be very similar in size, we’ll be hugely different.”

This fall, Caines and assistant principal Jorge Fulco will concentrate on Monroe and Washington schools. Caines has even recruited an Adams fourth-grade parent, Katie Parker, to help her with the outreach.

“Jorge and I have been on the road since Feb. 1 doing outreach,” Caines said. “We gave more tours here … than they have in the prior five years combined.”

Of course, pitching the school is one thing, but telling a compelling story is another — and Caines certainly has one with her reorganization plan.

It might seem to be by design that, when Santa Barbara Community Academy upper-grade students move to La Cumbre’s campus in the fall, the junior high will begin to implement a core knowledge learning community that builds on the same concepts the academy has used successfully. But Caines said she did her research on the core knowledge curriculum (a sequenced, coherent program that uses a grade-by-grade core of common learning) prior to the school board’s decision to move the academy there.

Caines also has a Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)/pre-advanced placement learning community planned, a liberal arts/college preparatory group, and an intensive English development/newcomers community similar to the successful program she implemented at Adams.

Caines emphasized that the communities — which will be separated geographically to make it easier on students — are not tracks.

“Students can participate in any one that they choose or they qualify for,” she said.

Each student will also have a homeroom class where she hopes the smallness of the school will work to its advantage.

“Teachers will not only know their students but the students in that community,” she said.

The staff is coming on board after what Caines characterized as lots of “not easy” discussions.

“Change is hard,” she said. “They’ve been through four principals in two years, so it’s hard to say, ‘Is this really a change or is it going to be different next month kind of thing?’ So what I said to teachers is if it’s not a match for you then you should put in for a transfer because part of what I’m doing is building a new team, and more than anything I want people to be here because they want to be here.”

Three teachers have put in for transfers, but Caines said others are anxious to come to the school because of the new programs.

“Let’s be real. If you asked 100 adults about junior high, 97 of them will say they hated junior high,” she said. “It’s all about friends … Even though we’ll do outreach to the parents, … we’re going to put a lot of energy into the kids, because kids really do decide …They want to go where their friends are.”

Blurred boundaries

Transfers are one of the hot topics of discussion where school needs are concerned. When students transfer in from other districts, the district gets additional money, but intra-district transfers don’t change the funding and campuses like La Colina Junior High (which had only 591 students in 1993-94 and was up to 1,027 students in 2004-05) are getting overcrowded while campuses like La Cumbre Junior High (which had 1,030 students in 1993-94 and now has 433 students) have empty rooms..

Here’s a snapshot look at where secondary students are going (all figures are from the 2004-05 school year):

Junior High

Goleta Valley Junior High School

Incoming: +21 students from other districts; +48 students from within the district (total +69)

Outgoing: -1 student to other districts; -79 students to another school in the district (total -80)

La Colina Junior High School

Incoming: +29 students from other districts; +250 students from within the district (total +279)

Outgoing: -0 students to other districts; -50 students to another school in the district (total –50)

La Cumbre Junior High School

Incoming: +14 students from other districts; +41 students from within the district (total +55)

Outgoing: -2 students to other districts; -257 students to another school in the district (total –259)

Santa Barbara Junior High School

Incoming: +43 students from other districts; +154 students from within the district (total +197)

Outgoing: -2 students to other districts; -107 students to another school in the district (total –109)

High School

Dos Pueblos High School

Incoming: +74 students from other districts; +218 students from within the district (total +292)

Outgoing: -0 students to other districts; -101 students to another school in the district (total –101)

San Marcos High School

Incoming: +61 students from other districts; +325 students from within the district (total +386)

Outgoing: -7 students to other districts; -382 students to another school in the district (total –389)

Santa Barbara High School

Incoming: +151 students from other districts; +268 students from within the district (total +319)

Outgoing: -7 students to other districts; -328 students to another school in the district (total –335)

— Source: PAT SALEY

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on June 2, 2005.