Colossal folly continues in the schools while students and the community suffer
Dear Editor,
We live in the Capriano Development, which adjoins what used to be the Burnett Elementary School. My children are grown, but as a fairly new resident of the area, I am disappointed in how Morgan Hill plans to prepare the next generation for a challenging and competitive world.
I am saddened our local government at all levels, seems to ignore the wishes of the community at large, which funds it.
After $7 million in taxpayer funded renovations, a Continuation High School, of about 160 students now occupies the huge Burnett School site. Our development and many parents of Central Continuation High, fought hard against the move, after being promised a nearby neighborhood elementary school. The site looks only marginally better from the outside. Two homes which were condemned sit boarded up, the residents having been relocated, their backyards bounded by deserted horse stalls, littered with piles of household trash, junk and dying trees.
Video surveillance cameras and security alarm signs sprout like weeds throughout the neighborhood.
Neighbors with children say the waiting lists for the public charter schools, which are housed 5 miles away, outside the city limits, under a freeway overpass, stretches past two years. Even so, its parking lot overflows with actively involved parent’s cars.
Two successful charter schools, Rocketship and Navigator, popular and successful in San Jose and Gilroy were denied permission to operate by the Morgan Hill School Board and then the County Board of Education which seem focused more on placating the teacher’s union than serving students or their parents.
The 300 or more families, and a soon-to-be developed large tract, north of us, will have to bus their young elementary school students to crowded and poorly performing, by state standards, school sites or exit the public system they fund with their taxes.
The City Council says they can’t do anything, yet they dole out sizable education grants to schools. The County Board of Supervisors says the County Board of Education is independent of their control, yet our county property taxes fund public schools. Both oversee local zoning codes.
Nobody is ever really accountable for student’s poor achievement outcomes.
The district superintendent who oversaw the mess has departed for a higher status, better paying job in the state education bureaucracy. The acting superintendent proposes to continue his policies, but only at a pay rate higher than larger and far better performing school districts, with a fat severance package if things don’t work out for him. He very publicly opposed the charters.
Nothing to see here, move along … unless you care about children’s future.
Debra Janssen-Martinez, Morgan Hill
Encouraged by use of library on Monday and hoping for Sunday hours in the future
Dear Editor,
Thanks very much for drawing attention to Morgan Hill Library’s new Monday hours. While it’s only been a month, we’re pleased at the number of visitors who have taken advantage of the expanded hours.
In a recent column, you indicated the need for a survey regarding preferred library service hours for Morgan Hill residents. We did actually base the new hours on telephone survey interviews with both library users and non-users.
Among current library users in Morgan Hill, 41% wanted Monday hours, while 23% wanted Sunday hours. Among non-users, 23% wanted Monday hours, while 16% wanted Sunday hours.
With our new Monday-to-Saturday schedule, we are delighted to have achieved Mayor Steve Tate’s vision of having the library open every weekday after school for students.
If funding allows at some point, we would be very interested in the possibility of expanding to seven-day service for the benefit of Morgan Hill residents.
Derek Wolfgram, Deputy County Librarian
