Ordinary negligence
” now joins ordinary dishonesty. It’s all so ordinary it’s hard
to get excited about anymore.
Ordinary negligence” now joins ordinary dishonesty. It’s all so ordinary it’s hard to get excited about anymore. But as parents try to decipher the spin, marketing and damage control in an attempt to make an informed decision about their children’s education, it would be nice to have some reliable information. Here are some myths and anecdotes that have surfaced over the past few weeks.
“Live Oak is overcrowded and Sobrato will have a smaller and more personalized educational environment.” This is not true for many reasons. First of all, Live Oak is not overcrowded — it currently has an enrollment of 1,560 students with a facility capacity of 1,820. Secondly, the target enrollment for Sobrato is around 700 freshman and sophomores, leaving only around 500 freshman and sophomores for Live Oak.
Since establishing boundaries that favor larger freshman and sophomore classes at Sobrato, the district has been flooded with choice placement applications that have heavily favored attending Live Oak. So much so in fact that Sobrato’s enrollment is falling far below the level that will justify the number of teachers that have been promised a spot at the new school.
Meanwhile, the district is furiously mounting a marketing effort to push Sobrato so that they can save the embarrassment and inconvenience of restaffing their school. This is not criminally unethical; it is just ordinarily unethical.
But the fact is that there is ample room at Live Oak for every choice placement applicant as well as nearly 70 to 100 additional applicants. So if you are one of the many parents that may have been told otherwise, don’t believe it, and don’t be manipulated.
Likewise, many parents have been told that they may not apply to change schools to participate in a sports program – or even more coercively that if they do change that they can be ineligible. Not true. Under education codes governing open enrollment, prior to attending a high school, a student many choose any school that they want for any reason that they want. Once they physically attend a school, then they are entitled under CIF rules to one free move without impacting their eligibility.
There is only one group of students that currently must attend Sobrato, and that is inter-district transfers as per local school board resolve (an action that was taken to first allow choice placement to district residents but that by rights should be amended to allow choice when space is available). Attempting to intimidate students into attending Sobrato under threats about their eligibility isn’t criminally coercive, it’s just ordinarily coercive.
Over the past two weeks, I have signed CCS 510 forms for former Live Oak freshman football players who were told that they must attend Sobrato. Now sadly, they have left the district (to Santa Teresa and Oak Grove), rather than deal with district “waiting lists.”
Teachers at Sobrato are “innovators” while their counterparts at Live Oak passed up their chance to be innovators by voting down the Small Learning Communities grant. Not true. Apparently something good must be happening at Live Oak. The test scores have just taken a quantum jump. Likewise, current Live Oak site administration has admitted more than once that the SLC grant contained intentionally manipulative language that violated the teacher contract – a legacy of manipulation inherited from the past administration that will now “innovate” Sobrato. Painting Sobrato as innovative at Live Oak’s expense isn’t criminal political spin; it’s just ordinary political spin.
Finally, Live Oak is only half done while Sobrato will be shiny, new and exciting. Well that’s almost true. Live Oak is only half remodeled, but Sobrato, an originally planned $54 million school for 2,500 students is far from done and will end up an $80 million school holding only 1,500. At almost three times the cost per student than originally planned, it ought to be a palace – too bad so much money was lost that every other school site in the district has suffered – but that’s not criminal negligence; just ordinary negligence.
Having been one of the taxpayers that paid for this folly, I find little consolation in our district being officially found to be negligent, wasteful and poor decision-makers only to have them begin the spin that they are somehow exonerated because no criminal charges were filed. Our schools deserve more than to be led by the officially negligent that have managed to stay only a step ahead of the law.
While our leaders paint themselves as the poor victims of the nay-sayers and the community grows tired of the negativity surrounding Sobrato, please remember that the issue has always been equity for all students. The intentional and unfair campaign undertaken by district administration to undermine Live Oak’s reputation (to pass the school bond) is merely being continued now in an attempt to ensure Sobrato’s success. Rather than seeing through improvement goals at both schools, the evilness of their strategy has been to run down Live Oak in an attempt to make Sobrato (their experiment) shine by comparison.
So parents, as you contemplate your options, know that there is room for whichever school you choose. As Sobrato “innovators” (many of whom haven’t taught a full day of high school in their lives), sell their school – please remember that this community has another well-established and successful high school to consider. Whether you become a Bulldog or join the Acorns, take pride in and enjoy your choice – and remember that it is the people, not the buildings that make a school.
Glen Webb,
Live Oak High School
