The Morgan Hill Unified School District believes it has a bad rap in the community and claims a lot of that has to do with inaccurate information circulated by the “media” and local community organizations.
In order to combat what the district views as “negative press,” the Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to enter into a contract not to exceed $30,000, or $2,000 per month, for the 2013-14 school year. The contract is with Mc2 Communications, an Aptos-based public affairs and community outreach firm.
“I spend a lot of time explaining to our constituents what is really going on and telling them the positive things that are going on,” said trustee Ron Woolf prior to the vote. “I think this is a golden opportunity to let the people know the positive things that take place every day, every week in our district.”
Superintendent Wes Smith urged the Board to enlist Mc2 to help educate the public on the district’s successes. This will help increase enrollment and bolster support from community members, Smith said.
President Theresa Sage of the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers supports the district’s move. She said hiring a public relations firm to get MHUSD’s success stories out into the community can only benefit public education, which she believes “has been under attack across the state.”
“I think it’s very common to hire someone to do this type of work,” said Sage, noting that most private schools do so to help attract new students. “Each time we lose a child, that comes at a cost to the district.”
Sage added that a quality education can’t be judged solely on the basis of one test score, as often occurs with the Academic Performance Index, the state’s yardstick for measuring academic achievement. So, it is “important to get the word out about the successes of public education,” she said.
Trustee Claudia Rossi was adamant in her backing of the proposal to hire a PR firm, which she hopes will “improve dissemination of information to the community at large about our schools, programs, successes and even challenges.”
Reports from Mc2 will include monthly and quarterly communications, fact sheets, a simplified budget overview and quarterly updates on projects funded by Measure G, the $198 million capital improvements bond approved by voters in November 2012.
Rossi pointed to a flyer distributed a few months ago by an organizer of People Acting in Community Together, group of largely Hispanic parents known as PACT that aims to improve the quality of education for all students.
Rossi said the flyer “misrepresented our math readiness in the district” and offered “an irresponsible, slanted perspective.”
She also claimed the flyer included quotes from the Bible and “was disseminated to the Latino community under the umbrella of St. Catherine Catholic Church.”
Rossi, a Latina, was especially offended by comments printed in a recent Mercury News article. The story contained quotes from a parent who claimed that “Latinos in (Morgan Hill) are treated like second-class citizens.”
“Had this (vote) come before me before this onslaught and this smear campaign, I would have been a little bit more hesitant to support it,” said Rossi, who also accused PACT of scripting speeches for Latino parents to read at board meetings. “We don’t have an opportunity to challenge this. Anybody can step up to that (microphone) and make irresponsible claims about our district.”
The PR firm contract, which can be terminated at any time if deemed ineffective or unnecessary, states that “staff will work closely with Mc2 to tailor the communications to current needs and issues and to identify target audiences to best promote the district and insure transparency to the community of programs, projects, board actions, student successes and educational issues,” according to the agenda item.
District-wide Technology Master Plan starts at Burnett site
The Board of Education approved a more than $260,000 contract to employee Development Group Inc. for technology upgrades as part of the modernization project at the former Burnett Elementary School site located on Tilton Avenue in northwest Morgan Hill, which will open next school year as the new home of Central Continuation High School.
The funds, which are pulled from voter-approved Measure G, designated for capital improvements, will go towards the installation of structured cabling, ethernet and 10-gig connection capabilities; an integrated voice, clock, bell and paging system; an Enterprise wireless system; interactive white boards; and Google Chromebooks.
Prior to the vote, MHUSD’s Director of Technology Denis Guerrero gave a Technology Master Plan presentation, outlining the district’s current technology infrastructure and the projected new core infrastructure needed to meet the vision of a 21st Century classroom.
Burnett is being used as the test site for the technology upgrades that are planned for the 14 school sites within the district. The objectives for the plan include efforts to improve student achievement and increase student engagement; provide tools for 21st Century learning; improve instructional delivery in the classroom; and enhance communication with community, parents and teachers.
LOHS wrestlers won’t give up fight to recover coaches
Two Live Oak High School wrestlers; a parent of a former LOHS star female grappler who earned a college scholarship for her successes on the mat; and another parent of a current Acorn wrestler once again pleaded with the Board of Education to find a solution to their coaching conflict.
Head wrestling coach Robert Fernandez, a nine-year veteran at LOHS, was informed last month by LOHS principal Lloyd Webb that his seasonal contract will not be renewed for next season.
Fernandez, along with his entire coaching staff, including volunteer assistant Armando Gonzalez – who led the Gilroy High School program to its first seven of 10 straight section crowns – were part of the school’s first-ever league tournament championship team. In addition, the wrestling team is on a string of four straight league dual meet titles. In Fernandez’s nine-year career, he also produced three California Interscholastic Federation champions.
However, the Acorns program was placed on a two-year probation through all of next season for a practice violation self-reported by Webb to the Central Coast Section.
The infraction, which was self-reported by Webb to the CCS office, involved middle school wrestlers coming in contact with high school wrestlers at LOHS. This is a CCS violation because incoming freshmen could be influenced or persuaded to attend one high school over another. This is considered a form of recruitment.
Supporters of the coaches — which included wrestlers Isabella Fernandez and Austin Lankford — want the Board to use a third-party mediator to help iron out any differences between Webb and the coaches, so Fernandez and Gonzalez can return to LOHS.
