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Opinion
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- Written by: Lucerne Elementary School teachers
Our questions are as follows:
l) How will these changes affect our small school?
Student programs: As a small, cohesive district, we are able to quickly tailor our efforts to our own students’ needs. In a large district, decisions would be made by an administration that doesn’t necessarily know our students’ unique needs. We also risk further loss to the personalized learning environment when teachers and students get moved around within a much larger district.
Test scores: We have worked very hard to have the resources and collaboration needed to address student test score improvement issues. We have stayed out of “Program Improvement” by knowing our students and using our resources to meet their needs. If we unify, how will our test scores be impacted by movement of students and loss of revenue?
2) How will students be affected by changes in accessibility of administration?
Presently we have daily access to our administration and all questions, concerns and issues are taken care of immediately. Our accessible administration knows all of our students by name and each student’s strengths and needs. Administration attends student and teacher meetings, visit our classes frequently, and are involved in our intervention programs – on site. With unification, would we lose the strength gained by our administrator knowing our student population so well? Administration also knows each teacher’s strengths and needs and is able to offer resources accordingly.
Lucerne and Upper Lake already have a principal/superintendent position in which they “wear many hats.” If we were to unify, a superintendent position would need to be created, adding another cost. In the students’ best interests, we would still need to have on-site administrators.
3) How will allocation of resources be decided?
Teachers from larger county districts have complained to us that we have more professional development opportunities and more access to current technology. We appreciate having current technology available as well as the opportunities we have for professional growth. We know that having appropriate resources and teacher training is crucial to providing students with the best possible education.
4) What about financial responsibilities?
Our district has made appropriate sacrifices to make our district financially responsible. We do not want to merge with other districts and put our school at financial risk.
Although Lucerne teachers would probably be given a pay raise if unification happens, we wonder how this will financially impact a new unified district.
Our board has already given up their monthly stipends and district-paid health benefits, as it impacts our district’s general fund.
We already participate in contract sharing and cooperative purchases with the county and other districts. For instance, our buses are serviced through Upper Lake, and we share some support personnel with them.
It is our hope that this list serves to clarify both our feelings and concerns regarding what is at risk surrounding unification. We appreciate working with the students in Lake county and will always be willing to collaborate with other schools for the needs of students. Our students are unique and we work hard to provide the best programs possible for their education.
Tammy Saldana, Melissa Seymour, Kathy Hughes, Christa Mott, Catherine Davenport, Laura Ewing, Stella Winckler, Megan Grant, Merilee Krieg, Venus Kuintzle, Ron Hale, Jen Wangberg and Doreen Walstad are teachers at Lucerne Elementary School.
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- Written by: Dr. William R. MacDougall
The Konocti Unified School District has been having regular meetings regarding the H1N1 and seasonal flu since the end of last year in preparation for this time. The school sites are taking a lead role in educating our students and families in ways to remain healthy during this flu season.
Here is what our district is doing:
Closely monitoring all information coming from the California Department of Education and Lake County Public Health.
Monitoring our attendance to make sure that students who are ill are staying home until they are no longer contagious.
Increasing our frequency of cleaning germ “hot spots” such as desks, tables, door knobs, light switches, faucets, and bus seats.
Keeping classrooms, buses and other facilities fully stocked with the necessary disinfectant materials.
Placing reminder signs in bathrooms for students to wash their hands and students are also reminded to wash their hands upon returning from recess or bathroom.
All staff members are monitoring the bus, classrooms, and the campus for students who show signs of illness, such as frequent coughing, and these students are sent to the office to be medically cleared or sent home.
Educating kids in healthy habits. Students are corrected when they make unhealthy choices and praised when they make healthy choices.
As a community we need to work together to help teach each other and our children healthy habits which will help reduce all illnesses (not just the flu). If everyone works hard we can maintain and improve the health of our community.
Here are the healthy habits that we believe need to be enforced and reinforced by parents, staff members and our community:
Get vaccinated (if recommended by your health care provider).
Stay home if you are sick and try to avoid contact with sick people.
Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds (sing “Happy Birthday” to yourself twice).
Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth (viruses can spread when your hands touch surfaces that may be infested with germs).
Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and remember to throw away the tissue (then wash your hands). If you have no tissue, use the inside of your elbow and be sure to cover your nose and mouth.
Do not share drinks, water bottles, eating utensils, cell phones or makeup.
A parent’s decision to keep a child home from school when sick can sometimes be a difficult one. No parent wants to interrupt their child’s learning and, for some, keeping a child home means missing work or losing pay.
However, if a child has a serious illness such as influenza (flu), it’s important for the child to stay home from school for the recommended seven-day period of time.
The key is to closely monitor your child for signs of illness on a daily basis:
If you have a stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat and a hacking cough you probably have a cold;
If you have a fever higher than 100 degrees, severe headache, muscle and body aches, extreme tiredness and a dry cough, you probably have the flu.
If you suddenly find yourself sick or have a sick family member and are unsure what steps to take, contact your health care provider for treatment advice. Please feel free to contact your neighborhood school for further information and assistance.
Dr. William MacDougall, Ed.D., is superintendent of the Konocti Unified School District.
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- Written by: Chance Crail
Typical memories of high school include sports, proms, homecomings and parties. Some people just remember a moment. Like the day she became prom queen, or the time he made the touchdown that won the game.
I’ve been a freshman for eight weeks now, and what an interesting eight weeks it has been. I’ve battled the horrors of Clear Lake High School, instead of avoiding them like the vast majority of my classmates.
As other freshmen walk the hallways in fear, they are driven by stories of unlucky freshmen that unknowingly let a foot slip into senior “territory” and ended up taped to the flagpole, or facing the reeking depths of a trash can.
These vividly told stories are the weapons with which the upperclassmen maintain an iron grip on their precious picnic tables, located conveniently on a concrete stage in the center of the school. This area, known as “The Quad” is off limits to freshmen by dictation of the upperclassmen. Of course, they can’t actually kick freshmen out; the idea is that because they’ve been in high school the longest, they deserve the special privilege of ‘owning’ the quad.
Upperclassmen also establish a dictatorship over freshmen as soon as school begins. The first day of school, there is a rally. This rally, meant to spark enthusiasm in students, begins with a performance by the cheerleaders. Applause, whistles and screaming dominate the large auditorium.
The cheerleaders then perform for each class separately, beginning with the freshmen. The applause and cat calls quickly turns into booing. Sophomores, juniors and seniors all turn towards the freshmen and the auditorium is filled with one big “boooooo!”
This “initiation,” known to the legal system of the California government as “hazing,” is not stopped, contained, managed or in any other way controlled by the school’s administration. In fact, some might say that the administration supports these barbaric activities. Perhaps that is because the administrators themselves took part in similar traditions when they where in high school.
This booing, or initiation, is a way of making freshmen feel inferior, as if the seniors have complete control over them. With the administration doing nothing to control the chaos, it shows the new freshmen that the administrators allow this behavior to exist, and gives the impression that they, too, believe the upperclassmen should have utmost dictatorship over other students.
These first impressions are said to be a joke by the majority of students I’ve talked to. But I would think it reasonable to say that a joke is only funny if everyone is laughing.
Being a strong supporter of students' rights, I strongly disagree with many of these “traditions” at Clear Lake High School, and I have made that very clear through my defiance of acceptance. During both of the rallies I attended of the three we’ve had this year, I have removed myself from the activity in protest as soon as booing commenced. I respect those who respect me, and booing my friends and I is not respectful, therefore I made it a point to occupy senior “territory” at lunch for a full week in order to show that I do not respect anyone who does not respect me.
Because I did this I received countless threats. I also received flying objects, including squadrons of watermelon, water bottles and food containers. From others I have received death threats and countless insults and warnings, including from the administrators themselves!
Multiple times I have heard someone say, “I am going to beat the s*** out of you.” I guess it’s just an example of how unwilling we are to put a stop to this barbaric culture and accept civilized ethics.
So, the next time someone asks me, “What are you going to remember about high school?” I have a feeling my answer is not going to consist of joyous memories from football games or rallies. As of right now I highly doubt it will contain any recollections of all the great times I was told I’d have in high school. No, I think my answer will be a little different, unless we call for change.
The best solution that my supporters and I can come up with to this problem is to work with the administration to create a new policy that would require upperclassmen to respect freshmen and would require freshmen to respect any senior territory that is noted by the policy.
Other ideas include the implementation of a more positive behavioral curriculum, or programs such as Challenge Day (http://www.challengeday.org/ ), workshops intended to increase students' understanding and connections to each other. Activities that create connections between students typically result in more friendly environments and safer schools.
The administrators are paid by the taxpayers to create a safe learning environment for all students attending their school. If the administrators can’t do this alone, as has been demonstrated, maybe the broader community of Lake County should step in and give them a hand.
Chance Crail is a freshman at Clear Lake High School.
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America has a unique cultural model, almost an archetype, not found to be so dominant in other parts of the world. The mold or model here is material success, or wealth, with all its trappings. It is metaphorically called the pursuit of happiness, but it remains as the original 19th century wording intended the pursuit of property, which could, today, also be more accurately called simple greed.
This American dream, which has lately turned into a nightmare for many, usually mostly comprises a big house, a couple of cars or preferably the biggest SUVs that can be found anywhere on the planet, and the latest high-tech toys besides a television for each person living under a same roof, so family members not only do not have to speak but do not even have to see or spend time with one another, the outcome of which will later feed the need for psychotherapies and the content of popular mainstream television programs such as Dr Phil.
What is uniquely American is that, through the miracle of relatively easy credit, the trappings of success are acquired before success occurs … in most other nations, ordinary people seem to understand they have to make money before deciding how to spend it … you could call this simple logic and fundamental practicality, like planting a tree by the roots.
In America, success, like most that is directed at the gullible masses, is not portrayed as being (successful) but as having (the trappings of success); it is not about reality but appearances, like politics and advertising, and like the media … like all of what constitutes the popular culture.
And it is about having it all right here right now, which could be described as a neurotic impulse, but is most often a symptom of immaturity. So people grab all they can today and worry about paying for it tomorrow, if ever.
For most the dream is indeed materialistic, but the same frantic drive to have gratification without delays taints and defines everything, from instant coffee to instant religious salvation and all in between, from political sound bites to a thirst for instant metaphysical enlightenment, instant mastery in any field, instant weight loss, becoming ripped in four weeks, calling and finding your soul mate in seven weeks and becoming a multi-millionaire in a couple of months.
One, two, three, by the time you snap your fingers diner is served, you and your toddlers speak three foreign languages fluently, you have lost forty pounds, your net worth has increased one thousand folds, and you look and feel better than when you were nineteen years old, all without effort whatsoever.
This could be another aspect of the so-called rat race, since once you train or condition people to run everywhere, they usually cannot ever slow down, not even to eat a decent meal or read and comprehend a sentence that has more than five words.
The cruel irony, which appears to be lost on so many in the mainstream culture, is that real success generally means greater freedom, what is also called financial independence, while acquiring the trappings of success without success translates, in practical terms, as abject, odious bondage, the type that justifiably inspired revolutions in previous centuries.
Voluntary servitude is however the name of the game in today’s society. Rather than making an initial effort and then perhaps getting rewarded, people are taught they should seek the reward first, which becomes as a ball and chain that cannot ever be enjoyed, because now comes the struggle to sacrifice for it for many very long years, coupled with the constant fear of loosing it all, the stress of which produces cancers, ulcers, addictions, rampant divorces and very unhappy children.
The system obviously generates and preys on such immaturity, and not just con artists with get rich quick schemes but banks, credit card companies, commerce and of course the government which offers all sorts of incentives for so-called consumers to become ever more indebted, and which as a matter of fact long ago erected the financial and legal structures necessary for this endless exploitation of the populace. This structure tempts us to have it all now, and while it is presented as gaining status and reaching for fulfillment in glossy advertising and glorious commercials, the hidden cost is drudgery and literal serfdom.
In a consumer-driven economy, no laws will legislate intelligent, independent living, on the contrary. The more people spend money they do not have, the faster the engine runs, as it all is founded on illusions, on smoke and mirrors, like our paper money that is printed faster than monopoly money ever could, while the nation becomes bankrupt and the elite ever wealthier and more powerful. So what is the solution to such pervasive problems?
The simplest solution might be to jump off the merry-go-round, to no longer consume, or as little as practically possible. If major banks and multinational corporations have indeed embraced a globalist agenda meant to level the world into a homogenous mass of paupers and slaves, let them pay the price.
Become independent by recycling, growing, building, and bartering for your needs, and turn your back on a predatory system. Buy used whenever possible, and share and exchange information and knowledge to reclaim your power as a people, since the wannabe royalty, the elite, derives its power by dividing us, making us compete for crumbs like overcrowded rats in a laboratory cage.
If success comes, enjoy the fruits of your labor, if not, enjoy life, but whatever you do, do it on your own terms rather than because you have been conditioned to fill the bottomless pockets of an elite that manipulates you to the detriment of your health, your sanity, your happiness, your life, and of those of the ones you love.
The slogan “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell” might prove accurate after all.
Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport.