UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The issue of whether Upper Lake High School graduates and their counterparts at Clover Valley High, the district's continuation high school, should share the same commencement ceremony has arisen once again for the district's board of trustees.
The matter was scheduled for discussion, but no action, at the Upper Lake High School District Board meeting Wednesday night.
Newly elected Board President Keith Austin noted during the discussion that the issue needed to be addressed once and for all.
District Superintendent/Principal Patrick Iaccino said it will be discussed further at a board workshop on Saturday, Jan. 11, with a vote likely at the board's regular meeting on Thursday, Jan. 15.
The graduations for the two high schools have been combined for about a decade, Iaccino told Lake County News. He said it's a matter that comes up just about every year.
This year, so far two students at Clover Valley High are expected to graduate, Austin said.
Board members appeared split about the suggestion that the graduations be separated, raising concerns both about exclusion and accountability.
Students and teachers favored the separation, which was felt to be a matter of respect and discipline.
Teacher Alex Stabiner said holding a dual graduation ceremony degraded teachers' attempts both to maintain discipline and encourage students academically.
Annie Barnes, whose children attended Upper Lake High, said, “It really feels like a punishment.”
Christian McMilin, the student representative on the board of trustees, advocated for separating the ceremonies.
“We've worked to stay in school. We've worked not to be expelled,” she said of Upper Lake High's students.
Former board member Ron Raetz said every school in Lake County has a separate graduation, except for Upper Lake. He said having different graduations was not a punishment.
Teachers Anna Sabalone and Mike Smith, speaking on behalf of the teachers' union, said they and their colleagues wanted separate graduations, a measure they believed would bring more stability to Upper Lake High and prevent discipline from eroding.
They explained that close to 50 percent of the Clover Valley High students have no genuine hardship other than failing a class or a discipline issue.
Sabalone said she has been told by students that classes don't matter, and that they can redo the work at Clover Valley High and still graduate.
“A separate graduation would help reinforce the idea that you've earned it,” Sabalone said.
Board member Wanda Quitiquit didn't agree.
“I think that this is moving in a direction of exclusion,” said Quitiquit, adding, “I detest that.”
She asked what it mattered who the students walk with when they are on the stage at graduation. “I see this as one community,” said Quitiquit, adding that she didn't think the separation was justifiable.
Board member Rich Swaney questioned why Upper Lake High holds a joint ceremony with Clover Valley High, and he wanted to know if Upper Lake High's seniors had been polled on the matter. “It's their graduation.”
Pointing out that as a board member, he's not on the campus everyday, Swaney said, “The people who work here say that they don't like it. It's their work environment.”
The board, he said, is the body that decides to send students from Upper Lake High to Clover Valley High. He said separating the ceremonies was part of a culture change taking place in the district that also included the addition of a school resource deputy. “I'm definitely for it.”
Board Vice President Claudine Pedroncelli said the school needed to be united, and she felt separating the two graduations would be discriminatory.
“There are far more pressing problems within this school district” that should be addressed rather than looking at 30 minute ceremony that acknowledges completion, she said.
Iaccino, who noted he wasn't taking either side, told the board, “The ceremony has become more important than the diploma.”
He suggested that the board look at what level of achievement should qualify for participating in the graduation ceremony, and consider not allowing students to take part if their grade point average fell below 2.0.
Students below that grade point average aren't allowed to play sports, yet Iaccino said the district is handing out diplomas to students with grade point averages of less than 1.0.
“It doesn't matter what stage they walk, it matters that it's a diploma and it means something,” he said.
Stabiner said it wasn't a matter of exclusion, but of different standards, and he believed Iaccino was correct in his suggestion that they needed to reevaluate overall standards for the graduation ceremony.
“I think it's wrong, and I think it's a liability to the school,” Stabiner said of the combined graduation, adding, “It just undermines what we're trying to do at the school.”
Mary Ann Mathews, who works as a special education and support staffer, as well as a student advisor, suggested to the board that Clover Valley High should be given more recognition as a separate school so it can promote its achievements, much like Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake does.
Two ceremonies, she said, could allow Clover Valley High students' achievements to be acknowledged, and also recognize the transformations in some of the students.
Pedroncelli said she was overwhelmed with the stigma attached to Clover Valley High. “This whole discussion is much deeper than the graduation ceremony that takes one half hour or more,” she said.
Stabiner said that to parents, students and teachers, the dual graduation is one of the most important topics, and a divisive one. “I'm sorry you don't see it.”
Sandy Coatney, vice principal and dean of students, pointed out that Upper Lake High and Clover Valley High are separate schools. He said Upper Lake High doesn't invite Clear Lake High over to celebrate a dual graduation.
Acknowledging that there is a lot of emotion around the issue, Coatney added, “At the root of it, it's a different high school.”
Stabiner pointed out that Clover Valley High students have different colors and a different mascot, so they must don Upper Lake High's colors in order to take part in the graduation ceremony.
Austin said he was on the fence about the issue, and agreed that the board should be addressing other things. However, he said every topic should get its due, and suggested scheduling it for discussion in January. “We need to make a decision.”
Jordin Simons, a member of the associated student body leadership, said the board was missing the bigger picture, and that the issue came down to choices.
She said adults tell her all the time that her generation has become insolent. Allowing students who have been expelled to come back to Upper Lake High and go through a shared graduation ceremony is setting them up to have the same ideas later in life that resulted in them being sent to the continuation high school.
Simons said the two graduations should be separate. “They should walk their stage,” she said.
Swaney liked the idea of giving Clover Valley High a separate and distinct graduation ceremony that they could call their own.
“A lot can be said about ownership,” he said.
Also at the Wednesday meeting, Iaccino administered oaths of office to Pedroncelli and Quitiquit, who recently were elected to new terms on the board. Valerie Duncan, who also was reelected, was absent from the meeting due to a family emergency.
The board also elected Austin as president, Pedroncelli as vice president and Swaney as clerk.
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