In November the Konocti Unified School District (KUSD) is asking voters to approve a $29.6 million school bond called Measure Y. I think the question voters should be asking is, “Why?”
I was a teacher in this district for 18 years and served on the KUSD Board for eight years. My second term was finished in 2010.
I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the district’s teachers, aides, secretaries, cooks, custodians and bus drivers; the people on the front lines who serve and interact with students every day.
This criticism of the district in no way is directed to these hard working employees, but rather to those who are supposedly in a position of leadership: the school board and the superintendent who, in my opinion, have made a series of poor decisions and mismanaged district resources.
Case in point: No accountability. Three years ago the K-8 schools were overcrowded. The district held a series of meetings, some scheduled at times when parents were not likely to attend, to gather ideas as to what to do.
Some parents did attend board meetings and offered input. They did not like the idea of eighth graders going to the high school or creating a special fourth through eighth grade program on the old Oak Hill site to be called the Konocti Education Center, or KEC. These ideas were also not favored by teachers or administrators and yet at the end of the process, that is exactly what the school board voted to do.
The board also voted to scoop up all the deferred maintenance money, and other funding, to remodel that campus to accommodate the new program.
The next year when the high school kitchen needed remodeling, because the deferred maintenance money was not available, the superintendent asked, and the board approved, going out for a $3 million loan to make those needed improvements.
And as well, even though some students did go to the new school, the enrollment numbers at the existing schools swelled right back to where they had been, so the overcrowding problem was not solved. Today, overcrowding in Konocti schools is a problem at all levels but it is not addressed at all in this bond.
In education, decisions should be based on data that shows that programs, teaching strategies or other interventions work. So far there has been no feedback to parents or the community to show that the creation of the new KEC program, which has absorbed an incredible amount of district resources, has proven effective in terms of student achievement or positive student behavior.
The same can be said for the experiment of putting eighth graders at the high school. How is that working out? Compared to previously having eighth graders at the K-8 schools, has academic achievement improved? Have suspension rates, drug and alcohol issues or teen pregnancy rates been improved or gotten worse? There seems to be no accountability with regard to district decision making.
Case in point: Frivolous spending. Two years ago KUSD celebrated its 50th year as a unified school district. The district spent $25,000 to buy tee shirts for every student and staff member. In the 2016 summer school session, again, all students and staff received free tee shirts.
The district spent $500,000 on its 2016 summer school program which included four days a week with a morning session of academics and an afternoon with two sessions of enrichment. Every Friday was a field trip to somewhere, most places out of the county. At the end of summer school, an article in the Record-Bee touted how much fun the students had but made no mention of any academic progress.
Did they increase their reading fluency? Learn sight words or multiplication facts? Get ready to be successful in algebra? Make up high school credits? How could anyone know? Again, no accountability.
As well, the Migrant Education Parent Advisory Committee was very unhappy that only 65 out of 200 migrant education students were accepted into the summer school program. A daily walk through summer school classes would have shown that there was ample room for more students to have had the opportunity to attend.
Every credible study which recommends interventions as to how to help low socio-economic, low achieving student populations advises strongly for the need to increase academic time: Districts are urged to offer before and after school programs and academic summer school. Yet Konocti focuses its summer school program on tee shirts and field trips.
Case in point: Broken promise of Measure G and lack of support for our community youth. In 2004 voters passed a bond called Measure G to build libraries and bathrooms on all sites, and a new gym at the high school. (It should be noted that taxpayers will be paying off this bond until 2032.)
One of the promises of Measure G was that the new high school gym was to be a community resource.
The Konocti Basketball League (KBL) is a nonprofit organization which has had a longstanding relationship with KUSD. Because of their service and commitment to the youth of our community, for many years the district had not charged, or had minimally charged, KBL for the use of the high school facilities, including the new gym.
Starting in 2015 the district wanted to charge KBL $40 an hour to use the new gym. KBL was also going to be required to pay $35 an hour for the cost of two custodians. These costs they simply could not bear. KBL was effectively pushed out of the new gym. The promise of Measure G was broken.
The Youth Football League, a nonprofit organization which serves students ages 7 to 14, tells another story. For many years they used Konocti’s fields for free or for a nominal fee. Now they are being asked to pay $1,000 a game for lights, plus six hours of custodial time per game. They are also being asked to pay for use of the fields for practice time, even though practice is always over before dark.
You would think that the district would see these organizations as partners rather than as sources of income. The costs, of course, get passed along to the parents, and also become another burden on fundraisers who are already working hard to find money for insurance, equipment, scholarships for students who need help paying, and all the other necessary costs of running a league.
Case in point: Low student achievement. For many years Konocti schools had many sources of academic support and remediation for students who needed it. When this superintendent first came to Konocti, she made the remark more than once that she “did not believe in the deficit model,” she “believes in enrichment.”
This superintendent comes from a background in human resources, not classroom education. As a former teacher, I can tell you, if a student has a deficit, you need to address it, and no amount of enrichment will lead that student to proficiency.
In 2015 the high school graduation rate in Lake County was 85 percent, with three local districts over 90 percent. In Konocti it was 77 percent.
In 2015 Konocti also had many test scores at various levels in single digits. The district’s overall English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency score was 20 percent (the county average was 33.75 percent); the math proficiency score districtwide was 10 percent (the county average was 22.5 percent). It seems district resources are not being directed towards areas of student need.
Case in point: Talent drain. In the last few years, due to the poor working environment in the district, many talented, dedicated and highly effective employees (administrators, teachers and classified staff) have left and found employment elsewhere. This talent drain comes at a high cost in an era when competition for highly qualified employees is acute.
The school board acknowledges the management style in the district is “top down” but doesn’t seem to recognize what the repercussions of that style really are. Not only does this create a vacuum where the employees have left, it creates a morale problem for those left behind.
This question also needs to be asked: Does the district really need the money? The superintendent, the business manager and at least one board member have been heard to remark that the district has “lots of money.”
The district does receive deferred maintenance money every year. This money should have been used to pay for many of the needed upgrades and repair projects listed in the bond, and been done annually.
Voters should also not be misled by the statement that voting for the bond will allow the district to “have more money to retain quality teachers and academic programs” (as stated in the KUSD bond fact sheet).
The two funding sources – for salaries and programs versus physical improvements are (or should be) from entirely different budget sources. Salaries come from general funds; physical improvements and academic programs should be paid for by other funds.
To me, the district has not done a good job managing the resources it has. It has already accrued an unnecessary $3 million debt and spent money unwisely.
These are tough times for local taxpayers who will be paying off Measure G for 16 more years.
The district has not worked to be a good partner with our community. For years there has been little communication and ear for input, and yet, now the district asks for more of our financial support. The district administration needs to get its own house in order and reorganize its priorities.
Sadly, my recommendation is to vote no on Measure Y.
Carolyn Jarrett lives in Clearlake, Calif.
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