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Updated August 4th, 2011
Letters to the Editor
Kudos to
School Board
Kudos to the administrators and
teachers of our school district for
preparing such a detailed, comprehensive
and professionally designed
staff development plan. Although
many other districts have chosen to
simply muddle through as best they
can without support for teacher collaboration,
our district has chosen to
renew its commitment to improve
student learning by encouraging
dialogue which focuses on authentic
student results in order to uncover
best practices.
The immediate positive effects
of such collaboration will be the
noticeable improvement in the daily
delivery of instruction. The longterm
effects of such collaboration
will be the strengthening of the collective
capability of each school, the
development of working teacher
teams, and the emergence of
instructional leaders. The basic
resiliency of the school, the ability
of each school to adapt to harsh economic
challenges, will, therefore, be
enhanced through meaningful organizational
learning and collective
accountability which is engendered
through collaboration.
In my pre-retirement career in
another district, I was deeply
involved in staff development activities,
accreditation, and the development
of learning organizations at
school sites. I can assure you that
such collaboration is not, as one letter
writer suggested, simply oneshot
“drive by” staff development. I
can also assure you that, when properly
administered, student learning
will be benefited far in excess of any
perceived short-term “costs” to students
and their families. And, when
a visiting accreditation team comes
to La Cañada, this program, which
encourages and facilitates collaboration,
will be the center of discussion
at the debriefing table. It will
receive a commendation.
James Patterson
La Cañada Flintridge
Disappointed in
LCUSD Board
I found it ironic that LCUSD
Superintendent Jim Stratton concluded
his editorial comments last
week by decrying the excessive
“emotionalism” that has infected
school discussions this past year. He
urged a return to civility, so that we
can debate with “reason, respect and
logic.”
I have a bad habit of attending
school board meetings.
Unfortunately, “reason” and “logic”
went missing at the last meeting.
Cindy Wilcox made a thoughtful,
researched presentation about taking
the district charter. She had the
facts and figures to demonstrate that
becoming a charter district could
effectively solve our fiscal problems
by increasing enrollment. Ms.
Wilcox did not advocate voting that
evening on whether to go charter;
rather, she simply urged the formation
of a committee to explore the
issue.
Ms. Wilcox’s presentation was
met with nonsense. Some board
members rejected looking into the
charter possibility because, as a
charter district, we would have to
admit kids from outside La Cañada
if there was capacity, and we might
not be able to give a preference to
any particular area (such as
Sagebrush). One wonders how this
differs from the district’s current
plan to increase the number of permit
students to about 18% during
the next few years in any event.
And, as I understand it, current law
requires the district to enroll
Romero Bill applicants from all
over the region if space is available.
One board member dismissed
investigating the charter option by
repeatedly intoning, “We’re the
number two school district in
California,” which struck me as a nonsequitur. And finally, one board
member complained about how difficult
change can be. He likened
going charter to the inconvenience
of moving houses, musing that
when one moves, it’s hard to
remember to turn left to use the
bathroom at night when one is used
to turning right. Besides, various
board members protested, they’re so
busy with other important issues;
they just don’t have time to investigate
the charter option. With that,
the board handily rejected Ms.
Wilcox’s proposal and went on to
discuss the next “pressing” issue on
the agenda: the process for naming
various school facilities after major
donors.
Personally, I don’t know
whether going charter is a good or
bad option for La Cañada schools. I
do think, however, that facing massive
and increasing fiscal challenges,
this district ought to thoroughly
explore every reasonable
possibility. I am deeply disappointed
that, other than Ms. Wilcox, our
school board has rejected even considering
the charter option in a
meaningful and open-minded fashion.
In fact, I’m downright emotional
about it.
Deborah Pitts
La Cañada Flintridge
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