Take that North Natomas!

Is it that the bloggers are getting mad and word travels fast? Is it the rapid rise in crime in the area? Perhaps it's that the school district seems to think they're brilliant and wonderful managers. Either way, North Natomas is about to take another major hit over the head. This time, it's in the form of a community day school set on the same campus as a brand new elementary school.

That's right folks. The NUSD believes it can best serve the community by placing a group of students who need psychological services, have been expelled and have massive attendance problems right on your brand new elementary school! The Natomas Community Day School will, of course, be a heavily supervised well run program. Because we've seen the district is so good at that. (Can you taste the dripping sarcasm yet?)

For some unknown and unpublicized logic, the district is no longer interested in using the Sacramento County system of Community Day schools that are already established. They say they want to keep these students closer to home for easier reintegration. I believe it's a justification for a massive junior high school that will stand unused this year because of NUSD's poor financial management.

Despite what their information says, this is not "scare tactics." I have personally been the assistant vice principal at an alternative school where nearly all of my students had parole officers and had been in and out of juvenile hall. I'm not "scared" of these students and they deserve every opportunity to recover from years of bad parenting.

However, even I wouldn't be as bold and ignorant to put them on an elementary school campus and then promise the public that everything is fine because they'll be supervised. The things I've seen would shock any adult and not things you would ever want your adorable kindergarten son walking into in a boy's bathroom.

If you have a child who will attend Allen Hight Elementary or you live in the Creekside neighborhood or the far west side of Natomas Park, I suggest you get on the phone today and begin screaming and yelling about this decision. As best I can tell from old board agendas, the district waited until school was out to have a public hearing (on June 19th) and review the proposal. Their supposed "higher ratio" of teachers to students only includes a budget for one teacher and one social worker/administrator. That's a pretty bad ratio for a one room campus of troubled students.

I agree with the idea that Natomas students would be best served by a community school in our area. However, it makes the most sense to either put it on Natomas High's campus or locate it at Discovery High. Sharing resources and facilities with a school that is already equip to deal with older students makes the most sense. Instead, the district has chosen to do what it usually does- make a hasty last minute decision that is illogical and lacks vision.

And this my friends, is why we pay for private school

Natomas Unified has made some bad decisions under Dr. Farrar. We know about the land deals, the mediocre ratings on Great Schools, the below average spending per pupil (Current expense of education per ADA- $6304, state average $7,127) and the overall mismanagement and unhappiness of many parents in the district. The one thing they've done right is to let the charter schools do their own thing. In a mess of the district, the charters are doing well.

Dr. Farrar's response to the proposed governor's budget is perhaps the most appalling of mistakes. Per his letter, he has issued an immediate hiring and spending freeze as a precautionary measure. Interesting... especially since Natomas Unified still has jobs posted on edjoin.org listed as open and available. Is this a lie or an oversight?

While driving to the local library yesterday, I noticed that the Inderkum football field is all torn up and inquired inside. They are replacing it with artificial turf, that will apparently be state of the art. Yeah... we need a state of the art football field when you're already spending less per pupil than the rest of the state.

He even threatens to turn Kindergarten and 1st grade classes into 30 kids a piece next year, eliminate busing for students and even *gasp* potentially file for bankruptcy in 2009.

Now really, I know this is a fluff piece. It's designed to enrage parents in the assumption that they'll turn that around and push it on the governor. Right. The state problem is the same as the district problem... a simple mismanagement of funds. You can't spend what you don't have and you can always do more with less. I'm willing to bet, as a former teacher, everyone would forgo a football season to have a few permanent teachers in the classroom and a few less subs. Maybe leaving off the synthetic turf soccer field at the new Hight middle school would have bought a few more class sets of textbooks. I'm for sports and sports programs... but not when they sacrifice learning for athletics.

Perhaps that few million extra misspent for the land in North Natomas would be useful now?