Special from Kathryn Santos-Reed
When four school districts merged in 2008 to become Twin Rivers Unified School District, there were hopes for many things: among them cost savings, of course, by having only one administration instead of four, but one hope was for continuity of experience for the students, our children, as they moved from Elementary into Middle/Junior High schools, and finally into High School.
Before the merger, one student could, without ever changing his home, end up attending schools in two or three separate districts, each of which had its own separate records, separate educational philosophies, different disciplinary systems and teacher/student ratios, etc. By consolidating, our students were promised one smooth journey from first grade through twelfth.
When you, as voters, approved the merger, you also approved a system of electing trustees for each of the seven areas, also known as ‘trustee areas’ (I know, it’s a little confusing): since your child could conceivably attend a school in any one of several ‘trustee areas’, you voted to allow every voter to vote for every Trustee – no matter where you, the voter, lived, and no matter which ‘trustee area’ the Trustee represented.
This system only made sense; if you had children who could be attending schools in more than one ‘trustee area’, you wanted to be sure that ALL the Trustees were accountable to ALL the parents and voters, and that the trustees would be concerned and accountable for the success of every school in the entire district.
Now there is a group – a small group, but one with some pretty powerful financial and political support, and one that seems to be getting a lot of media attention – that wants to change this voting system. They want you to be able to vote for ONLY the Trustee in your ‘trustee area’ in which your residence is located – even if you have children attending schools in other ‘trustee areas’. They want the Trustees to be accountable ONLY to the residents of the neighborhoods from which they are elected, rather than accountable to all the parents, voters and taxpayers throughout the District.
And, rather than allow you to vote on this change, they are putting pressure on the Sacramento County Committee on School District Organization (SCCSDO is the SCOE Board of Education) to have this decision made by the California State Board of Education without any vote at all – simply by bringing political pressure and media attention to bear on the Sacramento County Board of Education to force them to get this done .
Families with children of different ages are essentially being told that they will have no control over the Trustee who watches out for the schools their older children, for example, might be attending; they can only vote for the Trustee representing the area in which their house is located.
This is not what you voted for, when you approved the unification in November 2007. Deciding whether or not to change the voting method, however you feel about it, whatever your politics, surely shouldn’t be something decided by a Board. It should be decided by the voters, the taxpayers who fund the schools, whose children attend these schools.
If you agree, PLEASE consider attending the Feb. 22, 2012 hearing posted below. If you can’t attend the hearing, please contact the Sacramento County Committee on School District Organization (SCCSDO) at 916-228-2410. BEFORE THE HEARING and urge them to either deny the proposal to change the current method of voting for Trustee election in Twin Rivers Unified School District, or at least, place the measure on the June 5th ballot so the TRUSD voters can decide this issue.
Here’s the link to the Feb. 22, 2012, 6pm hearing at 1333 Grand Ave, Bldg. A-2.:
http://www.scoe.net/cocom/agenda/2012/0222packet.pdf
Again – even if you personally don’t have children or grandchildren in the school system, your tax dollars (or part of your rent payment) are funding the school district – don’t you want to decide how the district operates?
