Tehachapi News

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            Evidently “No Child Left Behind” does not apply in the Tehachapi Unified School District.  It appears the last priority of the present school board and superintendent is our greatest resource, our children.

            The affront on the students of this district reached a climax this fall as chaos took control more quickly than district leadership.  High school students arrived in August to find convoluted class schedules that consisted of class enrollment totaling 50 to 90 students, periods where students weren’t assigned a class, teachers maintaining multiple classes at once, and insufficient number of teachers hired to accommodate the student body.  In a system where there is never enough time for covering endless state standards, the present board and superintendent frittered away a full month of educational time.

            It’s nothing new in Tehachapi to have overcrowded classrooms, and it doesn’t just happen at the high school.  Corralling kids begins back in third grade, the same grade where “No Child Left Behind” requires stability of bedrock academic skills.  It’s the same grade where student enrollment was formerly capped at twenty per classroom.  Today, the overcrowded third grade classes are but training for herd mentality in fourth and fifth grade bulging classrooms.  So starts the trend for sixth grade, middle school, and beyond.  Reality is that important individual scholastic needs often defer to managing masses.  It’s a cheat on a child’s education.   

            Despite the board’s pledge to return the district to status quo after recovering from their last financial fiasco, they now boast of sitting on a three million dollar reserve, almost three times what the state requires.  Developer fees and state monies generated from faithful student attendance expand district coffers, but children are lucky if a trickle of that funding comes noticeably their way. 

            Yes, there are bounteous blunders.  What about our high school for the first time not meriting a full six-year accreditation?  Why has the longstanding tradition of Disneyland Grad Night been bungled for last year’s seniors and yet again for this year’s senior class?  Why are students sometimes without desks?  Books?  Must students play computer games because no teacher was hired to teach their class?  How could district leadership glance sideways at sewage on the Cummings Valley campus?  Forgotten are important details like maintaining buildings before a roof crumbles and sustaining use of buildings before retrofitting is mandated in the millions of dollars.  Must we build new facilities after we’ve squandered the facilities we own free and clear?

            And what happens to teachers who speak up on behalf of their students’ academic atrocities?  They are the targets of retribution.  District officials have created a climate of fear in the work force.

            Clearly, it’s time to clean house.  KIDS MUST COME FIRST!  They must not be ignored by a board who weakly defers to the superintendent.  The board should be the superintendent’s boss, and the board should represent the community.  Because of extremely limited space in the old JJHS library, board meetings are now carefully orchestrated to limit community participation.  There’s just no room for people.  Therein lies the problem. 

            People are valued in Tehachapi, California.  A recently retired and highly respected administrator recently told the superintendent and board, “You have disrespected this community!”  This is an exceptional community with exceptional people who generously care about each other.  And that’s precisely what has been left behind in the Tehachapi Unified School District – people.  Especially little people, our most important resource.  No child in Tehachapi, California should be left behind.