Posted by
Mark on Monday, October 01, 2007 12:19:21 PM
Congratulations to all the schools in the Rocklin Unified School District (located 30 miles East of Sacramento) for achieving at least an 800 on the Academic Performance Index (API). However, we need to remember that 800 is meeting only the minimum requirements set forth by the California Department of Education.
Lets take a look at 2 schools in Rocklin, Twin Oaks Elementary School and Rocklin Academy. Twin Oaks is in the Rocklin Unified School District (RUSD) and Rocklin Academy is a charter school that shares a school campus with another RUSD elementary school. These schools are located approximately 3 miles apart. The students that attend these schools come from the same socio economic background. However, these two schools are going in opposite directions.
Rocklin Academy is the highest-ranked school in Rocklin for sixth consecutive year. It is one of the highest ranked schools in the entire State of California. Over 90% of the students at Rocklin Academy reside in Rocklin. Why has this school been so successful? One could say it is the Core Knowledge Sequence. Parents, teachers, and administrators are held accountable and work as a team to make sure every child can achieve the highest level of success.
Twin Oaks continues its slide to mediocrity. For the last 2 years, when compared with similar schools in California (same socio economic background), Twin Oaks is ranked near the bottom by the California Department of Education. Parents continue to ask why is this happening and why our leaders in the RUSD ignoring this problem? Many teachers have asked for transfers to different schools. Two years ago the principal was fired. It is obvious the current principal has not fixed the problem. Word on the street is she may be part of the problem. Superintendent Kevin Brown and his rubber stamp school board will not tell you that there probably has been a high request of Twin Oaks parents that have requested to attend Rocklin Academy. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand why.
Rocklin is an affluent community. There is no excuse for any school in the RUSD to rank at the bottom of similar school rankings. If you want to see why this travesty continues, attend a Rocklin School Board meeting. Each board member tries to out perform each other with praise about the school district. It is very important to recognize schools and individuals who achieve good things. But it is also important to hold people accountable. This does not happened with this school board. Board member Steve Paul, known as the “Grand Poobah,” according to the Rocklin Watcher, is more concerned with taking money from the California Teacher’s Association than holding administrators accountable. He does not even read his board package before most meetings. He has always been the least informed board member. Or maybe he does not understand the material. Todd Lowell and Greg Daley, Mr. Paul’s comrades on the school board continue avoid the Twin Oaks problem. In fact, they will not even discuss the problems at their board meeting.
If you are a Twin Oaks parent or any other parent in the RUSD you should make the decision where to send your children. The “Grand Poobah,” Mr. Lowell, and Mr. Daley (all claim they are Republicans) have prohibited parents to attend schools like Rocklin Academy. They have done this by limiting growth of the charter school and mandating that 20% of the Rocklin Academy enrollment be from outside Rocklin. How does this happen when Rocklin parents have paid the taxes to build the elementary school that houses Rocklin Academy? These 3 sleazy Republicans have joined forces with the anti-charter school California Teachers Association to prevent Rocklin parents from having a choice on where to send their children. These sleazy Republicans have also joined forces with California Assemblyman Ted “in my pocket” Gaines. Remember Ted is making a sacrifice driving 20 miles down Interstate 80 to collect his $165 a day per diem. Ted is more concerned about collecting his per diem than supporting the Republican issue of school choice. Word on the street is “in my pocket” Gaines did not send his kids to public schools. It would be nice if someone could confirm that. This is just like a member of the Rocklin City Council who campaigned against charter schools but sends their own family member to a charter school. The ruling elite campaign on how good our local schools are but it seems that our local schools are not good enough for their kids.
Lets see what the Republican candidates for the 4th Congressional district have to say. Congressman John Doolittle has been silent on charter schools for the last 3 years. He has not supported any candidates that support charter schools. Five years ago, he supported anti-charter school Rocklin School Board member Todd Lowell. If the Congressman expects to be re-elected he needs to denounce the Rocklin School Board and their anti-charter school actions. Candidate Eric Egland says he supports charter schools. I will be meeting with this candidate to see if he really is in favor of charter schools. If candidate Mike Holmes is like his, “lets keep the status quo” brother Supervisor Jim Holmes, we have another anti-charter school Republican candidate. Of course we have California Assemblyman Ted “in my pocket” Gaines who has already shown he is a California Teachers Association supporter. Ted and his Chief of Staff bragged at his victory party last November that they got the 3 CTA endorsed candidates elected. Ted claims he supports charter schools. You would never know this by his support for the anti-charter Rocklin School Board. His actions have showed the members of the 4th Assembly district that he lacks the character to represent our district. And this guy wants to go to Washington?
On the Democratic side we have Charlie Brown. Charlie says he believes in school choice. How strange, we have the Democratic that says he believes in school choice (I plan to meet with him to see where he really stands) and a Congressman that is silent on the issue. If Mr. Brown is really for school choice and will stand up to the California Teachers Association and denounce the Rocklin School Board, he will have more than the 3,000 votes that cost him the election against Congressman Doolittle in 2006.