This unsigned email, disseminated by room parents of children in the Del Mar schools, made the rounds the day before the special board meeting approving Tom Bishop's resignation agreement.
Subject: URGENT SCHOOL NEWS
Dear Friends and Neighbors:
Many of you may remember the hard fought, gut wrenching days of the DMUSD School Board boundary decision back in 2002. Others of you may not have even lived here at that time. Then again, some of you went so far as to sell your home(s) and purchase another one just to be able to attend a certain school.. Prior to 2002, there were no school boundaries in the Del Mar district.. You could live on the beach in Del Mar, and send your kids to Ashley Falls or whatever DMUSD school you so desired. When the boundaries were enacted, that created neighborhood schools. That has been the status quo since 2002.
Unfortunately, now, the "newly elected majority of 3" has decided that they don't want the boundaries anymore. In order to do away with them, they are voting on Wednesday, February 27, 2008, at their regular meeting to be held at Del Mar Hills school to allow permanent interdistrict transfers for any student who desires one. They are doing this against the advice of their own legal counsel. Their lawyer wrote a 4 page opinion letter on why this should not be done. However, they are going to do it anyway. This vote is not being publicized, however, you can download the meeting agenda from the website, hopefully, by this weekend.
What is appalling about this vote for permanent transfers to school sites other than the child's neighborhood school, is that it will effectively increase the class sizes in the upper grades. Right now, in the 6th grade at my son's school (Ashley Falls), there are at least 7 students who should be at other schools, but they were granted transfers to Ashley Falls. This makes my son's 6th grade homeroom class a 27 member class, instead of 20. Three of the transfer kids are supposed to go to the newer school, Sycamore Ridge (they can walk there), but the kids didn't like that school, and wanted to come to Ashley Falls. Voila! A transfer was granted! So, with those children at Ashley Falls, our class size is high (27), and the Sycamore Ridge 6th grade class has only 19 kids. You might be asking, (since my child will be graduating the school in June), why do I care? I care about my property values! That's why! Think about what a permanent lifetime transfer could mean! With "out of boundary" kids taking up desks at your home school, there will not always be room for the kids who live near the school to be enrolled. (This was one of the school district's lawyer's admonishments advising against the practice of permanent transfers!)
That was the problem we faced back in 2001 -2002, when my 6th grader was in Kindergarten! So, here we go again, unless lots of people attend that meeting and speak out against enacting a new policy! Please help if you can! Those crazies are doing whatever they please! In fact, they are firing Tom Bishop, the Superintendent for the last 10-11 years on Tuesday night...Why would you force someone to resign and have to pay out the balance of a contract for two more years, and pay big bucks to hire a new person, when the state is in such a horrible budget crunch? Even if you hate Tom Bishop, it doesn't make sense to cut him loose until the contract ends, right? Check out the website for "Special meeting" Board Agendas! You'll see that they are forcing him to resign this coming Tuesday at a "Special Board Meeting" at 6pm at the Del Mar Hills School. They are doing all of this under cover, since no one ever goes to the website to browse about what the Board might be up to....Get the word out if you care! EMAIL THE BOARD MEMBERS IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND THE WEDNESDAY NIGHT MEETING! THEIR EMAIL ADDRESSES CAN BE FOUND AT DMUSD.ORG
We need our boundaries, and we need the transfer policy to be kept on a "space available" "one year at a time" basis.
Thanks so much!
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