By Marsha Sutton
Source: Carmel Valley News, July 3, 2008
In the heated debate over the failed Spanish language program at Del Mar Heights School, an acrimonious political climate and a battle waged by adults killed a modest program to provide limited Spanish language instruction to a handful of kindergarten and first-grade kids.
Years of hard work by staff and parents at Del Mar Heights School have been wasted, victimized by three misperceptions:
- that one school, Del Mar Heights, was receiving preferential treatment over the district’s other schools because three board members have ties to the school (four, if you count Janet Lamborghini, who lives in the Heights area and occasionally serves there in an academic capacity)
- that the Spanish program would spell the demise of nearby Del Mar Hills Academy
- that the program would cost the district extra money
Throughout the district, a virulent, inexplicable anti-Heights sentiment is apparent. One classified employee wrote in a recent survey that the greatest challenge facing the next superintendent is: “the board of trustees who only care about the success of Del Mar Heights School.”
Yes, three board members have children attending Del Mar Heights School – none of whom, by the way, would have directly benefited from approval of the kindergarten portion of the Spanish program.
So does this fact mean that the Heights must always be looked upon less approvingly by this board in order to eliminate public perception of favoritism?
What happened to the quaint idea that this is all one district, united in its mission to offer superior educational opportunities to all its students in a variety of settings?
What motivation does staff at the Heights now have to pursue innovative ideas in education when the result is that they are disrespected and disenfranchised because of the coincidence that three board members’ kids attend the Heights?
This distortion of reality makes villains of innocent board members who simply wanted foreign language brought to children – somehow, some way. And the one school that happened to design a creative, viable program endorsed by both teachers and parents had the misfortune of being Del Mar Heights, where test scores consistently show that students thrive and achieve at the highest levels.
As one crestfallen staff member said to me, “I look forward to the day when innovation and creativity in this district are rewarded rather than condemned.”
Score: Conformity 1, Innovation 0.
Because of the shared attendance boundary west of Interstate 5, approved by a prior school board under former Del Mar Union School District superintendent Tom Bishop, the Hills and the Heights compete for students. And the competition has grown fierce, after years of threats from Bishop that one school may close if they both don’t work to increase enrollment.
It’s true that there were to be four kindergarten classes at the Heights and only two at the Hills this fall. But one of those classes at the Heights was composed entirely of students from east of I-5 who reside outside the Hills/Heights attendance area, a feature designed specifically to offset the anticipated uproar from Del Mar Hills where parents and staff live in a constant state of anxiety over possible school closure due to low enrollment.
So killing the program at the Heights does not give the Hills a third kindergarten class. It simply eliminates that fourth Carmel Valley kindergarten class from the Heights.
And repeated reassurances from the current school board that it has no intention of shuttering the school have done little to dispel Bishop’s lingering ultimatums.
Now that the Spanish program has been cancelled, we can all rejoice that we have saved a building, one that was never in jeopardy to begin with. Never mind that we have lost something far more priceless: an educational opportunity at foreign language instruction for the district’s children that will likely never see the light of day again.
Score: Facilities 1, Foreign Language 0.
Finally, there’s the misinformed idea that the cash-strapped district would be spending extra money on teachers this fall to implement the Heights’ Spanish program, when the district had already budgeted three extra teachers, with or without the Spanish program.
And all miscellaneous instructional materials for the program were to be paid by Del Mar Heights School through grants and private donations.
Although these financial details were repeatedly presented, some parents and teachers continued to insist that the Heights’ Spanish program was fiscally irresponsible, a twisted view that generated suspicion and mistrust for an embattled school board trying its best to disseminate the facts to counter the fiction.
It’s hard to say whether this was a deliberate move to create dissension or a genuine unfamiliarity with the facts. But what’s clear is that this sort of false information became, for a noisy few, attractive ammunition used to punish a school board for past actions that some have found objectionable.
As predicted, two weeks after the Spanish program was denied, an item on the June 25 school board meeting agenda projected “an increase of three classroom teaching positions” for next year.
Despite this, there are those who would lay waste to a once vibrant district by exploiting controversy and continuing to spread false rumors. They are determined, exasperatingly, to breed doubt and acrimony – contributing to what may become a self-fulfilling prophesy that the school district is in turmoil, when the truth is that children are excelling.
Score: Rumors 1, Truth 0.
Morale in ruins
So what are we left with? A district whose morale lies in ruins, undone by distortions and misperceptions – and a well-planned, thoroughly-researched, staff- and parent-supported, fully-enrolled foreign language program that became a casualty of bitter adult battles.
Even though no concern was severe enough to justify cancellation, there were valid reasons to question the program.
The Hills’ worries about the repercussions of low enrollment were real. Bishop’s regular warnings that he might close the school sowed the seeds of suspicion and continue to alarm the Hills community, even though Bishop is gone.
Also, the timing of this Spanish program couldn’t have been worse, coming as it did at the same time demographics studies show that, for the foreseeable future, the district can expect a maximum of five kindergarten classes for the combined Hills/Heights attendance area – leaving one school, inevitably, with only two classes.
Although the Spanish program really had no impact on the Hills’ enrollment numbers, it “doesn’t feel good,” as Hills principal Laurie Francis recently said, that one school is losing enrollment while the other is building enrollment (never mind that one class would have been composed only of students from east of the freeway).
Throughout this ordeal, Francis showed solid leadership, an understanding of the value of the Spanish program and the hard work that went into designing it, and a willingness to compromise.
She also inspired confidence that she has the ability to calm her community had the motion passed to implement the program. She had real concerns, but she was willing to devote time and attention to making the program work. And her sincerity came through.
After all the other options had been rejected, Francis supported approval of the kindergarten portion of the program as a last resort. It was designed to be a pilot program, after all, and it should have been approved with an absolute stipulation that the enrollment problem be resolved by next spring.
All that was needed was some assurance that Francis would be patient and could quiet her school’s community, which she gave.
Furthermore, the possibility raised at the June 11 school board meeting that the Hills and Heights be reconfigured into two schools, one serving grades K-3 and the other grades 4-6, offered real hope for a workable solution.
A K-3/4-6 grade configuration is an innovative idea whose time has finally come, resolving as it does the unhealthy competitive spirit that thrived under Bishop and has undermined mutual respect between the two communities. Besides ensuring the viability of both schools, it also allows the introduction of foreign language at the Heights without losing the infused arts/sciences curriculum that makes the Hills program so attractive.
A thrust to make this happen in the next 12 months would serve to mitigate so many issues that have bedeviled the west of I-5 communities. And if the district is serious about increasing enrollment for this attendance area, an even better grade configuration would be two schools serving the K-4 and 5-8 grades. Imagine the demand to attend DMUSD schools through eighth grade, as kids do in Rancho Santa Fe.
The rejection of one option that would have created a blended K/1 class at the Heights and redirected some enrollment to the Hills was a secretive, last-minute attempt at resolution. Unfortunately, Heights teachers were not on board, and no one felt it appropriate to force teachers to cooperate against their will.
Nail in the coffin
The nail in the Spanish language coffin was hammered in, unexpectedly, by Heights principal Wendy Wardlow who disappointingly recommended to delay implementation, over protestations from her own staff who wanted to proceed with the kindergarten portion. Although her position to retreat from a program she worked so very hard to develop is understandable (it’s hard to comprehend, or overstate, the kind of abuse she has taken over this issue), it was still dispiriting to hear.
All that work and all that effort, years of it, to get teacher buy-in; all that research, those many hours of study; all those talks at PTA meetings, site council meetings, forums and casual get-togethers – down the drain.
In the end, it was easier for Wardlow and board president Annette Easton to reject the program than withstand the fury from Hills parents and staff, as well as communities east of I-5 whose worries over cost considerations were completely unfounded.
Mild by comparison was the tepid reaction from disappointed yet restrained foreign language supporters.
Board member Katherine White, no stranger to public attack, urged her fellow trustees to stand firm for the program, no matter the expected backlash. “Sometimes you have to make tough decisions,” she said.
Although Easton deserves enormous respect for her leadership, sound judgment, ethics, sense of fairness, and above all her infinite patience for parents, staff and members of the community, her vote to delay the Spanish program was discouraging.
But because we disagree, this does not make her evil and is no reason to vilify her, as some have done. Making comments that demean and insult, as Easton has received, are counter-productive to healing the rifts before us, and there’s no one less deserving of these attacks than someone as principled as Annette Easton.
Is this community really so unforgiving, so uncompromising and so over-reactionary that the kind of vitriolic negativity we’ve seen can be justified?
We have to be careful about hyperbole. “Horrified,” “outraged,” “appalled” and “disgusted” are words that have been leveled at those in support of the Spanish program. But these characterizations, normally reserved for catastrophes like famine and genocide, hardly seem appropriate for the consideration of a Spanish language program for 40 kids in a high-achieving school district.
Interestingly, the slate of three trustees did not vote as one, and the Heights board members were evenly divided. Will this split discharge the view that there is some sort of conspiracy among board members? Will the board get brownie points for this? Sadly, no.
No good deed goes unpunished. That elusive utopia where people come together in a big group hug because Easton recommended to delay the program and call for harmony is a pipe dream. Not that she’s so naïve to believe it’s that easy to change people’s minds when they have so much invested in clinging to shaky positions.
So, in the end, special interests triumph. The district retreats from an exceptional opportunity to offer Spanish to young children, adult inflexibility trumps educational advancement, and students lose out.
Final score: Politics 1, Children 0.
And so it goes in Del Mar.
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