January 27, 2005

CLICK HERE for Jan. 20 Truancy article

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

“Country roads, take me home…”

Los Alamitos Country Music Jamboree delivers

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

On time, on the mark, and on key—well, for the most part—more than 200 fourth and fifth grade singers and dancers from Los Alamitos Elementary School piled into the Crossroads Church auditorium in Santa Clara Tuesday night for an evening filled with old country favorites.

The six-member Boys Ensemble, accompanied by a bevy of background singers and 24 dancers, worked the room with an energetic rendition of “Ya’ll Come.”

The auditorium, which seats over 1,000, bulged at the seams, as the filled-to-capacity crowd kicked, stomped, swayed, and applauded to 36 legendary tunes, including “Country Roads,” “Rocky Top,” “You Are My Sunshine,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” “Crazy,” “Old Time Rock and Roll,” “I’m a Little Bit Country,” “Teddy Bear,” “Rawhide,” “On the Road Again,” “Petticoat Junction,” and many more.

Music Director Steven Raimondi couldn’t have been more pleased with the performance.

“Before tonight, you promised to do your best to reach at least a five on the scale,” he announced while fighting back a successful tear or two. “But instead, you gave us a 10 thousand!”

As evident by the energy both on stage and in the audience—young and old alike—clearly country music is here to stay.

Goal: 1,000 signatures a week

Proponents continue quest to save schools and start new district

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

A group of parents leading the effort to break away from the San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) met the evening of Jan. 24 at Almaden’s South Hills Community Church to continue to rally support for their cause.

Already ruffled with the “criteria” formula used by SJUSD to determine school closures, parents representing various Almaden schools began the process of fighting back and forming a new and separate district. The uphill battle started with one goal for now, to gather over 9,000 signatures.

Blossom Valley parents began the effort after learning that the district had recommended closing Randol Elementary and Cory Elementary schools to balance a projected $9 million to $11 million deficit in the 2005-06 school year.

Homemaker Francesca Paist, 42, a parent organizer, said the group began meeting at the end of October, before Randol Elementary School was on the chopping list. The school has been on the list for the past three years even though its Academic Performance Index scores are high—855 out of 1,000 points possible on the AIP index.

On Jan. 5, the group, which has grown from six to 45 Randol Elementary School parents, announced its plans to the media. The group went to the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters office, where it learned that to meet its goals it would have to reach 25 percent of the proposed district’s registered voters, which would mean collecting 9,000 signatures to get the Santa Clara County Office of Education to conduct a feasibility study to determine if the proposal meets the nine criteria to allow them to become a school district, some of which are having a minimum of 1,550 students, ethnically diverse and not negatively impact the SJUSD’s finances.

The parents are working hard as circulators to collect the signatures, collecting as many as 1,000 per weekend to meet their goal. Paist, whose two children attend Randol Elementary, said the group has already collected more than 2,400 signatures.

“We’re concerned about our children. We’re interested in long-term solutions for all children, not just the southern half,” Paist said. “We believe smaller districts do better and are more cost efficient. We question the manageability of this school district (SJUSD) when it doesn’t consider academics in its school closure criteria.”

District officials are against the proposal citing ethnic and socioeconomic concerns. The SJUSD Board of Education is expected to make a final decision on the schools’ closure on Feb. 3.

“The district feels it’s a time for everyone to come together,” said SJUSD spokeswoman Karen Fuqua. “We’re facing declining enrollment and a budget crisis that’s been handed to us by Sacramento.”

“The parents and the community are entitled to go through the process of secession,” added Fuqua. “We’ll wait until the outcome of that process. We feel that it is highly unlikely that this could meet the criteria for secession.”

The 13 schools that would be included in the proposed South Valley school district are Allen Elementary, Almaden Elementary, Bret Harte Middle, Castillero Middle, Graystone Elementary, John Muir Middle, Leland High, Los Alamitos Elementary, Pioneer High, Randol Elementary, Simonds Elementary, Steinbeck Middle and Williams Elementary. The schools are all located south of Branham Lane and Highway 85, in what is considered the most affluent and white part of the city. According to the Mercury News, the comprised district boundaries would be 46 percent white.

The group encouraged the nearly 120 people who attended the meeting to gather the required signatures for the cause.

The group will be holding its second meeting at 7 p.m., Jan. 27, at South Hills Community Church, 6601 Camden Ave., San Jose, Calif., 95120. For more information on the movement visit the group’s Web site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svsd.