Jan 29, 2004

Parents relieved as middle school electives are saved

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

Parents expressed their appreciation to the school board for saving the middle school electives and sixth period as well as for preserving class-size reductions in grades K-2 at last week’s San Jose Unified School District Board meeting

John Engell, founder of Save Our Middle Schools (SOMS), was relieved when he heard the news that afternoon. Engell read aloud to the standing-room-only crowd of 200 from an excerpt he had e-mailed earlier to concerned parents. “It’s 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, and I just had a call from Bill Erlendson (Dr. William Erlendson, director of external programs, community development and public information) to let me know that San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) will not cut the middle school electives next year. This is great news!”

Turning to the board, he thanked them for their decision. Engell considers the middle school electives invaluable. “They affect the lives of children who learn music, dance together, sing together, create visual art, and study foreign languages—who knows the value of learning this has to these children—it’s incalculable,” he asserted. “A background in the arts, especially music, is a prime indicator of success in science and math, not to mention the value to the human spirit. As for band practice, most of these kids never held a musical instrument in their hands before, and never would have had the opportunity to do so. The potential is enormous, and it makes them happy.”

Engell strongly encouraged parents to remain involved in the school district’s budget decision-making process to ensure that future cuts involving instruction will not be made—even in situations of budget crisis. “I found that the administration has been extremely open in their willingness to talk with us and that things bode well for the future,” Engell noted, “but we have to remain ever-vigilant and ever-active. This issue is gone for now, but the issue of funding goes on.” Engell plans to continue his school-related correspondence with the 1,500 parents on his e-mail list, as well as the SOMS Web site at www.sjusdparents.org, which enables parents at various schools throughout the district to communicate their concerns with each other.

John Muir Middle School student Danielle Wong expressed to the board how essential the middle school electives were to her. “The middle school electives have given me a chance to try new and exciting things,” she said. “I thought school was just the basics. Never did I imagine that I would be taking Spanish—and now I can finally speak with my grandmother—and drafting and junior engineering. It’s exciting and it’s fun. I never thought I would use power tools and computers to design.”

Danielle’s mother, Virginia Wong, echoed her daughter’s feelings. “The electives program is important to Danielle, and has given her new opportunities,” Wong said. “It has given Danielle the desire to look to the future, and allowed her to think outside of the box. Danielle, for the first time, is considering becoming an engineer, architect, or designer. These are professions my husband and I could not have prepared her for, and like many children, if not for the electives, she would never be exposed to these professions.” Having her children exposed to a variety of careers is crucial to Wong. “We have no doctors or lawyers in our family,” she said, “but I stress for my children, who are both girls, that they can do anything they want to do.”

SJUSD Associate Superintendent Gerald Matranga believes that the middle school electives program provides students with a broader education and allows them to develop skills in areas they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to in a basic curriculum. “It’s part of a complete education,” he stressed. “It motivates students.” Matranga considers community input highly significant, “It’s always valuable to receive that kind of energy from the community,” he said, “to see what’s important, and to hear what they say.” Matranga especially appreciated hearing from the students who spoke at the board meeting. “I think it lifted everybody’s spirits to hear how our students were so composed and passionate about this subject,” he enthused, “and how they had the courage to speak before hundreds of people in the audience. It’s fantastic!”

For Janette Saavedra’s daughter, the middle school electives make all the difference. “My daughter was unhappy at school, but she loves middle school and the electives,” she commented. “She does her homework now, and is thriving and blossoming.”

Kathryn Veregge, whose children attend Bret Harte Middle School, agrees. “The most dramatic result of the electives [occurred] when my oldest child took an art class and learned commitment, organization and determination,” she stated. “For my younger child, it’s P.E. and the electives that keep her interested in school, and that’s what’s going to keep her motivated.”

Karen Fuqua, spokesperson for SJUSD, acknowledged that cutting the middle school electives and class-size reduction was not anything that anyone wanted to do. “They are two good, solid programs, and even putting them on the table was difficult,” she said. “It’s a difficult budgetary time for SJUSD, whether its discussing the possibility of losing middle school electives, or closing schools, but we’re gratified to be able to keep the sixth period electives. We’re relieved.”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Linda Murray noted that the administration and the board had been working, since developing their preliminary budget, to find another way around eliminating the middle school electives (which cost the district around $2.5 million). “The public input and passion that people expressed around this issue made it clear that this would be considered disastrous, and I felt the same way,” she shared.

“Since the governor’s budget provided $3 million more to the district than we had originally anticipated,” Dr. Murray said, “and we knew that we were going to get a little bit of relief from the deficit problem, the middle school electives were the first place we went.” Dr. Murray understands that this program is highly valued by the community. “It was clear that a huge number of families felt very strongly about this,” she said. “The heart-felt description of how important it was to families was very sincere. It needed to be taken off the plate for any potential elimination.”

Dr. Murray feels that the economy, and likewise, the education budget, will improve, but warns that if the $15 billion economic recovery (bail-out) bond measure doesn’t pass in March, the state may have to pass on further cuts to school districts. “The community needs to know how important that bond measure is to the school district, and let their legislative representatives in Sacramento know that if it doesn’t pass, they need to come up with some other option than cutting education further,” she stressed. “It would be devastating.”