Lagunitas Community School by Steve Rebscher
most tangible way pos- sible - by taxing every home in the valley to support direct student services. Further, this parcel tax passed with 78% of the votes counted. We’ve been told this is the largest winning margin of any partial tax in Marin County. Challenges - When the most difficult events face a school district they come direct- ly to the board of trustees. These are a few of those moments. • Without question, I think all board members agree that deciding to close a program is the most difficult series of discussions to hold and ultimately the most painful votes to cast. During my time on the board we voted to close the Waldorf inspired elementary program and to close the long-standing Open Classroom and Montessori based programs to form one elementary school. Each of these programs offered unique learning environments that represented the heart of our progressive school district. Each of these programs had many community members that were dedicated to the educational approach repre- sented by each group and the loss of these once vibrant learning communities weighed heavily on every board member. The positive response and willing- ness to build an effective new combined elementary program has been a testa- ment to the collaborative capacity of our parents, teachers and administration. • Close behind the loss of programs comes the painful decision to release proba- tionary teachers that our administration, and the board, felt did not support effective learning for our students or contribute to a positive and safe working environment for all of our students and staff. The legal constraints that pro- hibit discussing the reasons for releasing staff members compounds the heart- ache our community often feels when a probationary staff member is released. That constraint is fundamentally unfair to our community, our staff, our administration and our school board. However, there is no consensus on how to change the hiring system for teachers in California and no political will to seek a solution to this long-standing problem. • Civic discourse - It is difficult to assess the changes in tone or civility that have occurred in our public conversations over the past 20 years, certainly the lack of personal accountability that accompanies online comments and Internet based meetings contributes to an increase in thoughtless, even aggres- sive communication between community members and all levels of school employees and administrators. In my view, the more we gather face to face to discuss our challenges and present our solutions, the better the outcomes and perceptions of inclusion are as an end result. • On a deeply serious note. Our singular priority as a school, and as a commu- nity, is to ensure the safety of our children. Just last week another one of our young people was very sadly taken from us. Whether by drug overdose, acci- dents or suicide every one of these deaths is heartbreaking and challenges each one of us to ask what more we might be able to do to break this cycle. A few final thoughts…… • San Geronimo Valley is a wonderful community that strongly supports chil- dren and our school. • Our schools will always face challenges. However, with our strong base and our close collaboration with the San Geronimo Valley Community Center the education offered in our schools effectively prepares our students to succeed academically and socially in high school and beyond. • Our school district is financially stable and supported by excellent staff, teachers, administration and trustees.
I want to use this opportunity to announce that I will not run for re-election when my current term as a trustee of the Lagunitas School District expires this December. I have been a board member for almost 20 years. The beginning of those years falls squarely between 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis. However, from my perspective, the past two decades have been marked by far more success than crisis and far more children well educated, by any standard, than young peo- ple growing up in the Valley feeling that their educational background fell short of their aspirations. Looking forward, I feel our school leadership is in excellent hands. Inspired parents with current students in our school have stepped forward to lead our district when long standing board members step back and encour- age them to assume a leadership role. These new board members have done that with excellent success in the past four years and I believe that trend will continue. What follows is a brief retrospective on the progress our school has made in the past two decades. In the years that immediately proceeded my joining the school board two actions were essential to maintaining the meaningful qualities of our district: 1) creation of a Finance Committee to better help our community understand school finances and better support of our teachers and, 2) building a coalition to deflect the rigid takeover of schools imposed by federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legisla- tion. Both the finance and NCLB committees accomplished their strategic goals. By identifying excess reserve funds the committee recommended, and the board agreed, to increase salaries 30% for our teachers over three years and the district bravely rejected federal mandates and funding which would have tied our school to reduced art, music and language class time in favor of an unbalanced curricu- lum, emphasizing math science and high stakes testing. During the years that followed several successes and challenges stand above the day-to-day governance of our school. First, the positive thoughts: • Student success - From our small school the number of outstanding students is exceptional. Our students have excelled with PhD‘s in chemistry, astrophys- ics and paleontology, attorneys have graduated from top ranked law schools, talented artists, MDs, successful tradesmen, nurses, occupational therapists, teachers, business owners and world class professional athletes are only a few that come to mind. In years of talking to educational leaders around Marin County I have heard time and time again that Lagunitas students are unique in their creativity and ability to communicate with adults on an adult level regardless of their age. • Support for teachers and staff - 20 years ago our district teacher salaries ranked 19th out of 19 districts in the county. Now our salaries are equal or above every school in West Marin, even schools with much greater revenue per student. We have also enacted contractual changes that reward experienced teachers hired into our district, allowing them to receive full credit for their previous years of work and we have specifically increased the beginning sala- ries for both teachers and staff to better support entry level employees. • Community - We are now more aligned and better integrated with the San Geronimo Valley Community Center than ever before. As a district, with tremendous community effort, we built and operate the gym as a joint use facility. The gym provides year around athletic space for all age groups and activities for school age kids in “The Loft”. The district now houses preschool, transitional kindergarten and childcare facilities and provides healthy organic lunches for students on both campuses as well as seniors at the Community Center and acts as the administrator for the San Geronimo Valley preschool. • We are truly proud of the trust the valley has placed in our school district. Last year our community voted overwhelmingly to support our district in the
Nicasio School 8th Grade Graduates Lagunitas Community School 8th Grade Graduates Congrats Grads!
l-r Jaciel Diaz Vidrio, Christian Barajas, Lya Uzri ,Kayla Hernandez, Yasmin Saldana, Heidi Esperanza Martinez Garcia Top row, l-r : Penny List, Francis Goodwin, Coral Cavagnaro, Ace Corral, Ocean Ely, Justen Lewis Jr., Aiden Olsen Next row: Julian Anderson-Lynch, Ciaran, Christen Clarke, Alexis Vollmer, Tony Guerro (Math and Spanish Teacher), Frankie O’Donnell, Eric Trinidad Benito, Ren Bliss-McHone, Kalos Williams Next row: Micah Ager, Louis Meinolf, Eddy Bozeman, Klara Cieplinska, Ellie Bozeman, Chaya Ramirez, Ella Wands, Jesse McCall Bottom row: Calder Flick, Liam Yarbrough, Liam Hueso, Hugo Schujman, Eloise O’Bryan, Miles Bozeman
SGV Community Center Stone Soup Page 9
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