End Achievement Culture!
I often feel like an alien at our school board meetings, speaking a different language than my colleagues. One beacon of sanity over the last six+ months has been the consistent presence of candidate Jeremy Vanderhal, who speaks my language, and sees and understands my concerns the same way that I do. I am grateful he was there last night to witness a conversation that blew my mind.
I am a litigator who has spent 14 years fighting for people and businesses in high stakes environments. I am a naturally skeptical woman who always does my own due diligence. I trust but verify, and when I cannot verify after a certain number of experiences, I no longer trust. Our school district is not a social club. It is not a photo opportunity. It is a government entity with a 150 million dollar budget, inundated with nasty internal and external politics, greed, and constant deception. For this reason, I am very serious about due diligence and investigation. I am not here to make friends or to get people to like me. I am here for a short time to do one job: improve the district so that I can send my children here through graduation.
Knowing I will not run for reelection or higher office means I don’t have to pander to anyone. I act on what I believe to be in the best interests of our students. The kids in our district need strong, competent people to fight for them. They don’t need “nice.” Nice gets railroaded by bad actors and makes bad financial decisions that can ruin a district.
End Achievement Culture: Our District’s Message To Students In Light of Bad College Admissions Data
I was shocked to hear board members encourage an end to “achievement culture” last night during our college acceptance presentation (beginning around 3:11:00). Our district’s students are attending two-year colleges at a much higher rate than they were before 2020, while our acceptance rates at top UC schools has significantly declined. From 2016 to 2022, the acceptance rate to UCSD for students from PVPUSD dropped from 34% to 14%.
Eliminating shame and stigma is fine, but instead of accepting mediocre results we should be fighting for our high-achieving students—for an environment in which they have a fair shot at top tier 4-year universities, like they had before our society became obsessed with equity, social justice, and feelings. I appreciate the data from the presentation, but was frustrated that the elephant in the room was not addressed. Our kids are harmed by equity culture that aims to bring down districts like Palos Verdes so that our outcomes are on par with low achieving districts. I refuse to accept that as the norm. You should likewise refuse to accept harming our kids in the name of equity, and doing so does not make you racist. Trying to spin the numbers to sound like a good thing for our students is the wrong way to go.
The lawsuit I referenced in my comments last night is this one. The cessation of use of standardized tests for UC admissions was not because of covid—it was because of groups like Public Counsel (the same group pushing to siphon more money from Palos Verdes for use in low income districts) alleging that standardized tests are racist.
The UC system has substituted zip codes for standardized test scores in its admissions decisions (check point 13 on that list). This is not an opinion, it is a fact. We cannot change our zip code, but we can raise awareness and fight this unfair standard. Alternatively, we can relocate our families to impoverished zip codes and send our kids to school there. If you think this sounds absolutely insane, you are correct, but this is the political climate we are living in due to the supermajority that has taken our state all the way off the left side of the cliff.
Kids Corner
Our discussion re: Kids Corner is here, beginning at 1:55:52.
I am a daily patron of Kid’s Corner, our district’s after school care program. The district has been unable to provide Kid’s Corner services to all families who need it. One of the reasons our families need care is that we have staggered pickup times after school. My kindergartner, second grader, and fourth grader are all dismissed at different times. I use Kid’s Corner so I can work up until my oldest child is dismissed.
There appear to be two issues that render the district unable to meet the needs of our families: (1) staffing numbers and (2) space. The proposal last night was to bring in a third party to take over one of our school sites, in order to redistribute existing Kid’s Corner staff from that site throughout the district to relieve staffing needs. I understand the intent, but we tried something similar last year, and the results were terrible. I did not feel comfortable leaving my children in the care of the staffing company, and my concerns were well-founded…
Kid’s Corner is actually generating revenue for the district. It grossed $1.2 million last year, and the employees are mostly long-term workers who have developed relationships with families at their sites. Some of these employees work at the same school sites where their own children are enrolled. Sending these employees elsewhere would be very disruptive to Kid’s Corner families and employees.
Even if we were to adequately staff Kid’s Corner, we still have a space issue that needs to be resolved. I plan to work with our sites and Kid’s Corner team to identify exactly where the problems are, and work with the existing system to improve it and make it available to everyone who needs it. If you have ideas, please contact me. In my opinion, a no-bid contract for $350k to bring in a third party company is not the best solution and may create more problems.
Finally, while I agree that picking the lowest bidder for this contract is probably not the best way to go, when we enter contracts of this magnitude the board members and public deserve to see everything that went into the process—the full contract and all accompanying documents—not a single line item in the consent calendar. There are public bidding processes that do not require selection of the lowest bidder.
Thanks for reading. As always, this is just one lady’s opinion. I don’t speak for the board and no one else speaks for me. If you’re free tonight, please drop by to meet Jeremy Vanderhal from 7-8:30. Email vanderhal4pv@gmail.com for the address.
