Tuesday is Election Day here in Davis. There has not been a lot of excitement about the school board races or the two taxes, but frankly these are three very important elections.
The school district has faced a tumultuous two years. They have spent a good deal of that time cleaning up some of the financial messes from past regimes and getting their affairs in order. They face an ongoing challenge in attempts to close the Achievement Gap--a goal that every candidate running for election shares. A small but sizable minority student population that at times have felt disconnected and disaffected from school. Stung by administration decisions and an inability of the district to attract even a nominal number of minority faculty.
The district faces declining enrollment. Last spring, their solution to this problem was to close a neighborhood elementary school. This despite strong support from the neighborhood, the parents, the teachers, and the community at large. That decision will not solve the problem of declining enrollment. It was the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The problem is not too many schools, the problem was lack of good alternative ideas to closing down a school that was quite frankly working where many others in the same situation might not have worked.
The Valley Oak Charter Initiative, which will be turned in tomorrow, quite frankly scuttles that plan. The district will have to come up with new ideas. And there are ideas, some of these ideas emanating from the very people running for the board.
At the same time the district faces a shortage of money, they will be hoping to pass their school parcel tax. Some have suggested the need to play football with this tax measure and send a message to the district. I think it is wrong to send a message to the district that will harm students and student programs. The only problem I see with the parcel tax is that even with this money the district is hurting for money.
Finally, for those of us who value lifelong learning, the message is clear--we need to re-up the library tax. The library tax has not gone up in nearly 20 years. They need the money to be able to modernize the library, maintain the hours and the staff services. If you support lifelong education and public access to books and other resources, this is a no-brainer for the cost of less than 10 dollars per month, we have to renew the library parcel tax and keep our libraries strong.
As I have mentioned, the Vanguard does not formally endorse candidates for office. However, tomorrow will be our election special. The morning story will feature statements from each of the candidates and hopefully Measure P as to why we should vote for them. We already ran our op-ed on Measure Q co-written by Sheila Allen and Gina Daleiden. We will link to that article.
Then in the comments, members of the public are encouraged to endorse their favorite candidates. Of course, anonymous posts are allowed, but an anonymous endorsement of your favorite candidate means almost nothing.
On election night, the Vanguard will be live blogging from the County Elections office in Woodland. And we will have roaming bands of reporters reporting into the community. Anyone in the community who wants to, is encouraged to write in and let us know what is going on. We plan to cover the major parties and perhaps get reactions from the winners--if the winners are declared before we have to go to sleep.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
The school district has faced a tumultuous two years. They have spent a good deal of that time cleaning up some of the financial messes from past regimes and getting their affairs in order. They face an ongoing challenge in attempts to close the Achievement Gap--a goal that every candidate running for election shares. A small but sizable minority student population that at times have felt disconnected and disaffected from school. Stung by administration decisions and an inability of the district to attract even a nominal number of minority faculty.
The district faces declining enrollment. Last spring, their solution to this problem was to close a neighborhood elementary school. This despite strong support from the neighborhood, the parents, the teachers, and the community at large. That decision will not solve the problem of declining enrollment. It was the wrong solution to the wrong problem. The problem is not too many schools, the problem was lack of good alternative ideas to closing down a school that was quite frankly working where many others in the same situation might not have worked.
The Valley Oak Charter Initiative, which will be turned in tomorrow, quite frankly scuttles that plan. The district will have to come up with new ideas. And there are ideas, some of these ideas emanating from the very people running for the board.
At the same time the district faces a shortage of money, they will be hoping to pass their school parcel tax. Some have suggested the need to play football with this tax measure and send a message to the district. I think it is wrong to send a message to the district that will harm students and student programs. The only problem I see with the parcel tax is that even with this money the district is hurting for money.
Finally, for those of us who value lifelong learning, the message is clear--we need to re-up the library tax. The library tax has not gone up in nearly 20 years. They need the money to be able to modernize the library, maintain the hours and the staff services. If you support lifelong education and public access to books and other resources, this is a no-brainer for the cost of less than 10 dollars per month, we have to renew the library parcel tax and keep our libraries strong.
As I have mentioned, the Vanguard does not formally endorse candidates for office. However, tomorrow will be our election special. The morning story will feature statements from each of the candidates and hopefully Measure P as to why we should vote for them. We already ran our op-ed on Measure Q co-written by Sheila Allen and Gina Daleiden. We will link to that article.
Then in the comments, members of the public are encouraged to endorse their favorite candidates. Of course, anonymous posts are allowed, but an anonymous endorsement of your favorite candidate means almost nothing.
On election night, the Vanguard will be live blogging from the County Elections office in Woodland. And we will have roaming bands of reporters reporting into the community. Anyone in the community who wants to, is encouraged to write in and let us know what is going on. We plan to cover the major parties and perhaps get reactions from the winners--if the winners are declared before we have to go to sleep.
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
