Candidates Tackle Tough Topics at Santa Barbara School Board Forum
The diverse group has stark differences on key issues, including the achievement gap, cell phones and gangs.
On a night when the two presidential hopefuls were debating before a national TV audience, the six candidates for three open seats on the Santa Barbara school board sat down at the Santa Barbara Public Library on Wednesday for an intimate debate that was chock full of substance and healthy disagreement on serious local issues.
It also showcased a truly diverse group of people, from Jacqueline Inda, who as a reformed gang member and product of local poor neighborhoods considers herself a representative of many disaffected families, to Ed Heron, a successful businessman with deep ties to the real-estate and nonprofit worlds who moved to Santa Barbara 60 years ago with his family from Michigan.
In addition to Inda and Heron, the other candidates are Annette Cordero, a Santa Barbara City College instructor and the race’s lone incumbent; Susan Deacon, a former SBCC journalism instructor and current president of the South Coast Community Aquatic Center; Kate Smith, a local activist and a regular at many school board meetings; and Charlotte Ware, immediate past president of the Dos Pueblos High PTSA and a former engineer.
The Achievement Gap
The achievement gap is arguably the toughest issue the school board faces on a regular basis. A recent report by the Santa Barbara School District shows that the gap in scores in math between white high school students, whose proficiency rate hovers around 70 percent, and Latino students, whose proficiency rate is more like 30 percent, hasn’t really changed since 2003.
Of this stubborn gap, Cordero made the boldest statement.
“Unfortunately, we see that it really permeates the achievement of ethnic groups, regardless of their language abilities or socio-economic status,” she said. “So we need to be — No. 1 — brave enough to acknowledge that, so that we can address it, and we need to look at a system-deficit model rather than a student-deficit model, so that it is not something that is wrong with the students. It’s something that is wrong with our system.”
Cordero has long contended that not enough academic counselors encourage Latino students to take high-level courses, and on Wednesday she reiterated her belief that the district needs to take a hard look at this.
Deacon said the achievement gap is what prompted her to run for office. Quoting the son of a family friend who has joined Teach For America in post-Katrina New Orleans, she said, “His recipe was really simple. He said, ‘Smart teachers, and great principals.’ I guess it’s kind of like, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’”
The district, Deacon said, needs to do a better job of hiring and retaining good teachers, and it hires too many teachers on a temporary basis, which she says is bad for morale. She also suggested that the district consider some cutting-edge practices being adopted around the nation, such as Saturday school, a longer school year and mandatory after-school programs.
Heron said it’s important, when talking about narrowing the achievement gap — which he acknowledged was a serious problem — not to reach this goal at the expense of the top students. All students, he said, need to improve.
“We have 16,000 students … they are our assets; they are not liabilities,” he said. “Don’t close the gap by bringing down the top students. We close the achievement gap by raising them up.”
Ware said that not all schools are equally guilty of showing large achievement gaps, and that the district should look to adopt the practices of the schools that are more successful.
“Something is being done right,” she said. “Our junior highs are low in their math for their English language learners and the socio-economically disadvantaged, but our high schools are fine. So what do we need to do at our junior highs?”
Inda, the handpicked candidate of a new advocacy group to stem gang violence called Esperanza, said the achievement gap is one of the group’s highest priorities. She said there are schools in Los Angeles with poorer populations than Santa Barbara’s that are doing a better job of closing the gap.
Smith, who has acknowledged that she is running illegally because she lives outside the district’s boundaries, used this question and others as a launch pad to rail against issues she brings up regularly at school board meetings. In the case of this question, Smith talked about what she views to be a local system of “institutional racism” that inappropriately plucks students with learning disabilities out of the classroom and places them into “jail schools.”
“It criminalizes the students that are struggling in school,” she said. “It’s called the schools-prison pipeline. Please, learn that. … It’s our No. 1 societal issue.”
Teacher Housing, Athletics and Cell Phones
With the exception of Smith, the candidate who most frequently walked out of step with the others was Deacon.
For instance, on the notion of using at least one of two vacant parcels of district-owned land to build housing that is affordable for teachers, only Deacon expressed unequivocal support. The others said, in so many words, that getting into the development business isn’t the role of the school district.
Smith said she’d like to fire Superintendent Brian Sarvis and divvy up his $205,000 salary among the teachers. “I want all the administrative money to go to the teachers who are doing the work,” she said.
Deacon was also the only candidate to answer yes to a question about finding a way to more adequately fund athletics. She said if the district can find money, as it recently did, to pay for gang outreach, then, she said, it should direct some of that money toward intramural sports.
“We know there are kids needing something to do after school,” she said, “and what better way to spend your time than getting some physical exercise.”
However, Cordero pointed out that although she comes from a sports-immersed family, as a member of the board that recently slashed $4 million in programs, she is all-too familiar with the school’s budget realities. As a result, Cordero said she would be loath to dedicate more money to sports.
“I would like to say yes,” she said. “But if I say that, it means I’m also saying I’m going to take some money from something else. … I don’t think that would be a responsible thing to do.”
One of the most spirited debates came from a question posed by students on the Santa Barbara Youth Council: the board’s recent ban on the use of cell phones during the school day.
On this, a majority of candidates distanced themselves. Inda said she believes the schools had bigger fish to fry, Cordero reminded the audience that she voted against the ban, and Heron — who has based much of his platform on improving technology in the classroom — said he was dismayed to see a plethora of “no cell phone” signs posted around one of the district’s junior high campuses.
“If I did that in business, if I put up signs all over my office of what people can’t do, I’d be shut out,” he said, adding that he understands that cell phones shouldn’t be used in the classroom. But cell phones, he said, are “today’s communication tool. And when students are communicating, we need to applaud it and let them communicate.”
Deacon once again bucked the majority opinion on this question, saying the board made the right decision.
“You can tell students that they can’t have cell phones on campus, but the reality is, they are going to come out while (teachers) are trying to teach,” she said.
Ware, too, voiced support for the ban, saying she wished it was enforced with equal vigor on every campus. She said on the one high school campus that has decided to enforce the policy — she didn’t specify which — the culture has changed for the better.
“(Administrators) have seen, within a couple of weeks, they are not out anymore,” she said. “The ear buds are not in their ears. … Students are talking in the halls, things are much more friendly, there’s lots of conversations going on, the teachers in the classroom are finding it easier to enforce the policy.”
Gangs and Truancy
On gangs, the candidates didn’t disagree with one another so much as display a broad range of approaches to the addressing problem.
Inda and Cordero talked about honoring the culture of the children.
Inda said local schools need to do a better job of making students feel connected, thereby preventing them from joining gangs in the first place. She credited a program at Santa Barbara High School for achieving a sense of connectedness among Latino students called the Don Riders. The program allows students to customize their bicycles, oftentimes in the low-rider style.
Echoing Inda’s enthusiasm for the Don Riders, Cordero elaborated on the program’s benefits.
“In addition to connecting them to school, one of the things that it does that I think is vital is that it honors the culture that they come from,” she said. “It doesn’t debase or criminalize the things that they find attractive and that they find engaging.”
Deacon advocated a deeper commitment to sifting out and replicating hidden gems already embedded in the schools, citing, for example, coaches and teachers who work with children after school.
“I’d like to see us look internally to this solution,” she said.
Deacon was also the only candidate to criticize the board’s recent decision to hire gang outreach specialists to work directly with youths involved in gangs, saying the district has revealed too little about their job description.
Drawing on his experience as the immediate past president of the nonprofit Partners in Education, Heron called for partnerships between schools, cities and nonprofit organizations that would treat the gang dilemma as a regional problem.
He praised a recent effort over the summer spearheaded by a task force of officials from the city, schools and area nonprofit groups in which 80 students involved with gangs were interviewed and counseled. The group wound up finding jobs for 10 of the youths, and produced reports on the 52 school-age youths for the administrators at the schools they attend.
Heron said he found a recent presentation put on by three of the caseworkers to be “heart-wrenching.”
“They put their heart and soul into giving each of these students hope that there is a different life than gangs,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about, is giving them hope.”
Ware said the schools already seem to be well-equipped to deal with the problem.
Although she acknowledged the seriousness of the issue in Santa Barbara, Ware said she doesn’t think the violence has bled onto the school campuses. For this, she credited many systems already in place, such as the school resource officers at some campuses, as well as youth counselors who provide one-on-one counseling. She also credited truancy coordinators, although the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors this week voted to cut the program.
Later, when a question asked how the loss of the truancy program should be dealt with, only Ware expressed absolute support for the program, rattling off statistics indicating that the program has been successful in getting the overwhelming majority of truant students back into the classroom.
“I would work to have that funded,” she said.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Inda said she’s glad the program was cut.
“It gives us the opportunity to restructure a program that has not worked for the Latino community,” she said, adding that the truancy program has unfairly branded students and families as failures.
Cordero said that while she would never be glad to hear the district is losing a program bankrolled by another agency, the truancy program was unnecessarily sowing seeds of fear and resentment in the Latino community.
“We have the perfect opportunity now to re-examine this program, and to redevelop a program that doesn’t stigmatize children and doesn’t frighten the daylights out of parents, and doesn’t put the district at odds with the community,” she said.
Heron expressed ambivalence about the program itself, but said the bottom line is simple: “We need to keep them in class one way or the other.”
Noozhawk staff writer Rob Kuznia can be reached at .
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 08:26 AM
Thanks for a nice article Rob! Well done. I learned more about the candidates and know who I will vote for in this election.
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 09:41 AM
Why can Kate Smith run if she doesn’t live in the District? Rob - can you do a story on this? I can’t believe that County Elections let that through. Isn’t that a waste of taxpayer dollars?
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 10:01 AM
So this Smith woman is running illegally and participating in forums and harassing our school board and staff. Get the DA after this election fraud nonsense. If it’s a game to her, let her know how serious the game is. When she shows up at school board meetings, escort her out. She has no business here. Do not tolerate this anymore.
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 10:20 AM
The County Elections Office let a candidate run who lives outside of the district boundaries??!! Kate Smith may not win, but any votes she takes will affect the final election results--this needs to be investigated immediately!!!!!!!!
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 12:59 PM
Good article—very well organized and informative. Nice to see good reporting in Santa Barbara!
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 02:01 PM
Although Smith should not by legal standards be allowed to run due to her current residency, this woman truly does speak from the heart. Both of her children did go through the SB school system, one of which was directly affected by the often inadequate instructional care available for disabled students. While I do not believe that this necessarily qualifies her as a candidate, she should be allowed a voice-as do all whom are affected and are moved so speak. Again, I’m not advocating throwing out the rules but let’s not entirely outcast her.
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 03:23 PM
Yes, Kate Smith is scary indeed.
By the way, why was there no story in Noozhawk about the Angel Linares verdict?
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 05:58 PM
Kate Smith is a little unstable. All you have to do is attend a County Supervisors meeting to find out.
» wrote on 10/17/08 @ 08:22 PM
Yes, I have heard Kate Smith address the School Board at many board meetings. She is so adversarial, and treats the current school board with such disrespect, that I can’t imagine her making any kind of positive contribution toward board decisions or policy, should she be elected. Please, vote for other candidates who will be more constructive in their attitudes, and use their energy toward more constructive goals for our students. The students and our district deserve better!
» wrote on 10/18/08 @ 12:00 AM
My home is the old Sunburst---five miles up Gibraltar Road, a few hundred yards from Climbing Rock (The Rock of Gibraltar) and Hanglider’s Point. We are fifteen minutes from Roosevelt school and one and a half hours to Solvang School. All the houses, even in Carpinteria, above an arbitrary line drawn in the 1800’s, are in the Santa Ynez Valley School District, but we pay property taxes to Santa Barbara and, of course, SB emergency services respond to our calls.
In 2000, David McCullough, of the SB County School District Re-Organization Committee, and Michael Couch, told Suzanne Post, of the Voter Registrar, that this was a mistake that they need to fix. But they won’t. Cirone won’t let them.
I have vowed to expose SB County Superintendent Cirone as a Machiavellian. He crafted the Truancy Program with Infamous SB D.A. Tom Sneddon and “Bad Boy” Mike Caston. There is an unholy alliance between the schools, Juvenile Justice, and 47 non-profit agencies that are feeding at the Public Funding Trough.
Cirone told me that he will have me arrested if I come into his county administrative offices or into his Superintendent’s Meeting, (he calls superintedents “his staff") and he promised to get a restraining order against me. Been there, done that!
I ran for the school board to expose corruption, posit educational reform and a new school paradigm, and dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline.
I made sure that no organizations endorsed me, have campaigned vigorously to promote social justice and school reform---NOT to get elected. Please forgive me---I publicly stated the truth so that people will not elect me to the board.
I tried to get the district line changed. The last time I ran, I leased-to-purchase a house one mile down the road. Please forgive me, but the corruption in Santa Barbara is so insidious, I had to do something to protect the students!
ACLU, NAACP, and Marian Wright Edelman’s Children Defense Fund have made this a priority: “Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline” naacp.org. (Please read this seminal document.)
The Gang Task Force is The Truancy Program on Steroids and the Outreach Worker is an “intelligence agent” hell- bent to turn wanna-be gang members, (targeted for the school-to-prison pipeline so that school test scores improve---students “with attitude” are expelled rather than educated), into “snitches.”
The district REFUSES TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OUTREACH WORKER: will the targeted student have the right to remain silent, not incriminate himself, tell the Outreach Worker to “go away, leave me alone?” I doubt it.
Will the student be punished if he lies? “Snitching”, in gang culture and mentality, is worse than anything---they have a brotherhood code---and the “snitch” is beaten, ostracized, and even killed.
Will the public/parent be able to view the targeted “gang list” and opt out? It’s racial profiling and vicious.
Is this what you want? Please stop the Outreach Worker---he is an agent of law enforcement and should not take our Pupil Retention Funds. The Outreach Worker HAS TO BE QUALIFIED ACCORDING TO ED. CODE 5290 (See CA Dep’t. Education: Pupil Retention Categoricals). Read the job description---it’s ridiculous!
“Breaking the Transmission of Violence” is a 16-page New York Times article that explains how to intervene and turn the situation around. The program is so successful, they’re talking about taking it to Iraq!
Please demand that the schools spend our tax dollars on engaging programs for the students, not throw away our funds for authoritarian figures---the GTF plan is to fund one Outreach Worker for every school in the county. (And our teachers have to pay for pencils out of their own pocket!)
Slash the administrative budget and bring school management down to the school-site level.
» wrote on 10/18/08 @ 09:35 AM
Yes, Kate Smith should surely be allowed to run for school board despite her residency status. What are boundaries except ridiculous lines drawn on maps created by warped minds? Then Marty Blum can run for mayor of Solvang, Arnold Schwarzenegger can run for governor of Oregon, and John McCain can become the prime minister of Canada (I’ve never agreed with that whole 49th parallel compromise--54-40 or fight!)...in fact, we should take it beyond candidacy--why can’t we all vote in any election that we’re interested in, wherever that may be?
» wrote on 10/18/08 @ 09:43 AM
I’ve seen and listened to all the candidates and really appreciate this comprehensive Noozhawk article. In my opinion the best candidates for the local School Board job are Ed Heron & Charlotte Ware.
» wrote on 10/19/08 @ 09:17 AM
The Election Forum followed by one night the School Board Meeting at which a number of parents, with candidates in attendance, cited gross violations of the Districts’ duties to students with Individual Education Plans. Special Education aids, required by law and agreed to by the District before the school year started, have not yet been provided. This failure violates the rights of not only the individual students but all students in the classroom--and safety-- as cited by parents. This outrageous failure by District management is a lot worse than Kate Smith’s involvement at Board meetings and election forums. After all, speaking at public meetings is a right. Warning parents they have 30 seconds to finish pleading (in tears) for their children’s education is also outrageous. Students are the issue and it is time the new candidates and incumbent talk about this violation of each student’s right to an education and how they have and will deal with students.
» wrote on 10/19/08 @ 01:48 PM
I am urging all to cast your vote for Susan Deacon, one of the few candidates who I believe will thoughtfully and respectfully deal with the student challenges and problems posted here. She listens, she thoroughly researches these issues and she has solid solutions.
» wrote on 10/19/08 @ 10:31 PM
This is the Mission Statement of the SB School Districts---Bracket comments reflect violations based upon public comments at Tuesday’s meeting.
Mission Statement--Santa Barbara School District
The mission of the Santa Barbara School Districts is to ensure the educational success of all students through high expectations and a commitment to excellence and to empower them to reach their full potential as responsible, ethical, and productive citizens in a diverse and changing world. [pecial Ed students and classmates attend for two months without classroom aides required by education plan. District can be held liable for damages and State and Federal governments should take over the management.]
Core Beliefs and Commitments
We believe that the achievement of the districts’ mission is a shared responsibility requiring the cooperation and commitment of students, parents, staff, board members, and the community.[District staff lie, deny, and don’t provide the staff for the students with consent (by silence) of management and some Board Members.]
We will ensure academic excellence by providing quality educational programs with all staff members focused on continually improving student achievement. [Special Ed director and management are arbitrary, capricious and violate written agreements on a regular basis.}
We will effectively and transparently manage our financial and human resources to support our educational goals. {Information is concealed. Instead of providing public records, the PR persons demands use of cumbersome Public Records Act requests to delay and frustrate the parents.}
We will maintain safe and orderly school environments for all students and employees. [If required aides are missing, who provides the safety net?]
We will promote a culture of mutual trust and respect among students, parents, staff, and community members. [By lies, denials, concealment and baseless accusations by district management!!]
We value student and staff diversity in our schools and classrooms and will promote equal access across all educational programs and activities. [By hiring friends of the Personnel Director and denying special education kids the most basic of services through intentional violation and deceitful explanations, the entire Mission Statement adopted by the Board recently is a cruel public relations joke because what is said is violated daily and with knowledge and planning to make it appear ok, when it isn’t.
Is there a chance that Rob Kuznia will do an article on the events described at Public Comment? It would be very important to informing the public of the reality of what is and what is not done.
» wrote on 10/20/08 @ 12:36 PM
All Hell is breaking loose! I have a document from SBSD Administrator, Diana Rigby,
to Billie Alvarez in the Voter Registrar’s Office. I am in the Santa Barbara
School Disticts---she lists each elementary, junior and senior high school.
I declared in my candidate’s statement that I vowed to expose corruption and
dismantle the Truancy Program. (Read “Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline”
naacp.org.)
Tomorrow, I will go before the Board of Supervisors to thank them for their denial
of D.A. Truancy Program funds, and then explain that the proposal was actually requesting
funds for the next Machiavellian machination of County Office of Education Superintendent
Bill Cirone---the Gang Task Force.
In the denied proposal, Cirone promised to deliver the funds for an Outreach Worker
in every school in the county. (That would be millions of dollars from the SBSD
Categorical Funds.) This position is titled, “Intervention Specialist,”
online, in the SB City Council September 12, 2008 Joint Meeting with the SBSD Board
of Education. The name was changed to “Outreach Worker” so the SBSD could
tap into the Pupil Retention Block Grant monies---but the SBSD is circumnavigating
the personnel department, as there are requirements for this position, (see California
Department of Education; EC 5290.)
District Superintendents, who supervise the eventual “one-at-each-school-in-the-county”
Outreach Workers, hear their orders from Bill Cirone and COE and SBSD lawyer, Craig
Price, (whose wife is principal of TWO Carpinteria schools) at the Superintendent’s
Meeting, the first Monday of the month, at Jonata School Library, 9:00am. Cirone
vowed to have me arrested if I entered the meeting next month; he calls it “his
staff meeting.” It is his private cabal,
That the Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA)---the state and federal Special
Education monies “regulating depository"---governing board (called the
Joint Powers Agency or JPA) meets at 12 Noon, (lunch is served) directly afterwards,
is important. The JPA is comprised of Superintendents from the county, and Bill
Cirone is a permanent member. This is a Brown Act violation.
When Marcia McClish was the SELPA Director, all Special Education information was
imparted to the JPA and County Superintendents during the Superintendent’s Meeting.
At the subsequent JPA Board Meeting, the superintendents zipped through the agenda
in record time---there was never a discussion or question. (All the work had been
done in the SELPA Coordinating Committee---the district Special Education Directors---headed
by Marcia Mc Clish.)
I will ask the Board of Supervisors to assist me in getting eight years of VISA
statements (1997-2005); monthly bills (up to $6,000) were paid “sight unseen.”
I have tried for five years to get them---first I was told they were confidential,
then I was told “they are no longer in SELPA possession---and I know that VISA
can provide them for a nominal fee. It is unclear if the credit card was in the
hands of Bill Cirone or Marcia McClish.
Jim Skelton, the part-time accountant who worked from home and received full-time
employee benefits, retired last month, and I will ask that they seize his files.
The SBSD is in breach of my daughter’s settlement contract. The case was declared
by the U.S. Office of Civil Rights to be the most expensive, most complex, and most
pathetic administrative due process proceeding in the history of the United States.
The appeal, SBSD vs. Emily Rose Smith, is a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,
so my anti-SLAPP case will be huge. the SBSD demand to settle, rather than appeal,
was expressed by Board Member, Fred Rifkin in a SB News-Press article: “We
told Marcia McClish to settle this case, and she looked at us as if we were nuts.”
With the unholy alliance between the schools, the Juvenile Justice System, and 47
non-profit agencies feeding at the Public Funding Trough, there are accusations
of Racketeering-Influenced and Corrupt Organization operations. The nation’s
school system will be under indictment: the Truancy Program and the Gang Task Force
is criminalizing our children and denying them their educational rights under color
of law. Go online and read about The Truancy and PARENT ACCOUNTABILITY Program!
Read “Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline,” naacp.org.
Cirone
heads the State Superintendent Awards Committee, and rewarded Mike Caston, Diana
Rigby, and Debbie Flores’s husband with Superintendent, Administrator and Teacher
of the Year!
And now, Rob, Karolyn just told me that there might be a 31 1/2 MILLION dollar scandal
over at Mental Health regarding billing for kids on probation. Jeff Gabrielson
quit as SBSD SpEd Director over questionable MAA billing practices that Marcia McClish
(SELPA) ordered. Hhhmmm.....MAA is Medical..............
Thanks for your work,
Kate Smith
» wrote on 10/20/08 @ 01:36 PM
I think Smith has some very important points. people Vote for Smith!!!! good work.
» wrote on 10/21/08 @ 01:13 AM
Ok I know the cell phone ban isn’t the most important issue facing our schools, but since it was mentioned in the article let me just say that it has been a big change for the better at San Marcos, where it has been enforced rather vigorously. Susan Deacon hit the nail on the head with her comment, and unfortunately Ed Heron smashed his thumb. Cell phones are just too much fun and distraction for too many high school kids to use responsibly while at school. Kids think they can multi-task; I assure you they cannot, and it’s the schoolwork that suffers everytime. I urge all parents reading this to help the schools put the kibosh on cell phone use during the school day! Check your child’s phone logs, put time restrictions on their usage, take away the dang phone for awhile, anything, please!
Thanks to Noozhawk and Rob for all the attention the school board candidates are getting. The community is well served by these articles.
» wrote on 10/21/08 @ 01:20 PM
Good job Kate. Beware of the sleepy giants that are so frustrated and trying to educate our youth. Our S.B. School District is almost like the blind leading the blind. Our parents need to take a stand against this nonsense. Times are difficult for all but our children deserve to be taught not treatened or mislabled.
» wrote on 10/22/08 @ 08:59 PM
Did anyone else think it a bit strange when Mrs. Ware stated there is no gang problem in the SB Schools?
» wrote on 10/23/08 @ 02:53 PM
Just Wondering,
I don’t think Ware was saying there is no gang problem, but that schools have been successful keeping out the violence. Based on my experience, I would say she’s basically right, but violence is only the tip of the iceberg. Gang-member students can be extremely intimidating to other students, keeping them from doing ordinary things like using restrooms or frequenting certain areas of campus. They can also try to keep other kids from doing well in academics, and often strive to disrupt classes in more subtle ways.
She may not have accurately described the gang situation at our schools, but it’s true that there is really is not much actual violence on campuses.
» wrote on 10/27/08 @ 10:54 AM
Kate Smith gone wild. Noozhawk, can you put a limit on the number of words, she’s not blogging, she’s venting? FYI, has anyone researched how much the truancy program has saved the district, when kids are in school, the school gets $$ for average daily attendance. Not having the truancy program will diminish the ADA revenue. The losses from that will surely impact the school budget.
» wrote on 10/27/08 @ 11:06 AM
PS - Anyone who thinks cell phones aren’t a distraction in schools ought to try the experience of teaching first. Mr. Heron, adults are being paid to use their phones and network, unfortunately, that’s not what they’re being used for in schools. Teachers, students, admins have to deal with the negative effects of students using their phones inappropriately i.e. taking invasive pictures of students in bathrooms, etc; texting answers during class, receiving calls, etc. etc,...School personnel should not spend their time dealing with these issues which include confiscating phones or hunting down stolen or lost phones. If you support the closing of the achievement gap, then you should support the no cell phone ban..