School Safety

By Dick Massa

Safety issues in our schools and the responsibility of the School Board

That evening I went to a School Board meeting and during the public comments, reminding the Board that school security was their responsibility; I stated that whatever policy and procedures they had in place were either not followed or were not working. Reminding The Board of the recent school shootings I suggested they might like to visit Freemont and the other Oxnard schools to review their policies, make sure they were adequate and were followed. As is typical of this Board, since my time limit had expired, I was gaveled down with no comment. But I did manage to sneak in that I hoped the Board would complement the teachers who sprinted around the campus closing and locking the gates that were supposed to have already been closed and locked.

Interestingly one of the speakers before me had asked the Board to indicate by a show of hands who had been to visit all of the Oxnard Schools this year. No hands were raised, which brings up the bigger issue. We have an election for the school board on November 7 where 3 incumbents are running for reelection. As a candidate I can testify that there is virtually no coverage for this important position of managing our schools. When I tried to set up appointments to talk to the teachers and to the PTA of each school I was informed that neither the teachers not the PTA could talk to the candidates individually. Since there have only been 2 poorly attended forums and the only coverage by the paper was gathered from a single phone call where the only questions asked were my age, education, what I thought the issues were, and of course the extremely important questions of who was my favorite president and favorite book. I guess the paper doesn't think a candidate's opinions or positions are important. So for the voters, choosing a School Board member is reduced to voting for a name they have heard or worse choosing by throwing a dart at the ballot.

We've seen what the "dart method" gets us. A Board that doesn't visit the schools, a Board that does not make sure our campuses are secure and worse still, a Board that sends out congratulatory letters bragging about test scores of 28.8% in Language Arts and 34.9% in Mathematics. No wonder some parents are telling me they are pulling their kids out of Oxnard Schools in favor of Ventura Charter Schools.

Let's face facts. Our schools are under performing even when compared to schools with similar demographics. If other schools can do better so can ours. The formulas and models for success are there so why aren't we doing what the successful districts are doing instead of trying every new fangled idea that comes down the pike? The answer to that I'm afraid is simple. Our Board members think they have all the answers. So rather than listening and trying to learn from other school districts our board charges ahead micro-managing their way to abysmal test scores.

Oxnard Schools Can and Must Do Better. We own that to our kids, their parents and our community.