What are school closure plans?

Thanks to Bob Dunning for putting the word out about the plan to enact school closures. I’m a taxpayer, and parent of children in the Davis schools. But even if I weren’t, I’d be pretty upset that this is what the people get in exchange for voting for Prop. 30 and Measure E last November.

I hate to say it, folks, but we’ve been suckered. Before the election last November, the school district was telling us that school closures and mass teacher layoffs (causing even worse teacher/student ratios than we already have) were sure to occur if Measure E wasn’t passed.

So, trusting our school board trustees and superintendent that passage would ensure those scenarios did not occur, we voted for Measure E. This was despite the fact that this was just the most recent in long string of consecutive parcel taxes voted for to specifically maintain the quality of the Davis public schools.

Now I might be able to understand the current push of the school district if only Measure E had passed. But on top of Measure E, the taxpayers of California also committed to the unprecedented by passing Prop. 30, which was widely touted as the only way to stop our public schools from disintegrating.

Well, here we are. We voted for two tax increases five months ago for the schools, and the school district is going to make yet another play to close our local schools (a la the school board’s aborted stealth campaign to close Emerson Junior High a few years ago without any public hearings). And you know what? I’ve yet to see, or hear, any school board trustee talk about improving our teacher/student ratios in the wake of Prop. 30 and Measure E passing.

I’m not sure how other Davis taxpayers feel about this. But I’m certain that I’m not alone in feeling that our school board needs to be taught a lesson in basic fairness to the effect that they’re going to have to find a way to give something substantial back to us, or at least cease the takeaways, or risk breaking their winning streak at the polls.

Timothy Wallace

Davis