SUBMITTED BY ANDREA WEISS re 3/31 Board Meeting

Hello School Board Memebers,

I just finished reading all the documents related to tonight's board meeting. These are very complex issues and you have difficult decisions to make that will have long lasting implications on all the students in the district not to mention teachers and staff. Just as important, your decisions will heavily impact the economic heath and vitality of our community through implications for property values, recruiting faculty and staff to UC Davis, and quality of life issues that effect every citizen not just those of us with school aged kids.

Given the tremendous impact your decisions will have, I STRONGLY encourage you to give yourselves the time necessary to more fully study the implications of all the creative solutions being put forth. Choose to borrow from the reserve to keep Emerson open and the high school at 10-12 for one more year to give yourself the time to make a TRULY informed decision and allow the community to show their support of education by passing a parcel tax. The stakes are too high to make a rushed decision.

While the timelines outlined are nice in theory and I’m sure teachers and staff would do their best to meet them, the impact on all jr. high and high school students in the district should deadlines not be met or things don’t go as smoothly as hoped are just not worth rushing a decision. How often in life do things go exactly as outlined in theory, especially when we haven’t had time to think things through in depth or fully anticipate the unexpected?

Obviously, there are serious questions about the district's future that need to be answered by the Board: 2 high schools?, where does Di Vinci go?, How do we deal with a jr. high that needs modernization, how do we address declining enrollment?, how do we keep all the great programs?, What should become of the Valley Oak site? These questions all need to be answered but in a strategic, holistic approach with careful study and data behind the decisions. Not in a rushed, slash and burn approach to get the most money in the shortest amount of time.

Thank you again for listening,

Andrea Weiss