A Response to Mr. McDonald's Comment

Mr. McDonald,

You must not have been following the board meetings too closely or the Patch for too long and, I am sure you haven’t visited my blog OurFocusOurKids.com.

Here is a link to a list of many of the “New” things I proposed in 2009-2010 alone http://www.ourfocusourkids.com/blog/2010/4/16/mr-sanchez-i-hope-you-drive-a-bus-because-i-plan-to-fill-it.html

Here is a link to a post on my website (also published on the Patch) from May 20, 2011 suggesting a STEM school at Palm Elementary:  http://www.ourfocusourkids.com/blog/2011/5/20/what-if-palm-technology-academy.html

It references another post of mine from November 2010 in which I first suggested BUSD consider a technology academy.

If you had been following the board meetings more closely you would have watched Mr. Orozco vote with the rest of the school board to use the phrase “improve physical education facilities” in Measure Z to justify a $15 million sports complex.  You would also have seen Mr. Orozco, and the rest of the board, overlook the multiple mentions in Measure Z about upgrading the district’s technology resources at the same time they claim they don’t have the funds to upgrade computers in the high school’s existing technology classes.

If you had been following the board meetings more closely you would also have heard me argue the district could use special legislation introduced by Beaumont’s former State Assemblyman, Russ Bogh and passed by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor to redirect some of the $12 million they are spending on their new district headquarters to one-time uses in the general fund. Establishing a STEM school would be a one-time use of general fund money and, in my opinion, would have provided more value to Beaumont families than a $12 million district headquarters.

Next time you speak to Mr. Orozco, ask him why the board and the administration uses our neighboring school districts as an example to justify increasing the Superintendent’s compensation “in a time of budget crisis” and yet our neighbor,  Yucaipa-Calimesa School District has found the funds to provide programs our families want and need. They are taking away state ADA from Beaumont.

Mr. Orozco’s solution is to raise our state’s sales tax and his self-stated first priority, if he is elected to the state assembly, is to ask for more money from the state for our schools. I believe school board members should demonstrate more fiscal responsibility with the tax dollars we have already committed our kids to for the next 30-40 years before asking for our kids to sacrifice more of their future.

The STEM program the district is moving towards at the high school is promising but limited in its scope. I fear by the time BUSD gets around to making available the programs that would benefit our kids we will have already lost too many to neighboring programs.

Mr. McDonald, I'm not sure how old your children are, I have a 6 year old and a 10 year old. It is troubling to see the district spending about $40 million on the high school and their new district office at the same time they are telling us they can't afford to offer something for our younger students that neigboring districts are able to offer. It is hard for families of young children to not transfer their kids out of the district. I know the population at my kids' school is down significantly from last year. I am sure some of this is a result of the housing market crisis but our school district can't afford to lose more students, and their ADA, to Yucaipa-Calimesa. Every year we wait, is another year our kids will never get back.