Past Glories and Current Ills
The plight of the Huntington Beach City School District is not as bleak as painted by the three letters to the editor on Aug. 5. With school board elections set for November, and with three vacancies at the district office, it seems an ideal time to make some creative changes.
The district has had more than its share of public attention during the past several years, as did its leader.
Former Supt. Diana Peters had an unusual talent for getting news recognition for the district and herself. She indeed is gifted in that regard.
If the business community needs someone to “convince us that we shared responsibility for the quality of education in our local schools . . .,” I have to wonder where they have been and what they have been doing. The future of the United States and its ability to successfully compete in world trade has, as a result of our educational problems, been raised virtually every day in the papers.
As a parent of a child in this school district, the strife that I have witnessed during the past few years among the school board, administration and teachers is unconscionable. When such a situation continues over several years, there is no question but that it affects the students adversely.
Peters’ administration was not “guilty of excellence,” as some would believe. The Teaching for Thinking program, if indeed it was a program, was nothing more than the Socratic method, as least in the few examples of it that I witnessed. The “Today” show, if my memory serves me correctly, was centered upon one of the middle schools for the success of that staff--not the phantom Teaching for Thinking program.
The district had a reserve of more than $2 million when Peters took the helm, and if the figures that have been disclosed during teachers’ negotiations are true, today we have zip in reserve.
The fact is that the district’s students have always had good scores. This was true before Peters became superintendent and probably will be true in future years.
The district has many talented teachers and administrators remaining.
The first school district that allows parents to make a contribution beyond rubber-stamping administrative decisions, organizing candy sales and inviting business people to a luncheon will set the tone of the reforms that are needed in education. Unfortunately, law precludes utilizing the vacant administrative positions for input from the business community, teachers or parents. Therefore, other ways must be found.
The challenge of the new superintendent will be to empower the principals so that they can respond to the educational needs of their schools; to gain the respect and trust of the teaching staff by competence, fairness and forthrightness; and to involve parents and business people in the educational process in roles other than that of errand boys.
JOHN F. SCOTT
Huntington Beach
