Keep Lathrop High School open

The Manteca Unified School District will be meeting on Tuesday night to make more cuts to the budget. They're down to the last "hard choices" which include across the board salary cuts for teachers and workers, eliminating bus transportation for students who live outside walking distance and closing Lathrop High School. Dennis Wyatt's opinion piece in January 24's Manteca Bulletin calls for the closing of Lathrop's newly opened high school.

I have grandchildren who attend Manteca schools and the budget cuts have been a big topic of discussion with the oldest, a student at East Union. It's very interesting to hear what the scuttlebutt is on campus from an actual student. We heard that "everyone," including students and teachers, was relieved that Senior Projects were given the ax. We heard that many students are upset with the prospect of school buses being discontinued or being charged for transportation to school...that seems to be a big issue. Eliminating elective and AP courses also is not popular with the kids.

In Wyatt's piece, he thinks that rather than ask any MUSD employees to defer raises or take a cut in pay or hours, the district should close Lathrop High School. He seems to place a lot of blame for opening it prematurely on acting superintendent Jason Messer, though I don't know if that's fair. A couple of years ago we kept hearing how all the schools were becoming overcrowded and there were even signs posted on some elementary school office doors warning that your child might not be able to attend that school because of overcrowding, so register early. The "irrational exuberance" that fueled the housing bubble and all the new people expected to pour into the area extended to the school district and they scrambled to make sure they could accommodate all the new students they expected.

The schools seem to be run not for the benefit of the students, but for the benefit of the unions that most school district employees belong to. Photos from the last school board meeting published here and in the Sun Post showed a sea of blue union shirts dominating the landscape, all there to protest any reductions in raises, salaries, hours or positions that might be considered. Many of them looked angry and scary with scowling faces and crossed arms. To hell with the kids...the employees come first. Wyatt even says, "Employees are covered by negotiated contracts. What they may give up in actual pay — or negotiated raises — now has to be restored and repaid at some point. " Is he saying that they're such bullies that we might as well give them what they want now because they'll just get it anyway sooner or later?

He also says that reducing pay or raises will severely affect the teachers' and employees' morale and that in turn will make them less effective. What about the students' morale? How does cutting education and activities affect their learning or their ability to graduate? Something like 85% of the school budget goes towards personnel. Now they want to take even more of the budget for salaries and at the expense of making the STUDENTS give up more things that help make high school bearable and even enjoyable. California teachers are the highest paid in the nation,* despite the hype you hear about how underpaid they are.

Don't close Lathrop High School. What a morale crusher that will be to the students there. Remember that the school district exists to provide education to over 22,000 students in its care, not to keep union members employed. Do the right thing.

*From Survey and Analysis of Teacher Salary Trends 2007 by the American Federation of Teachers: "For the second consecutive year, California had the highest average teacher salary in 2006-07 at $63,640 or about 25% above the national average."