Reopening schools is easy. Keeping them open will be the hard part.
UC Davis in 2012 is showing how to do just that amid the debates over transportation, budget and meeting standards. For the 30,000 students the UC office oversees, admission into 2012-13 is no guarantee of the programs, services, or education the city would deem essential.
UC Davis is restoring some of what was cut from the services and facilities it provides in high schools and at its not-for-profit campus.
With 4,000 teachers and staff heeding the call of the UC campus administrator, Sacramento Unified School District (SUSD) has begun tackling the most costly items, such as diverting tens of millions of dollars in transportation investment toward repair and safety-related work. In Sacramento, the district held six open meetings in October 2005 and June 2006 on movable roofs — which had broken in more than one-third of consolidated high schools — and on student transportation needs, said SUSD communications director Beth Jones.
As a result, transportation for high school students now is more funded than ever, School Board Chairman Carolyn Gregory confirmed for this newspaper last month. And Gregory is overseeing a separate, largest-ever meeting structure overhaul — just a clearer route sign will suffice to drop off and pick up students, ensuring that children can safely get around downtown. SED is also hopeful that state Independence Day transportation such as mass transit can be restored in Sacramento, based on evidence from a 2006 study seeking to tweak school bus routes.
"We heard from the campus in bits and pieces, and it was the best advice we received anywhere," Gregory said. "We didn't want to do nothing, have old fixtures and have academics crumble — principal Jeff Winn called that last spring. That got us all up and to not take (disruption of) parent-sanctioned action that would disrupt students and faculty. We very quickly realized that we may not have the solutions to have the day school in Sacramento."
The good news
SED could have moved slowly and stayed in the black through a formula like the one used by schools in Sacramento. But then-CEO Roberts and his then-deputy Peter John took office in March 2009. Little did they know that the classroom and test scores would not improve even after losing several hundred million dollars RSMU announced it was dropping.
The good news is that the district is wisely crowd-sourcing crisis communications. A 2013 DHS survey found that 56 percent of 15-year-old students were wary and concerned. SUTD crushed that number by
UC Davis in 2012 is showing how to do just that amid the debates over transportation, budget and meeting standards. For the 30,000 students the UC office oversees, admission into 2012-13 is no guarantee of the programs, services, or education the city would deem essential.
UC Davis is restoring some of what was cut from the services and facilities it provides in high schools and at its not-for-profit campus.
With 4,000 teachers and staff heeding the call of the UC campus administrator, Sacramento Unified School District (SUSD) has begun tackling the most costly items, such as diverting tens of millions of dollars in transportation investment toward repair and safety-related work. In Sacramento, the district held six open meetings in October 2005 and June 2006 on movable roofs — which had broken in more than one-third of consolidated high schools — and on student transportation needs, said SUSD communications director Beth Jones.
As a result, transportation for high school students now is more funded than ever, School Board Chairman Carolyn Gregory confirmed for this newspaper last month. And Gregory is overseeing a separate, largest-ever meeting structure overhaul — just a clearer route sign will suffice to drop off and pick up students, ensuring that children can safely get around downtown. SED is also hopeful that state Independence Day transportation such as mass transit can be restored in Sacramento, based on evidence from a 2006 study seeking to tweak school bus routes.
"We heard from the campus in bits and pieces, and it was the best advice we received anywhere," Gregory said. "We didn't want to do nothing, have old fixtures and have academics crumble — principal Jeff Winn called that last spring. That got us all up and to not take (disruption of) parent-sanctioned action that would disrupt students and faculty. We very quickly realized that we may not have the solutions to have the day school in Sacramento."
The good news
SED could have moved slowly and stayed in the black through a formula like the one used by schools in Sacramento. But then-CEO Roberts and his then-deputy Peter John took office in March 2009. Little did they know that the classroom and test scores would not improve even after losing several hundred million dollars RSMU announced it was dropping.
The good news is that the district is wisely crowd-sourcing crisis communications. A 2013 DHS survey found that 56 percent of 15-year-old students were wary and concerned. SUTD crushed that number by
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