ACOUNTABILITY

By Bart Body

Cardiff schools need to be more responsive to parents, and they need to make sure that projects and programs are implemented appropriately and in a timely manner.

Cardiff schools pride themselves on their responsiveness to parents, but in reality this is more show than substance. Many parents complain that, when they ask questions or request special services that their children are entitled to, they become "persona non grata."

As a result, some parents have pulled their children out of Cardiff schools in favor of private schools or home schooling. Many in the Hispanic community (who do not have these options) complain bitterly not just about the denial of requests, but a lack of common courtesy in handling them.

Parents must be part of the educational process because they are the first and primary teachers. Parents have history with their child from day one, and are planning to be around for the long haul as well. Public school teachers, on the other hand, no matter how wonderful thry may be, are part of the picture for just one fleeting year, and then only for a part of the day.

WE ARE NOT GETTING THE JOB DONE

Schools have to deal with a myriad tasks and issues. So it is not surprising that some get done better than others, some a little later, and some not at all. But there is a disturbing tendency in Cardiff Schools to get those things done that are of importance to the administration, rather than to the parents and the Board, and sometimes to get them done in a way that suits the administration rather than the parents or the law.

Safety is one example: For some years now, there has been a "Strategic Goal" to devise a comprehensive and updated safety plan for the district. But at this point there is not even a disaster preparedness plan filed with the State. Moreover, there are no procedures or materials for actually dealing with a potential fire, earthquake, or other calamity. Procedures that had been in effect for Cardiff School are no longer relevant with the move to the current location. No procedures at all seem to exist for Ada Harris. Further, there is no coherent or effective plan to deal with the bullying and teasing that is endemic at Ada Harris.

Another example is that the way our Title VII grant is being administered is not consistent with the provisions of the grant nor the wishes of the parents.

First,the DELAC committe that is supposed to oversee the program has been manipulated so as to eliminate any parents that might have serious questions or issues about the way things are done.

Second, an important requirement of the grant is not being fulfilled: that pre-testing of eligible children be done within the first thiry days of school. This has actually happened just once in the three years of the current grant. Even then, the pre-test results were made available to parents and teachers only at year-end.

One problem here is that, without pre-testing, the program is running blind. Another problem is that, when the conditions of a grant are not fulfilled, the district can be liable for refunding some or all of the money received.