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Thoughts on boundary changes
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Anonymous user Mon Apr 2, 2007 16:15:53 PDT
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0 responses 1 comment Change is inevitable –– except from a vending machine.
— Robert C. Gallagher
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
— Maya Angelou
Change is inevitable especially in regards to the boundaries of the Kern High School District. Since 1991, KHSD has opened six high schools and will open numbers seven and eight in 2008. Each of these openings has required a change of school boundaries and in turn has brought out angst and anger when affecting neighborhoods and individuals.
I have been on both sides of the boundary issue. I had the privilege of serving on the committee that set boundaries for Frontier High School.  Although our group only dealt with four existing high schools, we took our job seriously knowing that people and neighborhoods were being affected. At public meetings, many people shared their views — some based on fact and others based on misinformation and emotion.
Also, I have been a school counselor at West High School since 1995. In the latest boundary discussion, my school and its students were maligned both directly and indirectly at public forums and in The Bakersfield Californian. Other KHSD campuses were similarly criticized based on speakers’ perceptions of schools and programs. It was suggested that if students from some neighborhoods were moved to a lower socioeconomic school they would not be as prepared due to an absence of certain courses or extracurricular activities. Also, it was said programs at other schools would suffer due to the lack of a certain type of student attending that school.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
All schools in the Kern High School District have the necessary courses, activities, and staff to prepare students to be competitive in the university world. For example, West High offers 14 advanced placement courses, and 11 GATE and honors courses. We offer forensics, virtual business, Web design, We The People, French, Spanish, a wide variety of college preparatory fine arts, etc.
In recent years, we have sent graduates to Harvard, Princeton, West Point, USC, Stanford, Rice, all of the University of California campuses, and competitive California State Universities. We have a dedicated, experienced staff that works hard to bring out the best in our students.
Each of the high schools in the Kern High School District have unique programs to offer and can make similar claims to student success. Students have the opportunity to excel at any and all area high schools. It is up to individual students to take advantage of opportunities at schools they attend.
So what do you do if your neighborhood is moved into a new attendance area? Get involved in the school where your child is attending. Get to know the staff and the services available at the school. Support your son or daughter in their educational pursuits.
And what if you achieved “victory” and your neighborhood wasn’t moved in the most recent boundary decision? Don’t get too comfortable.  We will do this all again in two years for the opening of school number nine.

–– How do you feel about the KHSD boundary changes? Share your opinion by commenting on this article online at: www.swvoice.com or submit a Letter to the Editor.

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Comment From: Menees4

My family lives in the South Laurelglen area and we are in the BHS district. In two years my twelve year old will be a freshman. Why would I send her to BHS, which is all the way in central Bakersfield? I am a mile from Stockdale and the soon to be completed Independence. It makes absolutely no sense to me!