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Anonymous user Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:05:52 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments I take exception to some of the points made by Mr. Coulter in regards to the current boundary changes.
Yes, change is inevitable but many in the community wondered why the point of contention in the process became established neighborhoods miles from the new schools.  Also, many questioned the proposed swapping of neighborhoods between two schools.
I, too, have been on the boundary committee and I do believe the committee takes its job seriously.  However, the committee was given information on population and socio-economics.  We were not given other information such as of school programs, test scores, etc.  The committee input should be just one piece of the puzzle that is put together to come up with the final plan.
Mr. Coulter suggested that parents indicating a preference for one high school over another were maligning a school.  I disagree.  All Kern High School District schools do offer the necessary courses and activities, but according to the California Department of Education Web site, advanced placement passage rates at individual schools vary from 27.5 percent  to 75.5 percent.
The state education department also provides each high school’s Academic Performance Index, or API. These scores also have an effect on how parents perceive a school in deciding where they choose to send their children.
He also suggests the movement of neighborhoods do not effect the schools they are leaving.  At Bakersfield High School, students living west of Freeway 99 make up less than one third of the student population. However, these students and their parents contribute more than 75 percent of Parent Club membership; more than 70 percent of Athletic Booster membership; more than 55 percent of ASB class officers and band members; and over 60 percent of GATE. To say that moving these families would not create a void is simply not true.
I agree with Mr. Coulter that each high school has its own unique programs. Parents should have the right to examine each school and by choosing their residence choose which school best suits their children.
Many consider Bakersfield High as an undesirable school. I have been asked many times why I send my children there. It has a diversified student body on an older campus in a less than glamorous part of town, but the education the students get, inside and out of the classroom, are well worth it to some of us.
— Marianne Keathley

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