By Chuck Mullen
Throughout the long hours of bitter debate among representatives of the colonies at the Constitutional Conventions in 1787, Ben Franklin wondered about a carving on the back of George Washington’s chair. Was it of a rising or a setting sun? Who could know where this all would go?
Today the El Tejon Unified School District is at its own perilous crossroads. In one year we have lost 154 students, and we are facing deep budget cuts by the state.
We can all agree that all the cuts, pink slips, lost programs and the passing of our beloved leader, Shelly Mason, has overwhelmed our educational community. One winces to glance into the future.
At this critical juncture, it is irresponsible for our teachers to sit back and await decisions from the top. That denies the district the benefit of our experience. Teachers need to step up to insist on the right to contribute substantial input.
If I were a classified employee and my district was going to make vital funding decisions on safety issues, finances, clerical matters or the level of teaching help in the classroom, I would be sure that my concerns made their way to the top. They’d hear me loud and clear.
If I were the principal of a school, I’d seek the best information available from my staff. I’d set a climate of frankness to insure a productive flow of valuable information.
I am not a board member, but the community elected five of its own to step up to provide oversight. That is their mandate. The superintendent, whom I find nice personally, needs all of our help.
Trustees should not allow even the appearance of offering a superintendent who is new to the job and new to the community a blank check to make the toughest choices ever made in this district.
Today I am writing only as a parent, speaking to all of you who care about our schools. What the teachers and classified staff have in common is devotion to our students. You have the experience to know the best way to inspire, provoke, defend, challenge and inform our kids.
This is the moment we need to work together. We each need to step up to do our part. We need to demand a place at the table to help decide the priorities that will serve our kids.
Our first goal must be to develop a plan to bring back the 154 students we have lost and to stop the hemorrhage of more students.
This district’s best hope is for all of us to join a determined push—now—to work together, like our founding fathers, to make this school district great.
Oh, and about Washington’s chair?
After some of the darkest days of discord had passed, Ben Franklin spoke: "I have often looked at that sun carved behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. Now I have the happiness to know that it is indeed a rising sun."
ETUSD, too, can be a rising star.
Mullen, of Frazier Park, has taught at El Tejon School for about 23 years. He has six kids who are in, or have graduated from, ETUSD schools.
This is part of the April 15, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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