Parents meet consultants about future of schools—Part Two

By Patric Hedlund

Fifty-five energetic, engaged parents, business people, school staff and teachers came together as a focus group August 20 to share hopes, dreams and realistic ideas about the future for Mountain Community schools.

The group huddled together on the benches of children’s lunch tables in the Frazier Park Elementary School cafeteria. They spoke and listened to each other thoughtfully from 7-10 p.m., exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the El Tejon Unified School District (ETUSD), its campuses, administration and the community.

Architect Tim Haley and project manager John Storey from Sacramento-based Public Consulting Group (PCG) asked questions and invited comment in a variety of ways—both in discussion and through silent, anonymous ‘post-it’ notes on brainstorm sheets taped to the walls.

Last week we reported that community members were asked to introduce themselves in broad strokes, raising hands to reveal they represent a stable population of nearly 50 homeowners who had lived on the mountain for over 10 years. Their ages were diverse, from young parents to grandparents. About 29 currently have children in the schools; 20% are employed in the school district.

There were heated comments at the outset, peppered throughout the evening, about distrust of the superintendent and the board of trustees, who were said to have lost the public’s confidence due to rudeness, poor communication, lack of Fashion Statement fact-based deliberation and inadequate transparency on issues of deep concern to the community.

As if to illustrate a major source of that problem, Superintendent Katherine Kleier went before KBAK-TV cameras before the meeting, misstating facts to the population of Kern County about her own district. She said ETUSD had seen a decline of “more than 50 percent of its students.” That is untrue, but parents this week joked darkly that the superintendent is on her way to making it true

Consultants’ Task

The PCG consultants said they are tasked with delivering a facilities assessment for the school district. The $14,500 report is to assist the board in making a decision about “mothballing” one ETUSD campus as a cost-cutting measure during a time of declining enrollment.

Monday afternoon Storey and Haley had visited Pine Mountain Learning Center, briefly stopped at El Tejon Middle School, Frazier Mountain High School, the El Tejon Continuation High School and Frazier Park Elementary.

“We have data sheets for every part of campus maintenance; mechanical, electrical, the paint on the walls, deferred maintenance…. We’ll go into the relocatables and every space we can get into. make a walk-through of the district’s buildings on Tuesday, in addition to the public input on Monday night. We hope to talk to principals, teachers and maintenance staff” during the site visits, John Storey said.

“We step into every classroom. We have to look at every facility. We are not evaluating people, we are evaluating facilities…,” Tim Haley added.

“Will there be enough time?” a parent asked. Storey replied that he’d been to over 1,000 schools and that “we’re pretty quick” to be able to assess the conditions. Haley, the architect, said he knew exactly where the durable red-tile roof at El Tejon School leaks, by seeing how the building settles.

“By tomorrow night at 6 p.m. we’ll be done with our site assessments,” Storey said, “and then we go back to Sacramento to do our homework to generate a report…. We are looking at demographics: where is this district going to be in 25 years? How much money is there out there? What are we going to have to spend to bring our schools up to grade?

“Your issues are something we need to know about. We want to generate options—including information technology. That is difficult to achieve in some facilities because of lines and power available. Each site is issued a score, to generate options to be part of a facilities plan. We’ll write a draft and final report, and then make the presentation to the board.”

As mentioned last week, there was a request that the report also be submitted to the community in its entirety.

Community Input—Brainstorm Wall Posts

The consultants asked questions about general perceptions regarding security of ETUSD facilities, overall fitness of facilities and the playfields. The options were only “Poor,” “Good,” and “Excellent.” Within those limits, “Good” was the most frequent answer for all questions.

Concerns expressed about receiving full information from the consultants leads us to publish the full list of anonymous comments posted on the walls about the school facilities.

Below are comments from the wall posts, made by the community group on August 20.

ETUSD—District Concerns

1. Board meetings not welcoming to parents or their concerns
2. We lost students to poor management of district’s facilities
3. Get rid of superintendent
4. The current board should not be allowed to make decisions that impact us [election in Nov.]
5. The super. is not listening to the community. This study is her last effort to get what she wants before a new board comes in (hence, Nov. deadline)
6. Excellent teachers get pink slipped while teachers who roll with the punches and are "yes" men keep their jobs
7. No community input! Do not take super. at her word for any community info
8. Pink slips new teachers, new blood always [first to go]
9. [District] refuses community help—makes it impossible
10. Safe environment—rural, beautiful, spacious
11. ‘Poverty thinking’ will not break out—fear of new thinking
12. Smaller class sizes
13. Talk to other school districts to find out [reasons for and numbers of] interdistrict transfers + students who have left this school district, find out why they have left
14. Talk to realtors of those who have listed houses [for those that have left] to ask why they left
15. Need smaller class sizes

Frazier Park Elementary School—Positives

1. Aesthetic presentation
2. New rooms are well-designed, functional and beautiful
3. Large campus
4. New classrooms
5. Computer lab
6. New buildings
7. Great location central to most communities
8. New buildings, new infrastructure
9. School is in town
10. New classrooms
11. Competent principal for FP school and El Tejon
12. New construction and upgrade
13. Beautiful grounds and new technology
14. Extra land to expand
15. Frazier Park school has a great location central to most communities
16. New classrooms are nice—but no ventilation provided for off-gassing of new construction
17. Great principal very proactive in getting grants for school
18. Nicely done and better security
19. Location is in center of town
20. New primary playground eqpt.
21. The principal
22. New classrooms
23. Communication; recorded calls
24. Good location, new classrooms, great staff
25. The center of town
26. New buildings
27. New classrooms
28. Good location; good facilities
29. Playground

Frazier Park Elementary School—Negatives

1. Send survey to every student in district
2. think the board is wasting our money with this study
3. The play area is too small now with new classrooms
4. Needs more grass
5. Lack of campus security; anyone can walk on
6. Field is too small and rocky; field is full of gopher holes and pits
7. Field is full of gopher holes and is not safe
8. FPES water fountains are bad
9. Frazier Park school NEEDS a functioning performing arts area. El Tejon is the only school that has this
10. Too much asphalt in play area
11. Old textbooks
12. Safety concern: Frazier Mountain internet weather cam pointed to kindergarten playground
13. Overcrowded! not any fields or large play areas
14. Basketball courts are dangerous; grass areas are full of ankle-breaking holes and rocks
15. No safe area for 5th and 6th grades to run and play sports during lunch, recess or P.E.
16. No shade on east side of playyard, more shade on west playground
17. Insufficient fields; obsolete portables; extremely poor layout for new building
18. Overcrowded
19. No separation between kindergarten and other grades 20) AB 300 building within 1/4 mile of fault line (earthquakes)
20. Split classrooms

El Tejon Middle School —Positives

1. Needs huge renovations
2. Best design, most useful fields
3. Best environment
4. Large fields for play; historical; lots of space; maintenance locations there for bus barn and gas tank
5. Small school
6. Beautiful setting
7. Wildlife, mountain views
8. Large facility in beautiful location. Lots of space to work with
9. Wildlife
10. Historical background of El Tejon
11. Large campus with room to expand
12. Fields[used] by AYSO and FMLL
13. Historical value, community history
14. It’s been here forever
15. Lots of open area; beautiful natural setting
16. Send survey to every resident
17. Lots of open area, beautiful natural setting
18. Nice views except for closeness to freeway
19. Beautiful trees, beautiful historical buildings

El Tejon Middle School —Negatives

1. Send survey to every student in district
2. If closed, would ET then have to be brought up to code to reopen? That won’t happen, therefore leaving us with only 2 sites when enrollment rises, which it will eventually
3. By I-5
4. Old school; things falling apart and not being fixed
5. No developed sports or music
6. No technology lab; old buildings
7. Very limited in sports facilities
8. Air quality report states the air is so bad it could cause premature death and breathing problems
9. Too close to freeway
10. Pollen from oak trees and cottonwoods
11. Bat and bird poop
12. Safety concerns: air quality at middle school and ease of access to school playgrounds from highway
13. School site is hard to supervise; keep secure
14. Water and plumbing issues
15. It is loud due to freeway noise
16. Too far from town
17. No air conditioning
18. Run down classrooms
19. Too close to freeway
20. Facility too large for only two grades
21. Tejon fields are not part of the school
22. Very poor field conditions: gopher holes and trenches
23. No safe area for kids to run and play soccer during recess.
24. Bad air quality report
25. Close to gasoline/diesel emissions
26. Poor food choices; no real food; it’s canned or frozen
27. No air or swamp cooler
28. Near freeway; not utilized to fullest capacity; facilities need updating
29. Lack of air-conditioning and poor heating
30. Chemical spills on freeway next to school
31. School may not be usable in future due to code compliance, if closed
32. Proximity to freeway: exhaust fumes; toxic spills; easy access for kidnappers
33. Little gym; no changing facilities
34. Old and crumbling walls
35. Not age-appropriate for high school students; facilities are not up to par for sports, has no locker rooms
36. Closeness to freeway; poor air quality
37. Tiny gym
38. No Lockers; no locker rooms for PE, no outdoor lighting
39. No technology lab, old building
40. Very limited sports facility
41. Too close to freeway

Frazier Mountain High School —Positives

1. Sports programs
2. Robotics
3. New principal = New Hope 🙂
4. Has a variety of classrooms in decent condition
5. Better infrastructure than other facilities
6. Football field; large gym; air conditioning; nice classrooms
7. Great mural
8. Sports programs
9. Cafeteria
10. Size of tech lab
11. Library size
12. Large office
13. Ag center
14. Yay! We have a high school
15. Locker rooms
16. Biology labs
17. Great ag facility
18. Gymnasium with bleachers
19. Ample parking
20. Football stadium
21. Gym
22. Ample parking
23. Further from freeway and better air quality
24. Gym with locker rooms and bleachers
25. Football field
26. Technology lab
27. Land to expand
28. Larger office, library and grounds
29. Only facility that would accommodate high school and their activities

Frazier Mountain High School —Negatives

1. FMHS track needs to be redone
2. Renovate outdoor tennis courts and outdoor basketball courts
3. Needs some "TLC"
4. Portable toilets on football field
5. All athletic fields need some help
6. Roof needs some maintenance
7. Away from community
8. Middle school kids too young to be with kids at the high school
9. Lack of campus security; anyone can walk on
10. Has grounds in need of repair
11. No music
12. No track & field or cross country
13. No drama or poetry
14. No electives for imagination
15. Water supply; well breakdowns
16. No permanent restrooms at football stadium
17. Has the ability for extra curricular but closed doors w/o staff or professional community
18. Limited electives
19. FMHS earthquake fault
20. Outdoor basketball and tennis courts at high school not used or functional
21. Technology and software at high school outdated
22. Curriculum, course of studies outdated
23. Not enough books in library
24. Hot water not turned on at high school in bathrooms or locker rooms; kids not able to shower after sports or wash hands with warm water
25. Students and teachers have to go from building to building on stairs in rain and snow
26. Not utilizing all assets and community… should be offering more
27. High school has many ways to separate junior high and high school students
28. Only 1 security officer on campus
29. No one trained and available to operate technology
30. If there is no high school, there will be no kids, parents will take them off the hil
31. Isolated and hard to get to
32. Cement stairs [to classrooms]- hazard of slipping in snow
33. Mold in ceilings
34. Needs a new roof for snow runoff
35. When high school opened they had a grant writer. They got rid of that position when FMHS stopped extras
36. Need grant writers for the extra curriculum needs
37. Science labs not operational

Continued Next Week
Next week: Visions for the future of ETUSD schools.

This is part of the August 31, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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