|
Many times I revisit a topic that I have written about in the past because the problem has not resolved or in many cases even addressed. This, despite the fact that they are a thorn in the paws of many citizens. All I can do is keep bringing it up in hopes that the agency in charge does something about it. Like Androcles I will once again try to help out the lion and remove that pesky thorn. If not remove it, at least acknowledge its existence.
It is well known that Temple City has the best schools in the area. Our schools are the pride of our little community and are the leading reason the property values in this area are so high. I, like many parents, feel very fortunate to be living here and to have our children taught by such a fabulous group of dedicated educators.
Yes, we who live here are lucky, to a certain extent. Just as any place or thing that is of value, you will always have those who will do what they can to capitalize on holes in the system to utilize or obtain what doesn’t belong to them. Those who want what you have, but because they do not want to follow the rules, find ways to get it for free. In a nutshell, stealing.
That, my friends, is exactly what has been happening for years now. The stealing of quality education from the City of Temple. It takes on many forms and in these days of drastic budget cuts you would hope that it would be at the top of the list of problems to solve by the Temple City Unified School District. It doesn’t appear to be that way. Short of a semi-threatening memo at registration time, the ball is not even in the court or it is put in storage until registration time rolls around again.
The deception comes in many forms and by those who choose to exploit it, it also comes with a myriad of excuses. Granted, there are those who should be allowed to attend our schools by virtue of the fact that when they bought homes with a Temple City address they assumed that they would be sending their kids to Temple City Schools. These people have a legitimate beef and it is due to the fact that our city’s zoning is so wacky. You have people with an Arcadia or San Gabriel addresses that are zoned for Temple City Schools and people with a Temple City addresses that are zoned for El Monte or Arcadia schools. It makes no sense. Everyone living within Temple City boundaries should be serviced by Temple City post office and attend Temple City schools. If you live outside of our boundaries, your kids shouldn’t be allowed to attend our schools.
Having said that, it is not the people who live within our boundaries that I have a problem with trying to get their kids in our schools; if they did try I wouldn’t object. It’s the cheats that I want to see removed or sent elsewhere. To be precise, sent back to the schools in the cities where they live. Their presence here over taxes our teachers and cheats the children of our city in numerous ways. Both financially and in the quality of their education.
When somebody lives in San Gabriel but has an aunt who lives in Temple City and uses her address to enroll in our schools it is flat out ripping off our city and it pisses me off. If you want your kids to go to Temple City Schools, move here; don’t sneak in like a burglar breaking into a home in the middle of the night.
According to the TCUSD, our finances are already spread thin. If the phrase “charity begins at home” has any credence we need to apply all of our city funds to the programs and students who live here and not waste them educating the children of malcontents from other cities. The money we could save after weeding out the ones that don’t belong here could be spent on our teachers and programs that really need it.
As an example, my daughter Rachel just finished her second season on the Varsity Softball team. When the school decided to make a coaching change this year, according to the way it is supposed to work, the position was first offered to somebody already on the payroll of the school district. Since they didn’t end up with any “takers” they were allowed to pursue finding a coach outside of the system. Which is where we ended up two weeks before practices were supposed to start, looking for a new coach outside of the school system.
The problem that arose out of this search leads us to one of our monetary woes in our school budget. Unlike all of our neighboring cities, our school was only offering $2200 to hire a coach for the entire season and that’s it. No funding to hire an assistant coach or funds for equipment. All of the funds for equipment had to be raised by the girls and parents on the team. In comparison, at neighboring Gabrielino High School in San Gabriel, I was told that the coach’s salary is $3600 plus there are budgets for both an assistant coach and equipment. I’m not mentioning those amounts because it is embarrassing. I guess it’s safe to say that Gabrielino’s school district is willing to spend more money for their softball program than ours is.
As far as the coach goes, TCHS interviewed a professional coach who was very interested in the position, but because of the driving distance involved and the lack of funds he had to decline. With the current gas prices, the 2200 bucks offered for the job wouldn’t have lasted him the season considering he was driving from Temecula. So the best we could do was have a parent coach the team, which does not serve the best interests of the players or the program. According to the coach from Temecula when he asked the school about possibly getting more funding for the program, he was flat out told “No.”
So when I hear about families who have been given waivers to attend our schools because their grandmother or some other relative works for the school district, despite the fact that they live in Monrovia, I get livid. To me, the giving of the waiver like that is sending a message to anyone outside of our school district that there are ways to circumvent the system, even ones that are sanctioned by the school district.
I was told a while back, when I wrote about this topic before, that there were X amount of waivers per year to allow students with various reasons to attend our schools. Well that was then and this is now. I can only assume that when this idea originated our coffers were a little bit bigger, at least I hope so. It had to be a time when our softball team was undefeated and our teachers were happy.
If our school district can’t dredge up proper budgets for its sports’ programs and its teachers, it’s time for them to stop handing out passes to a quality education that we, the residents, are paying for. At the very least, they could follow up on their threats to make surprise visits to student’s homes to verify residency and kick the interlopers out.
If they could do both, they would be hitting a home run in my book.
|
