I don’t even know where and how to begin there is so much to disagree with you about. In the words of my late mother your article regarding SBHS seeking a bond issue to upgrade the current campus was just ASSENINE. First of all your information about how much money is being spent on classrooms is erroneous. There is between $22 and 27 million being spent on classrooms, depending on whether or not you count the multi-purpose room as a classroom (the state does).
Second, the idea that the district is trying to force the bond issue down the community’s throat and doesn’t really value their input is ridiculous. Careful steps to involve the community in every step of the process have been taken, starting with the formation of an at large community committee to discuss expansion which started over three years ago. Any district or public entity would be foolish to try and “ram a bond issue down someones throat”. Third, your constant inference directly and indirectly that SBHS is an inferior academic school is also ridiculous. SBHS sends students to the most prestigious universities throughout the country, and your newspaper is routinely filled with stories about SBHS grads who are doing well in school. My own two older daughters are receiving correspondence from universities which include Vanderbilt, UCLA, Cal-Poly SLO and many others. Just because the school is on program improvement does not mean that its students are not being given a great academic education. There are so many layers to AYPs and APIs it would take an entire section of your paper to explain it. My last rebuttal is about the fact that you are taking issue to the upgrading of the sports facilities at the school. Having gone to the Hollister-Palma game Friday night I can tell you that the new RABOBANK stadium is a huge source of community pride, and a strong motivational force for the Salinas area and the athletes who compete there. The exact opposite is true of our track and field as most teams won’t even compete there for track, and the amount of money spent each year to resod the field and the amount of water needed to sustain it is enormous. Not to mention the fact that when it rains the track floods from curb to curb making it more suitable for a boat race than a P.E. class. The youth and high school sports teams of San Benito county are a great source of pride for the community and benefit enormously the educational programs of the local schools. The average athlete has almost 0.8 higher G.P.A. than a non-athlete, and just in case you were going to throw this out there, most athletes at SBHS do not get to take a second year of P.E. because they are on a A to G college prep track. I can only assume you have some kind of axe to grind with the school or possibly you are still having some issues with being cut from a high school team. I didn’t even mention how dumb your complaint about clearing detention hours was. Talk about a way to get the public to attend a meeting so their input could be heard. It is very clear to me that you need to research your facts a little more before ripping the school and the people who have worked so hard to constantly upgrade the facilities. By the way the 390’s classrooms were old WWII barracks.
Randy Logue, Hollister, SBHS teacher
