Open Letter To The Families Of San Diego Unified School District(SDUSD) Students …

by Charlama Chaffee

With all of the budget cuts and lay-offs, next school year is going to be very different.  Many schools will have no one in their libraries.  If someone is in your student’s library, they will probably have much shorter hours.  This means that your student will have less access to all of the books and other materials that your tax dollars have purchased.  Maintaining these valuable and expensive collections will be that much harder.  Ask your school how many hours your student’s library will be open next year.  For the vast majority of SDUSD students, the library will be open much less next year, if it is open at all.  Does your student enjoy using the library before school, after school or during lunch?  Does your student play games, use the computers, catch up on homework, read or talk quietly with friends in the library?  In all likelyhood they will not be able to do this as much next year, if at all.

Furthermore, if your student is at a year-round school, changes will be happening on July 1^st.  Because of the budget cuts and lay-offs, a large number of classified personnel will be shifted around to different schools, most with fewer hours and many with a loss of benefits.  These people include, but are not limited to:  secretaries, financial clerks, office clerks, site techs, health techs/aides, security personnel, library techs/aides, teachers aides, attendance clerks, et al.  They are the “lucky” ones.  Many people in the above jobs are being laid off as of July 1^st; they won’t even be able to finish out the school year.  So, if your student is at a year-round school, he/she is going to have a lot of new adults to work with for the last three, very busy, weeks of school.  If you are not sure if these changes will affect your student, ask at your school.  Virtually all schools will be affected, if not on July 1^st, then most definitely come September 6^th, the first day of the 2011 – 2012 school year.

Check your student’s school, then contact the school board if you have any concerns.  You can contact all of the board members by e-mailing them at mailto:board@sandi.net or you can reach them by calling (619) 725-5550

In addition, each board member has a separate e-mail box:

Richard Barrera, Board President  mailto:rbarrera1@sandi.net

           

John Lee Evans, Board Vice-President  mailto:johnleeevans@sandi.net

Shelia Jackson, Board Member  mailto:sjackson@sandi.net

           

Kevin Beiser, Board Member  mailto:kbeiser@sandi.net

           

Scott Barnett, Board Member  mailto:sbarnett@sandi.net

Shame on Mayor Sanders and the City Council

The front page of the April 14^th Union Tribune had a 5 column headline

“EMBARCADERO MAKEOVER APPROVED.”

The story goes on to say that this project will cost $29.6 million.*

The cost will include a lot of changes which will only really benefit those wanting to build another highrise hotel and parking structure … this one at the Foot of Broadway.

Below this on the left side of the same page is a single column story:

“Sanders To Propose Deep Cuts To Parks, Libraries.”

This story goes on to say “The two year plan by Mayor Jerry Sanders to fix San Diego’s troubled finances before he leaves office begins with cuts that will leave libraries and recreation centers closed on most days, fund fewer positions for sworn police officers and remove fire pits from city beaches.”**

LET’S SEE:

He wants to build a new park on the embarcadero while cutting off funding to the rest of the parks in the city!!

He wants to build a new main library downtown, but, at the same time cut off funding to keep libraries open!!

He wants to completely rebuild Harbor Drive while letting the existing streets in our neighborhoods deteriorate into pothole strewn asphalt with more cracks than flat surfaces!!

Our city budget is facing a $56.7 million deficit.

If we subtract $29.6 million from that, it only leaves $27.1 million!  THAT’S A 52% REDUCTION!!!

That leaves a lot of money for libraries to educate and police to protect the citizens of San Diego.

Not to mention parks where our children and grandchildren can play instead of dodging cars while playing in the streets.

I ASK YOU … AM I THE ONLY ONE HORRIFIED BY THIS ATROCIOUS LACK OF FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE MAYOR PUTTING HIS POLITICAL AGENDA AHEAD OF SERVING THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ELECTED HIM TO WATCH OVER OUR INTERESTS???

If Jerry Sanders and the San Diego City Council continue down this path, I would be 100% behind a recall election to remove all of them from office.

*          4/14/2011 San Diego Union Tribune, Roger Showley & Lori Weisberg

**        4/14/2011 San Diego Union Tribune, Craig Gustafson