MORGAN HILL
– The culmination of a year’s work by a Blue Ribbon Task Force
convened by County Superintendent Colleen Wilcox to address what
she called a
”
crisis
”
in education will be officially presented at Wilcox’s State of
the Schools address May 15.
MORGAN HILL – The culmination of a year’s work by a Blue Ribbon Task Force convened by County Superintendent Colleen Wilcox to address what she called a “crisis” in education will be officially presented at Wilcox’s State of the Schools address May 15.
Morgan Hill City Councilman Larry Carr, a former School Board trustee, gave current trustees a preview at a recent meeting.
“Last spring, Superintendent Wilcox issued a community call to action,” Carr said. “The Blue Ribbon Task Force, made up of leaders of communities across the county, answered that call, and the result are these six recommendations.”
The recommendations include:
• Promotion of a countywide educational ballot initiative to obtain the financial resources to support what the task force calls the “5 R’s.”
• Increase the number of qualified credentialed teachers in local schools.
• Create efficiencies in education.
• Advocate for reform of the state and local system for financing local schools
• Increase affordability and availability of teacher housing in order to attract and retain teachers locally.
• Improve public and community support for schools and teachers.
The task force is co-chaired by Carl Guardino, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, and Susan Hammer, former vice president of the State Board of Education and former mayor of San Jose.
Carr told Morgan Hill trustees the task force had polled 600 people in December after holding public forums in the fall to gather information.
“Many in the group are people who don’t work in the field of education,” Carr said. “We needed to gather a lot of information from a variety of sources to get started.”
Many of the recommendations have a financial basis, and with state budget cuts, as well as tight district budgets, another source of revenue is a key component.
“Out of curiosity, what percentage of those that you polled would support a parcel tax?” asked Trustee Mike Hickey.
Carr said the countywide poll showed 70 percent in support of a parcel tax, higher than local support is estimated to be.
The task force recommendations state: “Obtaining a new source of funding at the local level would address the problem of chronically inadequate state funding that is aggravated by the high cost of living in Santa Clara County.”
Carr said the next step will be to implement the recommendations after they are presented May 15.
“The recommendations will be presented to the community at large, and the next round of calls to action will be to anyone who believes in the goals of those recommendations,” he said.
After May 15, committees, task forces, action groups will likely be formed, Carr said, for each of the recommendations. The recommendations could be broken down into smaller areas of responsibility in order to implement them.
Anyone who is interested in being a part of the process should contact the County Office of Education. Carr said there is no procedure in place at the moment that he is aware of, but after May 15, a plan should be in place.
Morgan Hill students and teachers should benefit from the implementation of the task force’s recommendations, Carr said.
“We can expect a lot of things,” he said. “In education today, the chronic problem we see is a lack of funding. We are making an effort to take a look at what we can do about that locally. … I’d love to see it dealt with at a state level, also, but no one’s holding their breath for Sacramento to get involved.”
