Home Antioch Letter: Board President Says Many Positive Things Happening in Antioch Schools

Letter: Board President Says Many Positive Things Happening in Antioch Schools

by ECT

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Antioch Unified School District Board President Walter Ruehlig

If Antioch had a dime for every time it has been bashed, our streets would be paved with gold. Inarguably, our schools take a disproportionate share of that thrashing.

I am the first to admit that Antioch schools have their set of pressing concerns, particularly on what I call the ‘Big Three’; parental engagement, student motivation and behavior, and state proficiency on test scores, especially math. Let’s review.

If you can’t get Mohammed to the mountain, you bring the mountain to Mohammed.  Without parental support education is an uphill climb so we need creatively expand even more our already concerted efforts to get mom and dad involved, be it thru home visits, Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) meetings, social media or parenting skill workshops.

As to behavior, after several years of dramatic decline, suspensions are, perplexingly, up 16% this school year,  We are working double time to address this.

With math,  that’s an area where we need a radical departure in approach. Our 20% proficiency rate is simply unacceptable.

It takes a new seed to develop a new crop. We need ever-bolder actions, aggressive interventions and individuated, pull-out instruction to overcome this perennial thorn on a  core skill.

That said, on our weaknesses,  we can’t completely ignore social context. Some sample facts:

  • from 2000 to 2012 the city’s violent crime rate doubled
  • our number of English language learners tripled
  • the number of homeless public school students increased from 382 in 2011 to 706 in 2014
  • the number of students residing in group homes rose 144% in the past six years
  • 40% of district students live in homes without secure parental employment
  • 1 out of 5 students had suicidal ideation
  • 1 in 5 students reported prescription drug usage.

Sadly,  we haven’t even touched on the distressing subjects of broken homes, latch-key kids, parental abuse, transiency, the epidemic of attention deficit syndrome; societal permissiveness, the erosion of public civility; the seduction of electronic gadgetry, etc.

Amidst the societal chaos, though, our educators seek solutions, not excuses, and do their best, against great odds.  Day in and day out much good goes unheralded.

  • We can celebrate Antioch’s graduation rate soaring above state average.  Its’ 6.3% increase last year was one of the highest California increases in the State.
  • Dozier-Llbbey Medical School has been honored as a California Distinguished School  and Deer Valley High as an Honor Roll School.
  • The Antioch School Board, Chamber of Commerce, Planning Commission and City Council all approved Rocketship, a third Antioch public charter school. to be housed in a 14,5 million dollar state-of-the-art, zero net energy campus off 18th Street,   The school underscores our openness and community richness in recognizing many unique seats at the table; traditional, private, alternate, charter and home study schools.
  • Unquestionably, Antioch is known as a trailblazer in linked learning with real-life career paths in law, the medical field, engineering, green energy, digital arts, business, research and the performing arts with GPA, attendance and graduation rates prosper.
  • Music is back, alive and well, with 1300+ students involved at the elementary level, allowing a pipeline tor the higher grades and a great outlet for creativity, self esteem and brain development.
  • The number of students taking Advanced Placement exams has grown 71.6% over the past 5 years.
  • The number of U.C.-system qualified graduates rose 6.9% over the last 5 years and more of our high school students are now co-enrolling at community college, gaining credits and exposure.
  • Counselors, for the first time, are present in all of our schools, from elementary to high.  Not long ago we had no counselors. Now our ratio of counselors to students is one of the highest in the state and at 500 to one double the California average of 1,000 to 1.
  • In a recent LCAP funding evaluation the State determined that Antioch met or exceeded expectations in eight of nine categories. (To little surprise, we fell short on math in grades 3-8),

This letter, then, hopefully. demonstrates that we have a mixed bag with ample good, bad and, yes, sometimes ugly; but while we squarely face our undeniable flaws we don’t have to dwell on challenges alone.   We can also acknowledge and build upon successes.

Each of us can do our bit by involved parenting, by having high expectations of our children and schools, perhaps by civic volunteering, joining PTA, or tutoring. Yes, there is considerable work to be done for Antioch to become the destination city many of us dream of it being. To that end, we must honestly self-reflect and then roll up our collective sleeves and become part of the solution and not the problem.

Walter Ruehlig
President, Antioch School Board

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3 comments

Tired of It Nov 20, 2017 - 8:43 am

How is it perplexing that suspensions are up? Maybe stifling the numbers hasn’t worked and admins can’t keep their finger in the dyke forever. Glad the supe called out the parents as problem numero uno, it sure is. Bitch about how Jovani can’t dress out in free clothes or some other issue yet you can’t attend open house or other events. Time to drain the parental swamp.

Buh-bye Nov 20, 2017 - 5:30 pm

Nice try Walt.

Grade: D-

Jeff Adkins Nov 21, 2017 - 12:29 am

Good job self-grading your own thoughtful and incisive analysis. Saves us the trouble of scoring it ourselves.

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