Reconsider school name
The Colton Joint Unified School District board needs to reconsider its actions.
The board asked the public to suggest names for the new high school to be built in Grand Terrace. Grand Terrace has waited decades for a high school. The name Grand Terrace High School overwhelmingly received the most votes.
The other schools in the city are Grand Terrace Elementary School, Terrace View Elementary School and Terrace Hills Middle School. All these school names identify with the city.
Grand Terrace High School is the logical and favorite choice.
But the school board picked the name Ray Abril Jr. High School, the fourth choice. Shame on the school board for not following the wishes of the people who elected them. Shame on the the school board for embarrassing Ray Abril Jr. by naming a school after him which the people in Grand Terrace do not want.
If Ray Abril is such a honorable man, why doesn't he relinquish this honor that so clearly goes against the desires of the majority in Grand Terrace?
TERRY SIGDESTAD
Grand Terrace
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7 comments:
KAugsburger,
“...The Grand Terrace city council has little influence over the school board and no role in naming the school. Making a poster of the letter and signing the letter John Hancock style probably wouldn't have swayed the board.”
I agree with you Grand Terrace City Council has little or no influence over the C.J.U.S.D. school board. But it seems that my point has been missed when it comes to representative government.
Your statement promotes the idea that there are “...more important issues for the Grand Terrace city council to spend their time on”; Mayor Ferre’s own words would disagree with you. She states that one of her “...main efforts [was] in building a [Grand Terrace] high school as the mayor of Grand Terrace” (Chamber of Commerce, February 2009). It seems that the mayor does in fact find this issue to be of relevance to her political position. Since that is the case then why wouldn’t the Mayor sign a letter on official letterhead that has been claimed to have been written and sent as correspondence to the school board? And what of Kent Taylor’s role between the CJUSD and the Mayor’s office when admittedly there were exhaustive measures taken in bringing a high school to Grand Terrace? At what cost to the community? That cost factor is indeed relevant in how the City Council was brought into the issue. The council’s involvement in order to locate a high school in Grand Terrace included working deals in giving parkland, moving businesses, lossing of tax base, etc. So why wasn’t the deal sealed with an agreement to name the new school Grand Terrace High School? Was the Grand Terrace City Council so naïve as to think that anti-Grand Terrace bias on the school board would magically disappear, or did the city council make the same alleged deal as Kent Taylor --- to locate a new high school in Grand Terrace with the condition of naming it Abril?
This is not about “...sway[ing] the board”. This is about local government transparency and the integrity of elected officials (School Board Members, City Council Members, etc.) that seem to provide only lip-service or cut deals under the table. It is also about the creditability of the “presumed correspondence” to the school board. Look at the letter; anyone could have written it and sent it to the editor of this blog. The fourth blog post from the bottom of the Grand Terrace High School Blog lists a post titled Read a letter from the Grand Terrace City Council about the naming of Ray Abril High School located at http://www.pe.com/multimedia/pdf/2009/20090403_nabril03_citycouncil.pdf
Don’t be fooled. The writing’s on the wall --- one has but to read and understand what it states. Either the Mayor and City Council are troubled to be identified with signing a letter showing support of their constituency, or the supposed “letter sent by the Grand Terrace City Council to the C.J.U.S.D. members of the Board of Trustees” is a fraud.
You bet this subject matter is absolutely relevant in deciding who should remain in office and who should be removed.
Silence DoGoodie
http://www.infowars.com/
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Who are you and why are you so intent on not actually helping? You sure have alot to say, but have you contacted anyone to find out what you could actually "do" to take action? You are FULL of words, and I believe a distraction to this Blog. We are here to actually do something ourselves whether we have city backing or not. Get off your bottom and DO something or stop all your lip service.
Brenda B.
Brenda B. and all readers/bloggers:
Words are how this great country started - words and the recognition of injustice. That is what I see Silence DoGoodie representing and this person’s - and our - free speech is stated in powerful words in the first amendment. I can understand your angst but I believe that being here and helping to inform the public in this and other venues is just as important as what you and I are doing to affect change in our community. What happens, neighbor, if the effort to change the high school name doesn’t bring about the desired result (in which I believe, also)? Does the stirring of the people to take charge within our community wither away into nothingness? Does it just die, or do the people start to stand up for responsible government, representatives that truly represent us and our wishes?! This stirring dialogue as a community is exciting but I’m concerned there may be a terrible let down in the end. I want the best for this community, for my neighbors, for my family. Let’s not kill the messenger just because you might not like what Silence DoGoodie says.
We’re all working in different ways. Your remark to Silence DoGoodie to get off your bottom and DO something or stop all your lip service is a bit short sighted in what ideas this person has brought to the blog. I am a person of action as well as words; just because you aren’t aware of my actions doesn’t mean I’m not active. I believe that of Silence Dogoodie, as well.
I comprehend your sentiment, but don’t direct your negative diatribe toward someone who is a legitimate contributor. It’s clear that Silence DoGoodie is on the side of justice, which in this case has not been done, indicative of a pattern of disrespect that permeates the CJUSD School Board for Grand Terrace residents. But I believe that the injustice goes deeper than naming a high school after a man who is remembered as unenthusiastic at best toward this community. I appreciate the administrator of this blog for continuing to allow Silence DoGoodie to post. I look forward to more posts as they make me consider the issue of naming the high school in a broader respect but in direct relation to my community. I find DoGoodie’s words to be informative and empowering at a time when we as a community and a nation feel powerless.
Please don’t attack anyone on the blog, but read and respect everyone’s words as important - each of us has taken the time to write them and those words are, at the very least, important to the writer.
Keep up the good fight!
Lea Diaz
People that put their two cents in but take no action hinder the cause. They, like many elected leaders, like to tell people what to do and are always stirring up the pot.
Just because someone doesn’t discuss their actions with this group doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing anything.
You’re making a prejudgment about someone who voiced their opinion and you don’t even know what they’re doing behind the scenes.
What is wrong with you people! You’re the type that cause problems within the movement itself!
SHUT-UP!
Tom Hanson
Let's all take a deep breath and smile.
We have all waited for this high school for a long time. They were talking about it when my daughter was in high school. We have Colton,and Redlands high and we should have Grand Terrace high also. We are proud of where we live. I want to see my grand daughters go to GRAND TERRACE HIGH.
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