Letters to the Editor
Time to clean RUSD house from top down
If you haven’t noticed, Ramona Unified School District is melting down. A manifest failure of the administration and school board to keep the district solvent.
Here are a few examples of what’s gone wrong at RUSD. Robert Graeff, superintendent, earns considerably more than the mayor of San Diego, with a population of almost 1.5 million people. There are a bevy of administrators with advanced degrees and huge salaries that never venture into the classroom. And don’t forget the $25 million debt incurred for all the new buildings, soon coming due. Something is terribly wrong at RUSD.
The district officers have failed to foresee that the state has been technically insolvent for more than 10 years, and yet we award them with large salaries and pensions. The school board appears stuck in a bad management cycle where they keep laying off the lowest paid workers and teachers while the bloated administration sucks up the few funds left.
In my view it’s time to clean house from the top down. The first order of business needs to be reorganization of the district removing most administrators who aren’t in the classroom 100 percent of their time. Slashing the salaries of the upper echelons. The last thing they should do is remove teachers.
All concerned citizens should attend the next school board meeting on May 8 at 7 p.m., and demand that the mess be fixed starting from the top down, not on the backs of those who do the good work in the classroom.
Dave Patterson, Ramona
Different viewpoint of middle school teacher
I saw the segment on the news regarding Mr. Hall at Olive Peirce Middle School and I would like to enter a different and very opposite viewpoint.
Mr. Hall stays at lunch and after school every day making himself available for tutoring to anyone who needs it in any class. Often I think the kids are there just to be with him because they like him. He engages and challenges them, he encourages them, he cheers their success, and he reprimands them when they goof off. He is very involved in the student Associated Student Body projects and helps organize their dances and activities. Those are things a good teacher does.
He is very straightforward and teaches kids about consequences. He actually calls parents regularly to inform them of upcoming tests or bad grades or behavior. This is a teacher who is excellent at what he does and truly cares about kids.
My daughter went from B’s and C’s to straight A’s, as he has tutored her and she is as proud as can be. He is her favorite teacher and was poorly represented on the news.
I think it was very unfair for a kid to secretly record him when he knew he was about to be reprimanded for reportedly hitting a girl and then for his mom to talk to the news rather than dealing with this in house. This boy has been in trouble before, but his mom didn’t share that information with all of San Diego, did she?
Was Mr. Hall frustrated? Yes. Did he want to get the kid’s attention since this was not the first time he had been in trouble? Yes. Did he say he was actually going to hit him? Of course not; but his confrontational language might have woken the boy up and perhaps kept him out of trouble down the road. This mother should have been thankful that someone cared enough to intervene. Instead her son is portrayed as the victim.
I just felt this reporter should have interviewed other people to be fair to the teacher instead of potentially ruining his reputation in the community without hearing the whole story.
Kim Vermeulen,
Ramona
Editor’s Note:
This letter is in response to a television newscast aired last Tuesday.Good Samaritans, officer
help in treacherous spot
I wanted to say a huge thank you to some good Samaritans and Officer Fuentes of the Escondido Police Department who helped me get out of a very treacherous situation.
My car was stalled on a dangerous turn on San Vicente on Sunday night, April 29. One car stopped in front of me, and three or four cars stopped behind me to warn traffic and keep me safe.
My family and I are forever grateful for your help and Christian words of encouragement. I don’t even want to think of what could have happened to us if you had not stopped to help me and calm me. Thank you so much.
Kathy Dennis,
Ramona
Family gratefulfor wonderful teacher
I just wanted to let Ramona know what a truly wonderful teacher Mr. Ken Hall is. If it wasn’t for Mr. Hall my nephew would not be passing the seventh grade.
My family took my nephew in this past January because he was failing most/all of his classes at his past school. Mr. Hall took the task on to “rehab” my nephew and tutor him back from the brink of failure. I just received his report card and
wow
- His grades went from failure to 1-C, 1-A, and the rest were B’s.
Mr. Hall worked with my nephew every day till 4:30 since January and I just felt the need to express my deepest gratitude. If my nephew didn’t have Mr. Hall, I’m afraid he wouldn’t be passing the seventh grade today. My entire family will forever be grateful. Thank you!
Catrina Jensen,
Ramona