Events Cancelled Due To Permanent Class Size Increase:
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May 20, 2010
RBV Students, Staff, Parents and Community:
I have received several questions about our last Think Tank of this year that was scheduled for Monday, May 24, so I am sending this announcement to all.
The last Think Tank of the year that Erica Glennon and I have organized was scheduled to take place on Monday evening. Our hope was to hold at least one more Think Tank this year. As many of you know, our Think Tank which occurred on the evening of March 8th attracted over 200 students who came to hear speakers present on “Putting Your Passion IntoAction.” Students listened to the experiences of RBV alumna Rachel Forseth, who helped found the ONEkind Foundation, and Marva Bledsoe from the Women’s Resource Center. After hearing their stories, students were given an opportunity to consider their own passions and aspirations and to share action plans with the whole audience.
The topic for the May 24th Think Tank was to be the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Benefits of Service Learning. The students who took part in the service trip to Honduras were excited and passionate about sharing their experiences.
Sadly, we have chosen to cancel this planned event in light of the current issues surrounding the VUSD Board’s proposal for permanent class size increases.
As educators, we give of our time and energy every day, often well beyond the contractual obligations, because we believe in learning and want to facilitate the growth of the students we teach. We realize the power of enrichment activities that go outside of the classroom. But faced with 40 students in a class, we have to ask if we are teachers or simply agents put in charge of crowd control.
Please don’t get wary of the fight to protect and honor our profession. Though the cancellation of activities this year has been hard, silence is permission. We must continue to hold true to our principles and protect the value of what we do every day.
Sincerely,
Heather Golly and Erica Glennon
RBV International Baccalaureate Program
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Dear Parents, Students, and Community Members:
The RBV Link Crew Transition Program is a program in which 500-600 Freshmen students participate in order to help them transition to Rancho Buena Vista H.S. The staff members who run this program had been excited to continue it next year but, we regretfully need to inform you that the Link Crew Transition Program will be cancelled. It is our professional responsibility to both make you aware and explain our decision.
The two primary reasons for this cancellation are due to current changes in resources and a likely permanent class size increase. The original resource for this program was a Federal Funded Grant. This grant expires at the end of this school year. Due to the budget issues of our district, the school is unable to provide sufficient funds to run this program. While initially the intent was to continue the program through fundraisers, we have fallen short. With the increase in class size we believe we need to reprioritize how our time is spent to meet our professional responsibilities in the classroom. With much larger class sizes, the extra time it takes to organize enrichment activities outside a teacher’s contract day will take away from the preparation and grading time needed to be effective in the classroom. Until things change within our district, we cannot in good conscience continue to provide this extracurricular free service.
This was not an easy decision to make. The Link Crew Transition Program has been a powerful new tradition that brought upperclassmen and freshmen together.
Respectfully,
Tim Fay, Mark Bauer, and Amy Bailey
Link Crew Team
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Dear Parents, Students, and Community Members:
The RBV Poetry Slam is an event in which 25-30 student poets craft and perform original poetry in front of an audience of over 400 people. While we are very excited about the 9th annual RBV poetry slam on Wednesday, April 21st during period 3, we regretfully need to inform you that the Thursday evening, April 22nd poetry slam is cancelled. It is our professional responsibility to make you aware and explain our decision.
Due to current changes in resources and likely permanent class size increases, we believe we need to reprioritize how our time is spent to meet our professional responsibilities in the classroom. With much larger class sizes, the extra time it takes to organize enrichment activities outside a teacher’s contract day will take away from the preparation and grading time needed to be effective in the classroom. Until things change within our district, we cannot in good conscience continue to provide this extracurricular free service.
This was not an easy decision to make. The evening poetry slam has been a powerful tradition that brings parents and the community together to celebrate our writing students’ hard work and creativity.
Thank you for your understanding,
Tom Berger and Scott Bailey
RBV English
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March 15, 2010
Dear Rancho Parents,
The Rancho Buena Vista High School Social Studies Department has taken the entire 10th Grade (class of 800 students) to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles for many years. This field trip was borne from the passion of teachers dedicated to student enrichment beyond the required curriculum. Because this event extends beyond the regular school day, teachers have had to volunteer their time to attend or cover classes so others could attend. Some teachers have even had to pay additional child-care and other expenses to make this event happen.
Most Californians are aware of the current economic crisis but may not be aware of the impact on public schools. After cutting $12 million last year our District is faced with cutting another $18 million next year. To reach these cuts the District will impose pay cuts, lay-offs, an increase in the size of classes and fewer instructional days next year. Specifically, our District intends to eliminate ten Social Studies teaching positions at the high school level. Rancho has four retiring history teachers that will not be replaced and an additional three history teachers that were given lay-off notices last week.
It takes the collective effort and passion of twenty-three teachers in the Social Studies Department to make this and other activities occur. A loss of seven teachers out of a Social Studies Department of twenty-three would be devastating. The educational impact is so negative that we can no longer support all the added extra-curricular enrichment activities while our colleagues necessary to plan and conduct them are cast aside.
Therefore, I will not be attending the Museum of Tolerance field trip this year but the trip will still be conducted. The District will be sending someone to supervise the event and volunteer chaperones will be in attendance. Those students attending will be receiving dress and other conduct instructions along with departure and return times. Those students not attending the field trip will remain with me for normal instruction.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may create.
Respectfully,
Social Studies Teachers
Rancho Buena VistaHigh School
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May 11, 2010
Rancho Buena Vista Supporters of the Visual and Performing Arts:
The purpose of this letter is to provide information and an explanation about the cancellation of the Artsplash Chalk Day and Art Walk Festival scheduled for May, 2010 to students, staff, parents, and community.
These are challenging times for the Visual and Performing Arts as a whole in the Vista Unified School District. Our school board has planned unprecedented cuts, a portion of which will have a significant impact on the present and future arts programs. Programs that for many students are the motivating force behind their school attendance and success. The decisions that are being considered will permanently raise class sizes in all subjects district wide and make it difficult to provide students with the kind of attention needed to succeed, especially in arts classes that take place in a studio setting. There are numerous reasonable alternatives that have been provided to our school board that solve the budget crisis other than permanently raising class size. For these reasons, we cannot in good conscience continue to provide extracurricular activities such as the Artsplash Chalk Day and Art Walk Festival. The planning and organization of such an event takes a great deal of time well outside the scope of the instructional day.
Over the years this event has become an increasingly positive and popular celebration of the Arts at RBV, as well as an incredible learning experience for all stakeholders involved. We understand that students, teachers, parents, volunteers, guest artists, site administration, and community will be disappointed in the cancellation of this event. We hope that in the near future, the district will demonstrate its support for the arts in VUSD so that we may revive this popular event.
We thank you for your support in this difficult decision.
Sincerely,
The RBV Art Department
Doug Disney
Cherie Freddie
David Huff
Roger Royster
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Dear Parents, Students, and Community Members:
It with great regret that I announce the end of our monthly “Respect the Ranch Podcast,” built around stories and interviews of RBV staff and students. I started this project as a way of trying to connect such an large school through a creative and unique medium but I just find it impossible to sustain.
Given the current district climate and direction of negotiations and considering I've produced all of them for free on my own time with my own laptop, my own digital recorder, and too many late nights, I think it is time to end the project. Absurdly high PERMANENT class sizes simply means I have less time in the day to get things like this done for our campus. I wish it were different.
The podcasts are all still archived on the RBV web site as a record of almost a year of life at Rancho.
Sincerely,
Scott Bailey
RBV English Teacher
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