There's a chill in the air and I'm loving it. Having transplanted from Maine, I adore this weather.
I've been away from the blog for a couple of weeks, but am now back in rare form. I do want to mention a 'high five" to our own Uber Garden Maven and her nice article a week ago. Fine job Dawn. A very nice positive for our Pomona. Keep up the great work.
I am very disturbed about the news this week of the firing of Capt. Romero. I am left speechless! Is Pomona going Feudal??? Please let me know someone as I can dig out my old Renaissance dresses and get ready for the josting contests at the Chamber meetings. This is insane. I dug out my little crystal ball to see what the future holds for my dear Pomona, alas - the view is murky. Perhaps some fine wine will help clear up my vision. As I said in a prior post - just waiting for the other shoe to fall.
I do have to take the time to answer Ed's inquiry as to the schooling situation. It's call NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND or NCLB as the teachers refer to it. After raising 5 of my own, I discovered God has a sense of humor. Instead of basking in the glory of old age, I am raising 2 grandchildren. And believe me...I'm keeping up with young mommas.
I discovered to my dismay that here in north Pomona, our elementary schools only go to grade 5. Middle schools are grades 6, 7 and 8. I really felt that I wanted the oldest to continue in an elementary environment for at least another year. If one ventures to the PUSD website, one will find posted all the API scores for our school district. Diamond Bar is split between Pomona Unified and Walnut. One of the elementary schools in our district is Golden Springs Elementary. Which I am jazzed to say has an API rating of 912. Palomares at last check was somewhere in the 300's. (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). For me it was a no brainer and was I fortunate to be able to get the children placed in that school taking advantage of the No Child Left Behind rule. It exists for a reason, one just has to take advantage of it.
What we are seeing now over in Diamond Bar/Pomona is that there are so many kids wanting to take advantage of the amazing school programs, that we are now in lotteries. I imagine that shortly we will see tuition for public schools - it's not far away. That is why I am so happy to see Golden Springs going K-8. It's the way life should be. I will also say that I think Abraham Lincoln is an amazing school with a fine principal. It's scores are high enough not to be considered NCLB.
And now my fave subject - THE FOX! You are looking so marvelous dahlink! Love, love, love the colors on the marquee! Had a nice chat with John recently at the wine bar and the progress and plans are amazing. So excited to see her in full bloom again. Maybe someone could dress up as Greta Garbo and drop on by at the opening. Super exciting! Well done all!
Until next time,
ciao
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2 comments:
I'm completely with ya on the benefits of k-8. It doesn't take a genius to look at the middle school scores and realize we have a problem. Even high performing districts show a drop in those grades. Glad to hear your enjoying it up on the hill. I wish we could rely on our neighborhood schools, but the years of neglect will take years to recover from.
Yes Ed, it is sad. Proudly, Abraham Lincoln has lifted up it's API scores and is no longer an NCLB school. I'm also hearing that Ganisha is doing well and may no longer be NCLB in the near future.
One of the problems that I have always felt needed addressing was after/before school tutoring.
Our Lorabeer student was failing in Algebra. She was LOST! And don't look at me, I only remembered enough Algebra in order to pass my CBEST. How amazed was I to learn that she could get one on one tutoring every morning from her Algebra teacher. Of course it meant being at school at 7 every morning. Her grade shot from F to B- in 4 weeks. She now has proudly been moved up to being a student tutor for Algebra. Why can't we do this over here??
We need to let our kids know that all is attainable...it's the understanding of how that messes them up.
ciao
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