Letters to the Editor 12-19-13

Stabilizing enrollment
Editor: In order to effectively govern and support our local high schools, the Board of Trustees and administration of the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) look forward to continuing to partner with students, parents, teachers and other interested community members. We are invested in working collaboratively to capitalize on the unique strengths of our schools and enhance programming throughout the district.
The declining enrollment at El Molino High School has been discussed at several school board meetings in recent years. It is, very clearly, one of the most pressing issues facing our school district. In an effort to collect information about the issue and to better understand the long-term effects, WSCUHSD commissioned an Enrollment Projection Study. The final report provided a projection of student enrollment at Analy and El Molino High Schools over the next 10 years and identified some potential strategies that could be considered to address the projected declining enrollment.
The report cites several examples of changing demographics and declining enrollment at local feeder schools that could have an effect on the overall distribution of students in the next decade. Its broad conclusion was that, in order to ensure an adequate student population, El Molino High School would need to attract interdistrict transfers to the campus. The intention of the report was to provide a platform to launch a community dialogue with all interested stakeholders so that we can, together, develop strategies that will support strong enrollment at our local high schools.
Highlighted in the report was the fact that both Analy and El Molino High Schools surpass the Sonoma County average in the number of young people taking and passing Advanced Placement Exams. High percentages of students at both El Molino and Analy do very well on SAT exams and both schools achieve competitive Academic Performance Index scores.
The Board of Trustees and the District Administration are committed to maintaining equitable opportunities for a quality education at our local high schools. The District is not considering consolidating high schools, which would require additional busing for hundreds of students and necessitate turning away interdistrict transfers at a significant revenue loss to West County high schools. However, we are well aware that creative, innovative and student-focused strategies are needed to stabilize enrollment and support our students.
We invite everyone in the West County to work along side us as we develop and implement these strategies. We are hosting a Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees on Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the El Molino High School library in an effort to hear from the community and engage in a dialogue around this issue.
We believe that our students and our schools represent the future of our community. Join us as we embark together to chart the course that will support the health and success of every young person in West Sonoma County.
WSCUHSD Board of Trustees and Superintendent
Legos and General Plans
Editor: I’m trying to understand. The Sebastopol Council is planning a General Plan update. It will cost about $400,000. In preparation the Council has proclaimed it will not utilize the talents of City Planning Director Kenyon Webster.
Mr. Webster, a city employee for years, is paid approximately $115,000 a year to do what? Oh … plan. He is a “Planning Director,” one who plans. As such, he might have some things desperately needed by the council. The things are called, loosely, “ideas.”
I guess he learned the “idea” stuff in college or somewhere.
Anyway, if the Sebastopol Council is looking for really progressive, out-of-the-box, West County thoughts from folks, I have two really young grandsons who are experts at Legos. If the Council is willing to pay a handsome per diem and day care for each, I’ll send them around for an interview.
My guess is that they are more creative than Sarah Gurney, Robert Jacob and Helen Shane. I know, I know. Shane’s not on the council. She just runs the town.
Do not unbuckle your seatbelt. The carnival ride is about to resume.
Ed LaFrance
Sebastopol
Unnecessary enforcement
Editor: What is going on with Sebastopol police? Since this otherwise wonderful town became my home in 2010, I have been arrested when I was likely a victim (drugged while out dancing and picked up for “public drunkenness”) and been stopped multiple times while walking home at night. A bicycle traveler was hassled on his way to sleeping on my floor during a cold night. Other friends have been stopped without provocation: a Hispanic friend was asked what gang he was in, a black friend was asked if he was a murderer, and too many others have similar stories.
Not all our officers are excessive. I’ve seen them show lenience. But nowhere in my extensive travels have I encountered police so consistently intrusive. When walking home, I’m more concerned about being waylaid by them than by guys on dark corners.
How can we ensure that peaceful people travel unmolested? Do we abolish quotas? Downsize the department? Redirect its focus? It can’t be good for officers, either, to interact with everyone as suspects first, citizens second. How can we free up our peace officers to do what they signed on for (and what we pay them for): to serve and protect us?
Jessica Kristine
Sebastopol
Predatory lending
Editor: The start of predatory lending from major banks began when the housing market crashed in September 2008. At the end of the Bush Administration, the Latino community was the highest population targeted for subprime lending. Subprime lending are loans that are in the riskiest category of consumer loans and predatory lending is the fraudulent practices of lenders during the loan origination process. Latinos received high-cost loans three times the rates of whites because major banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase thought that they could get away with it. These banks made it extremely difficult for any one person applying for a home loan to follow, hence so many foreclosures and lack of payment on these homes.
Across California, the number of foreclosures on the Latino communities has been increasing since 2008. Although home foreclosures are decreasing today, there still seems to be a great percentage of Latinos being foreclosed on in Sonoma County. A fellow Sonoma State student did the research on Latinos and foreclosures in the North Bay in 2010, when the housing crisis began. He found that in Sonoma County the last three months of 2009, out of 636 foreclosures, 203 were Hispanic families. Latinos represented nearly half of the foreclosures in 2009 and are still relatively high in 2013. According to Sonoma County records, as of the end of October 2013, there were a total of 426 home foreclosures in Sonoma County and that 11 percent of the foreclosures were Latino families.
The percentage has been decreasing since 2009, but Latinos are still among the communities that are being targeted due in part to language barriers, illegal undocumented worker status, families with little or no credit and inexperience in home buying.
Latinos end up owing more on their homes than what the actual cost of the home is. The end result of predatory lending that has been done has made it difficult for anyone a victim of it to ever be able to pay back the loans. The lender feels no remorse or risk because nothing affects them and they hold the homes as collateral on the loans.
It comes as a shock that after all the news about subprime and predatory lending, that this is still happening in 2013. This definitely makes it more difficult to get out of the housing crisis.
What people need to do to avoid ever getting caught in problems that would lead them to a home foreclosure is to get educated in the matter before ever signing up for a loan. Make sure that if you ever consider going through with a loan, that you have the money to pay it back.
Now that there is news about the effects of subprime lending, I would hope that people become more aware of what they may be getting themselves into and avoid any major bank lenders that could prey on them with these tricky loan setups, because once a notice of default has been posted — the first step towards a home foreclosure — it is very tricky to get yourself out of any sort of major debt crisis.
Ashlie Gage
Sonoma State University