Supportive community
EDITOR: After 25 years of teaching in the Cloverdale Unified School District, I think I have a pretty good knowledge of the Cloverdale community. I feel I need to respond to school board member Todd Lands’ comments in the December 15 issue of the Reveille. I think he was only referring to attendance at school board meetings, but he made some comments that may lead readers to believe that employees of the school district do not put students’ interests first, and the Cloverdale community does not support its schools.
Based on my experience, I would like to offer my observations. I have worked incredibly hard in this district to foster students’ academic achievement and I care deeply about their success and growth. I have also found this to be true among the employees in the district: the teachers, the classified staff, the administrators and the school board. His statements imply that teachers and administrators are more concerned with their own concerns rather than focusing on students first.
I find this to not only be false, but an attack on the integrity of the people working in the district. The employees do care about the students’ development, success and overall well-being. Mr. Lands also expressed frustration with what he described as “zero community involvement.” I wonder what the Kiwanis Club would have to say about this? Or the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Boosters, the American Legion, the American Association of University Women, the Alexander Valley Film Society, the CARE Foundation, the many local businesses who continually support school programs, parents who drive to athletic events or field trip destinations, parents helping their children with their homework, or the countless other individuals and organizations that I haven’t mentioned by name?
I have reached out many times to this community, and I don’t recall ever being told no. I don’t even remember being told maybe. It’s always, “Yes, how can I help?”
I understand his frustration seeing empty chairs at board meetings, but people find their own ways to support the students. Can the school district and the Cloverdale community improve? Of course. No matter how good something is, there is always room for growth. What I would like to make clear is that the people serving the students in your school district are dedicated and hard working, and the Cloverdale community is a wonderfully supportive, caring place to live. I feel incredibly fortunate and privileged to be a part of this community.
Joe Dobbins
Windsor resident (Cloverdale teacher)
Affordable housing
EDITOR: I was so happy we were finally getting affordable housing here, as I know a few people trying to find a place they could afford in Cloverdale. I was quite dismayed to find out this fall that the new affordable apartments just built near Thyme Square are only for farm workers. That seems rather exclusive to me. Does this also include yard and landscaping work? How can this discrimination be legal? Was I the only one who was shocked at this? Maybe others knew of this all along but I felt a lack of transparency at the city level.
Mardi Grainger
Cloverdale
Non-discrimination at Cloverdale Performing Arts Center
All of us at Cloverdale Performing Arts Center care deeply that our theater has always been a safe and welcoming place for people of all kinds. We do not and will never discriminate based on one’s country of origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, race or skin color. Recent events around the world, our country and sadly even in our beautiful community, have targeted certain groups of people for no other reason than that they look or sound different, worship in another way, or love a person of the same gender. Let’s work together to prevent that from happening here. We are all of the same human family and all of us deserve each other’s respect, understanding and compassion.
The Board of Directors and Staff of the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center
