Parents Succeed in Preserving Sac High

In December, the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) Board dropped a proposal that would have forced 1,100 charter students to move off the Sac High campus to another site more than two miles away through a "campus swap" with West Campus (a district magnet school).

See news coverage.

Parents Mobilize to Speak Out

When the swap was first proposed in November, Families That Can held a student leadership workshop during lunch at Sac High where students suggested partnering with West Campus students to march in solidarity against the swap.

They did just that on Dec. 8 board meeting, over 60 Sac High and West Campus parents, students and teachers marched together to the board meeting. The group was greeted by news cameras and reporters, and many people spoke out during public comment with the message: "Don't mess with success!"

"We will work together. We have to. Our kids need to be here tonight to remind board members who it is they're supposed to be serving. This is wrong and messed up." - Xochitl Pasilla, West Campus parent

"They're doing this because they think they'll get away with it because they think no one's paying attention. We're paying attention - and this is not OK!" - Gladys Mitchell, St. Hope Parent

School Board Drops Proposal but It's Not Over Yet

On Dec. 8, the Board of Trustees decided to pull the "swap" from the table and some members even apologized for presenting the "solution" in the first place.

However, this isn't the first attack on Sac High and it won't be the last. Though the "swap" is off the table, SCUSD Board member Patrick Kennedy says that he would still like to explore how to "best utilize" the Sacramento High School campus, even though the campus is currently home to not only the 900+ high school students, but also the 170+ middle school students that attend St. Hope's PS7.

Sac High IS our neighborhood school

Up until 2003, Sac High was a traditional district school. It had low test scores and high drop-out rates when it was converted into Sacramento Charter High School, operated under St. Hope Public Schools. Test scores have increased, but more importantly, more students are graduating and attending 4-year universities at higher rates than ever before.

But still Boardmember Kennedy claims that his "community" (still unidentified) wants a comprehensive high school in Oak Park. Parents and students encouraged him to consider Sac High to be that "comprehensive neighborhood" high school - with the strong school spirit (and tradition), a nice facility, performing arts and strong athletics and academics.

One student asked the board member, "Sac High doesn't close its doors to any student, so why can't this be the 'neighborhood' school? We are a public school."

Another concerned St. Hope supporter asked Kennedy, "If you're not going to publicly support Sac High, who else is responsible for protecting these babies?"

St. Hope has plans to continue engaging their school community into 2012. Board member Kennedy has agreed to return to Sac High to answer many unanswered questions and continue dialogue with the real community affected - St. Hope parents, students, teachers, and supporters.

This experience has shown us how important it is to be united to stand up for our students and our schools.