What folly have they been up to instead? Brainstorming creative ways to destroy the highest performing school in the district. The school at issue - North Star Academy - is a free public 3rd-8th grade school serving highly capable students from all across the district. It was recently ranked as #1 Elementary School in California, was a National Blue Ribbon School in 2018, has succeed in its current form for a quarter of a century since its founding in 1997, serves 52% minority students per US News, and has extraordinary family satisfaction (and financial support) in in its current form. As Superintendent Baker summarized this week: “In the past 25 years, North Star has provided an excellent education to thousands of students who benefit from the compacted curriculum combined with enrichment.” Yet somehow, with straight faces, the School Board recently voiced unanimously about about this single success story: “The status quo is not an option.” Huh?
Did the Board somehow miss what happened in San Francisco? Urgent learning crisis for the students + Board distracted with a non-urgent renaming project = MASSIVE RECALL. The Redwood City Board is repeating this playbook, seemingly on purpose.
The Redwood City School Board covered the devastating Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 student performance assessment results in single late night powerpoint presentations, with no substantive Board discussion or action plan. Not even any measurable hang-wringing, and certainly no to call to action or devotion of time and resources to solving the widespread academic crisis. Yet, so far in 2022, the same School Board has dedicated two lengthy public meetings, a full private Board working session and eight - yes 8! - lengthy District committee meetings to spit-balling how to “fix” the single school in the district that is not broken. Have they no shame? Is this really what they were elected to do?
What a joke the Redwood City School Board would be if its sole achievement for 2022 is breaking apart the #1 Elementary School in California. All while the neediest kids’ schools fail around them.
The Redwood City School Board must immediately stop wasting time and resources on this foolishness. Leave well enough alone at North Star and get back to the real work of serving the kids and schools that need it most, before the community must follow SF’s recall lead.
