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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comments IOJ2JJ Jot&, -P~bHc. COI\1Merri:s L+r .-ewcl@'~ ~rOM ~cby~ Good evening Mayor Padilla and city council members. \+r9~'MCl1. My name is Robyn Higginson and I am a third grade teacher at Sunnyside Elementary School. I am the Vice President of Chula Vista Educators, a teachers' association with over 1,200 members, and the proud granddaughter of the late and former mayor of National City, Thelma Hollingsworth who also served as city councilwoman for many years. My grandmother, in these capacities, supported public education in every way possible. It was primarily from my grandmother that I grew up valuing education, which inspired me to make, teaching my life's work. Tonight I come here to speak to you as a teacher and as an individual. My colleagues and I, in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, work hard to increase student academic learning and make gains in their work toward meeting the California academic standards. We are appalled at the recent comments, made by the mayor, about our schools. I went to the latest school board meeting to thank the school board members for acknowledging teachers of the Chula Vista Elementary School District for their hard work and efforts toward increasing student learning and achieving higher test scores. I also thanked the school board for their continued support and accessibility. I then brought up the issue about the misleading information that was sent out to our communities, and I asked them the same question I am going to ask you tonight. Almost two weeks ago an article, by Frank Pruett, was in The Star News. This article quoted the candidates for the upcoming mayoral election. In this article he quoted the current mayor. The mayor indicated that we were a "Failing school district with 55% of the students not meeting proficiency standards. This statement and article contained false and misleading information and was hurtful to the students, teachers, parents, and volunteers (who are also voters in this community), the school community, business community, and especially the realtors. How could a mayor disparage the schools of his own city? The facts are that even though we have more English Learners we outscored the state average in English Language Arts and Mathematics. . 33.4% of the students in our district are English Learners compared to the state average of25.2% . We are measured in two different ways. . The federal measurement is the A yP or Adequate Yearly Progress. o 47.4% of our students are proficient in English Language Arts compared to the state average of 44.9% o 56.8% of our students are proficient in Mathematics compared to the state average of 48.1 % . The State of California uses the API or Academic Performance Index to assess student achievement. o Our API gain was 22 points which is double that of the state average and San Diego County's average both of which only had an 11 point gain. . 88% ofthe Chula Vista schools have met all target group goals - compared to the county average of 77% and the state average of 72% I am here tonight to ask the city council to refute the mayor's false statements. It is unimaginable that a mayor would malign our schools for his own political purposes. I also ask that this council ask the mayor to refrain from making derogatory and untrue statements regarding his own school district. Thank you very much for taking time to listen to my concerns.