Palos Verdes school year begins with heat, challenges
Soleado Elementary School Principal Kevin Allen greets parents as they pick their kids up from school each day. Photo by David Rosenfeld
Principals across the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District were forced to make tough decisions over the summer as the pie of available resources shrunk even further this year.
Classroom sizes got a little bigger. Programs were cut in some areas. And teachers are innovating more than ever.
Now that the school year began last week as the summer heat still lingered in the air, Easy Reader spoke to three principals, one each at a grade school, middle school and high school as a preview for the upcoming year.
For the first time since the school’s inception, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School will no longer have an academic decathlon program this year. Students may still try and revive the program as a club, but it became too expensive under the current budget climate, said Principal Mitzi Cress.
Over the summer, Cress was left with the unenviable position of eliminating 16 periods among 2,500 students. The school is losing its surfing program this year and a period each of science research, math tutoring, journalism and yearbook among other reductions. Some classrooms too have more than 40 students.
“They were tough decisions,” Cress said. “I’d like to bring these programs back, but if we don’t see a change in Sacramento and more funding coming, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Voters decide in November whether to increase the state’s sales tax and those of upper income earners just to keep budgets at their current levels. Parents have stepped up to fill many of the gaps in the past, but this year may prove more difficult to continue asking for help, Cress said.
“We have the most supportive and generous families, but they are hurting too,” Cress said. “We just keep asking, and the well is running dry.”
Meanwhile, Peninsula High is celebrating the completion of several new buildings and a soon-to-be completed swimming pool in December. Among the multi-million dollar improvements are a new practice gymnasium, music room and permanent bathroom facilities at the football and soccer field; all were funded predominantly through a bond measure that can only be used for capital improvements.
“It’s kind of crazy because we’re in such a terrible state in education with finances, but there is this money set aside for buildings,” Cress said, who also stressed how important the improvements were.
With about $3 million left in the kitty, the school is approaching district officials this week for approval to use the remaining funds to build a new weight room and six permanent classrooms to replace the existing portables.
At Soleado Elementary School, Principal Kevin Allen was busy memorizing the names of 100 new kindergarten students. Allen makes it a point to remember every student’s name along with their parents he greets in the morning and the afternoon. This year, Allen said he’s especially worried about the budget.
“We’re already running on a shoestring,” Allen said. “You have to wonder how much deeper can we cut.”
Soleado currently receives zero funding for supplies such as paper and pens. Instead, the family of each parent is asked to pay $60 at the beginning of each school year. The school is also coping this year with one less teacher.
“Our families are so generous,” Allen said. “We couldn’t do it without them being willing to step up and volunteer their time and open their pocketbooks to help us. I don’t know how they do this in other places where they can’t.”
The budget cuts haven’t stopped Allen from innovating. The students at Soleado this year are embarking on an exciting project that will let them communicate with astronauts on the International Space Station through Ham radio technology.
Soleado joined 1,500 schools globally as the only school in Los Angeles to participate in the NASA program.
“It’s pretty exciting stuff,” Allen said.
Over at Ridgecrest Intermediate School, Principal Brent Kuykendall said he’s excited to step into some new shoes. Kuykendall grew up in Palos Verdes, attended Ridgecrest as a student, taught at the school for 10 years and has now returned as the school’s principal after a stint as vice principal at Palos Verdes High School.
“It’s kind of like a little homecoming,” Kuykendall said. “It’s nice knowing a lot of people. I understand the culture here.”
He said he enjoys dealing directly with curriculum rather than the role as largely an enforcer he played as vice principal at the high school. The challenge is preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist yet, he said.
“It’s not so much necessarily knowing the facts,” he said. “It’s having the problem solving strategies and collaboration skills to be able to be put in a room without knowing what the issue is so that when they get there they can work with other people, figure out the problem and help with the solution.” ER