HI,
Please forward this message this message to people in the community which value the education of their children and ask them to sign the petition.
Q&A on Middle College Program Cancellation:
Question #1: Why this all about?
San José Unified School District decided to cancel the Middle college program.
Question #2: why should I care on this?
The short answer: Because you care on your children education and the value of your property.
One of the reasons I’ve decided to live in San Jose was its great eduction system — and I’m not the only one.
Good education can be the difference between buying or no buying a house. What might happen: Closing Middle college —> Lowering the attractiveness of the city —> Lower property value —> Lower taxes -> Less services to the residents in the city —> Lowering the attractiveness of the city ...
Question #3: I guess Middle college is closed all in other districts as well
No
San Jose is the ONLY city in the bay are in which the middle college was canceled.
1. Campbell Union High School District (CHHSD) and Los Gatos/Saratoga high school district (LGSUHSD) share a 50 student middle college class in West Valley college.They have over 90 candidates for this program.
2. Fremont Unified School District (FUSD) has a 32 student middle college class in de Anza college, they have almost 60 candidates.
3. East San Jose Unified High School District (ESUHSD) has a class of 30 student middle college class in ACCEL middle college/Evergreen college. They have around 90 candidates.
4. Sequoia Unified High School District (SUHSD) has Middle college in San Mateo college, Skyline college,
5. South San Francisco City …..
Question #4: OK, I guess it’s a financial issue. Right?
No
SJUSD, which is the biggest school district in the bay area, has over 1,700 employees. The middle college program staff is 3 part time employees: 2 teachers and a administrator. It does not have to maintain the middle college classes, they are located on college campus. Beyond that, I had interaction with California education department and they wrote me in an email they have grants up to $250K for programs such as middle college programs. I shared that information with the district, did not made any difference
Question #5: Is it possible that the program was not appealing to students or a better program was offered?
No
In all the other districts I mentioned above, the number of applicants to the middle college program is at least double the number of the seats in the middle college class. These districts have special parents meeting to present the program on high school campuses. SJUSD never published the program, My son has joined the program almost by mistake and my daughter followed him, SJUSD claims that Dual Enrollment is a “better" program than Middle College Program
Question #6: so What wrong with Dual Enrollment (DE)? Can’t it replace Middle college (MC)?
No, DE can’t replace MC.
Middle college is 11th and 12th grade classes are located in the COLLEGE campus, the students do not attend high school at all (with the exception of graduation and some administration). The students have the benefit of accessing all the vast range of colleges courses offered to the rest of the students, They can “mix and match” classes required from the graduation with any course offered by the campus The class is homogenous — all the students are of the same age and they typically achievers who enjoy to learn with students who share their passion to knowledge. This program is really appealing to students from low income families who exposed to college education and build career (and same in the process thousands or dollars). Dual enrollment is a totally different program which comes in two flavors:
# On high school campus:
College-level course tutored by college teachers on the high school campus # On college campus: The high school students participate on college course on the college campus like “regular” 18+ year old student. So here is the problem: The DE classes offered on high school campus are quite limited: : American Sign Language, Mexican History and Japanese. No much of a decent choice.
The second option is practically impossible:
A high school student need to be on high school campus between 08:30 to 15:30. In order to attend college course he or she has to take either public transportation or car (if he has a license and comes from high income family) The issue of transportation was even mentioned on the board meeting discussion DE on college campus. —if he has driving license and his family can effort buying him a carwill learn on the college campus outside school schedule (08:30 to 15:30) Given driving or public transportation is required in order to get to college from high school , the student is limited to attend courses which start after 17:30 That rules out immediately the vast majority of the class , not to mention that the student will get home around 20:30-21:00.
The students will be disconnected from their age group and will be surrounded with students aged 18 and above. The was raised as question in the meeting, mentioning that the high school students will be “disconnected” . It can be claimed that Dual Enrollment might meets the need of some portion of the students but it definitely does not provide good replacement for middle college. My projection that the students might sign up to DE on high-school campus (which are quire limited) but the number of students who will sign th DE on college campus will be low
Question #7: What does SJUSD says when you approach them?
Nothing conclusive, their message is that Middle college is not required any more because there is a Dual Enrollment program which is better (which is definitely not, see previous questions) I even wrote an email to the superintendent list smilier message early this week, she did not bother to blink, her director of communication claims that he “issue is closed”
Question #8: Have you tried to discuss this with the trustees?
Yes
To tell you the truth, it seems that that the trustees were not part of the decision. The district staff simply informed them on its decision on a regular meeting during April 2022 on the cancellation of the middle college while the school district actually decided on this matter not later than January 2022. The entire issue was mentioned in the context of agreement with college district which was marked as INFORMATIONAL on the agenda, the trustees asked several questions but there wasn’t even a vote on the matter, A district staff member told them clearly they do not need to vote on the issue. (The agenda did not reflected the issue so parents were not aware on the closure) I approached them recently and they copy/paste the response provided by the district. I noted myself to make sure that the voters of the trustees will be aware to their incompetence next time they will run to public position.
Question #9: What other parents thinks on this issue?
A the decision of the district was not shared with the public (it was not even reflected on the agenda as required by Brown Law) , the public was not aware to this decision. Given that the district did not present the program in parent meeting like other districts, the awareness of the parents to the program was not high Once the issue flushed, 200 parents signed a petition to reinstate the middle college immediately https://chng.it/rQb7c6SwbP I have shared the petition with the district and the trustees but did not make any difference.
Question #10: What can parents do? This is a political issue in which the public representative are not doing their job. The best way to deal with this it ask them about it. You can find your board member reprinting you is per the school in his or her area. The board members are listed here: https://www.sjusd.org/who-we-are/board-members/board-members/4396/