Comments on: Former Mt. Diablo High teacher ascends to highest state education office

By: Jules

Jules — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:50:31 +0000

Yes Linda Mayo is from Pleasant Hill. It is too bad that a Walnut Creek resident did not run for one of the BOE positions.

By: KarenM

KarenM — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:59:46 +0000

And is Linda Mayo from Pleasant Hill?

By: tharrington

tharrington — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:15:32 +0000

Karen, there were no Walnut Creek candidates in the last MDUSD board election. The challengers were all from Concord and Clayton.

By: KarenM

KarenM — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:36:43 +0000

Ruth – during the last school board election in November, were any of the candidates from Walnut Creek? I’m sorry I don’t remember …

By: Ruth Carver

Ruth Carver — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:52:28 +0000

Hi Jim (#8),
Tom Torlakson said that he plans to consolidate small school districts “actively.” I wish him luck, since the process has gone at glacial pace, and frequent change of political direction, since California first started after WWII. But if he’s successful, then the current Walnut Creek School District should be consolidated because it’s too small. There are 2 options: (1) create a Acalanes Unified (K-12) district with Orinda, Moraga, etc. and/or (2) finally create a Walnut Creek Unified (K-12) district. Obviously the latter option makes more sense for our city.
Torlakson didn’t use the term “economies of scale” but that’s his goal. Experts agree that the ideal medium size for a school district is about 10,000 students, and it becomes impossibly inefficient with over 30,000 students. MDUSD is over 30K and expected to add thousands more with the Concord Naval Weapons Development. I interned 30 years ago with Judge Egly during LAUSD’s busing lawsuit, and I personally saw the problems of a large district! If Walnut Creek were unified, it would be the ideal size.
As far as saving money, the WCSTN 2008 petition to add our half of Walnut Creek to the current WCSD and Acalanes would have added MILLIONS per year (estimated 4 million) to our city schools, because our area would have automatically been added to their parcel taxes. After our petition was denied, myself and other WCSTN veterans actively campaigned for the Measure D parcel tax, which was supported by Walnut Creek but not by other MDUSD cities and therefore defeated. Now Torlakson seems to be saying that every district should have a parcel tax, but it’s just not happening in MDUSD, his own district according to news reports that he’s a MDHS teacher on leave of absence.
To recap, our city is divided by a nonsensical district boundary that actually goes around 3 sides of one house! On the Acalanes side of town teachers are paid $25,000 more than on the MDUSD side of town. Soon we may lose another week of instruction time, and we’re facing school closures. No one can remember the last time a Walnut Creek resident was on the MDUSD board. The list goes on…
Walnut Creek citizens never have been able to vote on our school district. The Legislature has attempted to simplify the procedure, but you’re right, this county is anti-reform and won’t let it happen. I hope someday the politicians finally will allow Walnut Creek to vote on this issue.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:14:18 +0000

Tom Barnidge once again hit the nail on the head, as he so often does. After being termed out of his previous positions, Torlakson, like our new Governor, needed a new job — preferably one with state-wide visibility and a nice pension — and the electorate obliged. Torlakson could make this position visible, and therefore possibly important, if we were willing to tackle some of the big education questions, but those involve wading into dangerous political waters — not likely given his past, or the new appointees to the State Board of Ed. This new crowd is about as “status quo” as you can get. Appointing Honig required a particular level of chutzpah. That, or a general indifference to the state of education in California, which has explained the actions of too many of our politicians of late.

By: tharrington

tharrington — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:24:51 +0000

Also, here’s the list of Governor Brown’s State Board of Education appointments: http://bit.ly/gdfhU9.
What do you think?

By: tharrington

tharrington — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:36:11 +0000

FYI, Torlakson will hold a news conference tomorrow morning to discuss the “fiscal crisis in California schools.” I’ll listen in and let you know what he says.

By: tharrington

tharrington — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:29:43 +0000

Thanks for sharing your perspectives.
What’s your reaction to CCT columnist Tom Barnidge’s column questioning how much power Torlakson will have to make changes? http://bit.ly/dW17iT

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:20:57 +0000

I suspect that Torlakson was referring in his campaign to small districts combining to eliminate duplicative administrative roles. The letter to the Times was referring to shifting the Northgate area schools from MDUSD to Walnut Creek Schools. As much as I would like to see that happen, it wouldn’t really eliminate much expense — just shift it feom one district to another. Under CA laws and practices, it is very very hard to shift boundaries like that, if the district that is giving up the students (MDUSD in this case) opposes the change. I can’t see Torlakson stirring up that hornet’s nest, particularly given his many ties to MDUSD.