The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Parents organize, voice concerns to trustees

By Steve Enders

A group of parents addressed the Sunnyvale School District board at Thursday night's meeting, expressing their concerns about the state of their children's schools.

Calling themselves SPEEQ, Sunnyvale Parents Enhancing Educational Quality, the group told the board they wanted two demands met: make educational excellence a top priority in the district and reopen Hollenbeck Elementary School.

Cheryl Boone, one of about 30 SPEEQ members, wants the district to see that its schools rank in the country's top 50.

"In this area, the parents are highly educated, so we want the kids to be highly educated as well," she said. "We want to work with the board on this. We want them to hear us."

Creating strict educational standards and paying attention to neighboring districts like Cupertino, which she believes has had greater success academically will help, she said.

Group members took it upon themselves to circulate a questionnaire around the Hollenbeck neighborhood, looking for support to reopen Hollenbeck School. They say that since the district is using demographic data from the 1990 census, its decision not to reopen Hollenbeck is misguided and out of touch with the current neighborhood demographics.

Also, they say that many of the parents in the neighborhood are choosing to send their children to private schools in Los Altos--something that shouldn't be necessary when there are public schools nearby.

Boone said that the state-funded 20-to-1 class size has taken away special programs including art, foreign languages and sports, and has cramped space in the existing schools. Reopening Hollenbeck, she said, would cost as much as building new portables and would allow for room to teach those special programs.

Currently, most SPEEQ members send their kids to Cherry Chase and Cumberland. They say that their kids would benefit socially and would be convenienced by a neighborhood school like Hollenbeck.

About 100 parents filled out the survey, and SPEEQ says that about 80 said they would send their kids to Hollenbeck if it were reopened. Challenger Preschool rents the space now, and SPEEQ claims that the district doesn't want to reopen it because it would lose the money generated by the tenant's lease.

Joseph Rudnicki, the district's superintendent, said that he and the board were aware of the group and weren't surprised by it coming to the trustees.

"I responded to them immediately," he said in response to allegations that the district had dragged its feet in meeting the needs of the group.

He said that the district reopened Fairwood School on the north side of Sunnyvale because that's where more schools are needed.

"If you look at the history of Sunnyvale, there are 10 schools that are relatively equally separated, which was what was needed when they were built in 1950," Rudnicki said. "Now the population has shifted to the north." If any school should be reopened, he said, it should be on that side of the city. The south end, where Hollenbeck is, doesn't need another school, he added.

As for working with the group to raise the standard of education in the district, Rudnicki said, "I'm all for it. I couldn't agree more." He said that the district has a strategic plan to tackle that issue and hopefully raise standardized test scores.

At Thursday's meeting, Rudnicki and board member Ray Kiddy thanked the parents but urged them to lobby state legislators as well, since they have the most power to change education.

"The district doesn't just joyously go about making the cuts it's made," Rudnicki told the parents. "They've gone through great odds to create a diamond in the rough. We need to come together and overcome these tremendous complexities."

After the meeting, he said, "We are moving forward. Unfortunately, they keep changing the tests in the state." He added that student scores were up in most areas two years ago, then tests were changed and the results were not as good.

He said that programs are being established that will improve student results, including a program with Hewlett-Packard to develop interest in science.

"I'm not sure where we'll go from here," he said. "I hope to get them [the parents] directly involved, and whether that will be by canvassing neighborhoods or what, I'm not sure."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 13, 1998.
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