Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Foundation: Lise Shannon, Karen Clinton, Carol Myers and Kathy Stark (front) are taking educational matters into their own hands by creating non-profit foundations to help Willow Glen Middle School and Willow Glen High.




An educational resurrection

Parents and officials are trying to give two WG schools a chance to regain past glory

By Chantal Lamers

The campuses of Willow Glen High School and Willow Glen Middle School aren't looking good these days. The grass is yellow and dry. The parking lots are cracked. The paint is peeling.

These schools are often students' second or third choices. Many grade school students hope to attend Castillero Middle School. Many middle school students hope to attend to Lincoln, Leland or Pioneer high schools.

But a handful of people are planning to change that.

Parents fighting for the schools have created the Willow Glen High School and Middle School Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will raise money to buy computers, add electives, provide classroom curtains and improve the general attitude about the two dilapidated schools.

The parents behind this foundation plan to ensure that the schools get their fair share of allocations from the district to help fund drama, music and drawing electives.

For about a year, parents like Kathy Stark, Karen Clinton and Lise Shannon have been meeting in coffee shops, kitchens and backyards to discuss how they can revive the academically tired schools.

They've spent hours brainstorming with San Jose Unified School District Trustee Carol Myers. Over cups of coffee, they discussed possible solutions with Superintendent Linda Murray.

These parents don't want to be ashamed to send their children to their neighborhood schools. They want to make Willow Glen High and Willow Glen Middle the prestigious campuses they were almost two decades ago.

While many Willow Glen parents drive their children outside the neighborhood to attend better schools, parents like Clinton and Stark are sticking around to improve the neighborhood schools.

"I wouldn't trade our school," Stark says. "I wouldn't have my children in any other. It's our neighborhood school."

Stark, a mother of four, doesn't want her children attending school across town. She wants her children attending neighborhood schools so they can walk home in the afternoon, have friends nearby and participate in after-school sports and clubs without having a long car ride away from home.

Clinton says other parents are constantly making her feel badly because she chose to send her two daughters to the middle school and high school.

"We want to create an environment where everybody feels proud to go there," says Clinton, one of the driving forces behind the foundation from the first day.

"I saw a lot of good things in Willow Glen High School."

Clinton also sees a lot of room for improvement in the two schools.

The grassroots group is run by 22 board members, including WGHS Principal Pat Day and WGMS Principal Lois Allen. Each board member must agree to donate money to the foundation.

Stark says the foundation is a cooperative effort between the faculty and the foundation.

"We definitely want it to be a partnership," Stark says.

Stark says the foundation will do all the work and include faculty and administration in decisions. Board members will ask teachers what they need for the future.

"We're thinking big," Stark says. "We don't have a PTA-bake-sale mentality."

Foundation board members plan on leaving no stone unturned when finding ways to support the foundation. Stark says, WGHS alumni are an untapped resource who could contribute to the school.

Members also hope to form partnerships with the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association and the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association.

Other targets will be Silicon Valley high-tech employees and parents in the community with small children.

Stark calls residents with young children--she calls them the "stroller set"--who are very interested in education.

"Why should they put their kids on a bus or drive their kids out of the neighborhood for school everyday?"

Stark hopes improving the two schools will become a community effort.

While the bundles of money haven't quite rolled in the door, members already have big plans. New programs for the school may include additional seventh period classes such as Spanish and intermediate band. A broadened media center with more hours is a top priority, too. A proactive college and career counseling center to increase the percentage of students going to college is another campus essential for foundation members.

Clinton says because of meetings with Superintendent Murray, the district has added classes to the high school including full-time sections of choir, intermediate choir and band.

"We keep getting thrown little bones," Clinton says. "And I'll take those, but I'm still hungry."

While Stark and Clinton hope the foundation is successful, they realize the neighboring schools aren't getting their fair share of SJUSD desegregation dollars.

Stark and Clinton believe the schools are less successful because they receive less money from federal and state desegregation money. Foundation members don't want the demographics of the schools changed. Members want the schools to receive their share of the money so administrators can make improvements.

In 1986, SJUSD began working under a federal court order that allowed it to voluntarily desegregate schools. The program set up Magnet schools for performing arts, science and technology, and was a way of busing in nonwhite students. In exchange for complying, the district was given federal and state money.

This money has given schools the opportunity to resume many of the programs that were eliminated when California voters passed Proposition 13 in the late 1970s. Proposition 13 caused a decrease in property tax money for schools. This forced many public schools to drop their drama, art, counseling, athletics and music programs. Special magnet schools revived programs at certain schools.

Today the district operates under a less restrictive consent decree.

Though fewer magnet programs exist today, desegregation funds continue to be disbursed among schools with certain programs, or with high enrollments of Hispanic students.

While Willow Glen Middle and Willow Glen High boast almost the highest attendance of Hispanic students, the two schools receive the smallest amount of desegregation funds.

WGMS has a 55 percent Hispanic enrollment and receives $474,302 in desegregation funds compared to Castillero, which has a 37 percent Hispanic population and receives $735,217 annually.

WGHS has a 55 percent Hispanic enrollment and receives $722,151; Lincoln, also with a 55 percent Hispanic enrollment receives $920,451; Leland with a 16 percent Hispanic enrollment receives $737,917; and Pioneer has a 30 percent Hispanic enrollment and receives $748,246 in desegregation funds annually.

Trustee Myers says that after a number of years, the desegregation funds improved some schools. But Willow Glen schools got worse because the desegregation funds were never available.

Myers says the high school and middle school's Hispanic population has grown by leaps and bounds. Since diverse enrollment isn't re-evaluated each year to determine where the desegregation money should go, the same amount of money continues to flow into the same schools regardless of the Hispanic population.

While SJUSD board members are beginning to discuss ways to fix the inequity, Myers says it remains a touchy political situation. And meanwhile, Myers wants to make a difference for students attending the schools today.

Myers, who has been urging parents to begin a foundation for years, says the power in the Willow Glen community can help build neighborhood schools to which residents can proudly send their children.

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