Thank you, Jessica for sharing your thoughts on the proposed Sac High/West Campus swap. It's my hope that SCUSD board members understand the ramifications of this unwanted and unneeded proposal - they should all do the right thing and leave well enough alone.

I hope that the school board listens to community input on this issue. It looks like the Sac High Community and West Campus Community are opposed. These proposals should be taken off the table.

This whole controversy is just another example of the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) spreading misinformation.

It is great to hear directly from a student on issues like these. Too often political forces aimed at personal gains contradict what is best for students in our country. Situations like this are exactly why puplic education is such a mess in our country, and why it is so important to ensure that the charter school movement continues its momentum! Thanks Jessica for standing up for your future.

Jessica, great article. You are old and wise enough to clearly see self-serving Teachers Union BS at face value. Thanks for speaking out for common sense.

Great job Jessica. I am here to support you. So very proud of you standing up for what you believe in.

Adult politics at work again! I hope the school board puts self-interest aside and does what is best for the students.

Sac high doesn't owe the school district money, its the mayor who owes. This is all being pushed forward to cover the debt Kevin Johnson owes scusd for his lease of the sac high campus. Scusd was in the process of taking KJ to court over the debt before he was elected mayor, at which point scusd dropped the case. To say otherwise would be a blatant lie.

Jessica, I appreciate your point of view; however, you're thinking from a very insular place - this decision is about what's best for everyone in the district for the long-run. I am not a teacher, or a union member. I am a Sac High alum and the parent of 3 kids in the former Sac High attendance area.

There is a reason the district is looking at the swap - they need to stop students from leaving SCUSD at the high school level. Last year, 624 high school students requested interdistrict transfers - those are requests to leave SCUSD for another public school district. That's roughly $3M in lost revenue becasue the district gets paid per student enrolled (execpt Sac Charter - they get paid directly from the state). That number doesn't even count the students who left for private schools so you might want to add another 1-2 Million onto the $3M. The district cannot continue to hemorrhage students at this rate or they'll die. ( I got these numbers from the school district . I had submitted several questions to the school board and they sent me the answers. This is how I have come up with the information I provide in my comments)

The mass-exodus of students to other districts and private schools is unprecidented - the majority of transfers are for the former Sac High attendance area. Why are they leaving? Well, for starters, not one of the other large comprehensive traditonal high schools are accepting general education open enrollment. Not one. You can't get in unless you apply to an elite program. People used to go onto waiting lists for these programs, but now, they just leave the district because by law, the district must let them go if they can't provide a school that isn't in program improvement (FYI,Sac Charter is in program improvement just like most of the hs). Also, the community high school was closed, so the middle schools no longer feed together into one school. That's kind of sad because best friends and neighbors don't get to go to school together anymore once they get to high school.

Charter schools were created to be an alternative to public schools- they are not supposed to replace them entirely. A charter has a very specific mission or focus that may not fit with a large population of people. For instance, Sac Charter is not comprehensive, it's college prep focused. West Campus is not comprehensive - it's college prep focused. Comprehensive means it offers many things, many paths. Not all kids want to go to college, so they need an alternative. Not all kids need or want to go to school from 8-4, or want to wear uniforms, or they may want more electives than your school offers. There are many reasons why people don't choose St. HOPE. It is a person's right not to choose as much as it is your right to choose.

The issue is very complicated, but it is a financial problem. I know people don't want to look at the finances, but the district is facing major, major, major cuts and lost revenue. They cannot afford to keep all of these campuses running and they certainly can't afford to lose so many high schoolers to other districts. The Sac High campus is definitely underused. Adding middle school students to bring up enrollment is inappropriate. The community paid $24 million to renovate the school for high school students- this was voted for when it was a traditional community school that served a very wide-range of students. Also, state law requires that the district provide charter schools facilities for the in-district students only. PS7 is 50% out of district and Sac Charter is 35% out of district so counting all students is unrealistic according to the law - this law was put into place specifically to ensure the district was adequately serving in-district students first. If WC co-locates with a traditional public school, all children will be served. ELL, special ed, average kids, and those who don't plan on attending college. All kids deserve an option.

I get that you love your school. I get that it's painful. But we need to think about every single child in this district. We need to think of those whose schools are on the chopping block to be closed entirely. School closures affect communities for years to come - just like the closure of Sac High did. Student achievement isn't considered. The district closed Thomas Jefferson elementary school - a traditonal public school that had an API over 800 because they had declining enrollment. All students need to be treated the same way. The district just wants to explore moving your school, not close it. If your school is as great as you say it is, then it will survive and thrive. School buildings don't make good schools, communities do.

Hello Susie, I admire your commitment to the cause and your continued efforts to work on these issues. Respectfully I disagree with the statement that you keep repeating about how the East Sac area does not have a public feeder school for the middle schools. Just for clarification, Hiram Johnson is the public high school that the district has designated for the area. It would take a group of about 20 committed parents to build up Hiram Johnson's parent involvement to get that school out of program improvement. Great schools are a product of good parents. I wonder if all this effort and energy couldn't be used, in these trying times, to build up what needs building up. West Campus was originally designed to be a college prep academy which split from HJH -- hence the name West. It just seems wrong to place West on the Sac High campus and build a comprehensive program around it (lose $50,000) and untold human capital in the meantime, all in the name of reclaiming a building -- seems that ship has sailed. Sac High has dynamite athletics and this is the elephant in the room. No one wants to take that away from these kids. No one. And regarding the transfers the District has granted for parents -- this shows a systemic weakness. If there was no such thing as open enrollment (except to the specialized programs), and district transfers then none of us would be having this discussion. You'd get what you get and everyone would have a neighborhood school. A lot of these issues are now unsolvable - the chess pieces have been moving around the board for 8+ years and the game looks like a stalemate. With looming budget cuts, it doesn't matter what design any team comes up with...we all may be faced with rolling up our sleeves and walking across the street to the closest school in our neighborhood to put up or shut up. And that doesn't mean turning tail and running to another district or tearing down what works in this one.

Lets..think about the goals and results from the Civil Rights Movement. This backdrop exposes..that as America got fairer..we came closer together..middle class came to minorities..
We ..that is all of us became more aware of our individual self worth and contribution to the whole.
Minorities of means just don't want to integrate and our cautious of being marginalized by white middle class. The want a fair deal ..equal opportunity ..and respect of their choice and want to use their political economic clout to ensure fair opportunities for their children. The solution is not to make the ST. Hope Community suffer and build up Hiram Johnson and reintegrate West Campus to Hiram Johnson. St. Hope should not be torn apart because Sac City Schools cant foster coalitions of; board members, principals , teachers, parents, students and stake holders in business to secure the schools of Hiram Johnson and West Campus. Sac High has...thanks ..from an immigrant to Sacramento since 1991, CSUS Grad 1997, and Teacher since 1995

Susie -- there are no easy answers here and there never have been. With your recent white paper I vote for #1 Maintain the status quo; change no facilities. Work to improve all existing options. You can characterize that as "throwing up my hands" but these are precarious times. Again, I appreciate that you feel you are voicing an opinion for what you think is best for all kids in our District. If Sac Hi and West Campus co-locate and Kit becomes a 7-12 charter under the auspices of STAND UP or some other privatized nonsense, then I guess we'll have you to ultimately thank for that.

Thank you to all of the positive comments supporting my views on this issue and on my article!

Dear jessica,

I would like to say thank you for further publicizing this issue. I am an alumni of wc and though we are of different schools I can tell you have pride in yours, which also makes me proud. I hope that we will not have to spend more money on a move as I know for a fact my school could use more money towards our extracurriculars such as sports and the arts. We do not have a pool; our swim team uses one within the community. We do not have a separate football field and soccer field. We do not have a gigantic theater and many times have learned to make do with less funds... but I did not go here for the building. I applied for this school for its program and the upbeat environment I could feel from fellow students when I shadowed here. I have seen more of my teachers get pink slipped with continuing years, and some of the best in my opinion, due to budget cuts. The students of WC, past and present, continue to achieve despite our location. Though we score high, we get less funds compared to Burbank (my neighborhood school), a school that invited members of the neighborhood to eat breakfast there so they'd get more money for attendance. West Campus shares the cafeteria with our neighboring elementary Mark Twain. Though we lack the accommodations some think we should trade for.... I guess that could be the statement.... our present environment continues to have a strong community as everyone learns to know each other due to the 800 student population. We become a family. Bullying is unheard of. There aren't fights. We also are glad to not have collars as part of our dress code anymore. Our two schools have different dress codes, different class requirements, different environments, and different communities. And we both have pride for the environments that we've been schooled in. The things that attract students to each school are separate for a reason, like studying humanities at McClatchys HISP. I would really prefer not to see Sac and West merge together for the sake of wanting average achieving students to be able to just go wherever. Both of our schools are way above average and we have good structure. Many of my fellow students panicked when we were told West might become a neighborhood school a few years ago. We came here for the 98% graduation rate. We worked hard on those entrance essays and I barely made it in based on GPA but the important thing was that each student coming through those doors did not come here as a second option. Taking the bus an hour each way is also a commute, but I and many others chose to go here despite having different neighborhood schools. Moving west to sac and vice versa would also be harder on current 2013ers in the following year to have to switch location especially for those who live next to their current schools. Each of our current programs are already running well and it would be shame to fix what isn't broken, especially with both of our schools already experiencing success. Do not make either of our student bodies average when we are to be exceptional. I would rather see money go into fixing the Sac High pool or saving a couple jobs.

Thanks and God bless.

@Susie:
I tried reading most of your comments, but some of it seems contradictory to me. You claim that not all students wish to attend college and that West Campus is a college prep school that don't adhere to the wishes of those students. However, you also claim that relocating West Campus will in no way affect their their methodology. This does not make sense to me. First, it seems your claiming that because WC is a college prep class, drop out seems to happen. That is simply not true. Students who apply to WC from the onset KNOW that WC is a college prep school. When I attended WC, throughout the four years I was there, there was only 2 students who 'drop-out' due to their low GPA or rather they were kicked out when their GPA fell below the 2.0 average. Teen pregnancy is also rare and low in WC too. From 2003-2007, only two teens were pregnant out of the 800 students. However, they still went on to graduate with their degrees. Secondly, along the lines the first claim that a college prep school causes drop outs, you claim that WC will not change in anyway; it will stay in tact. If there is no change to WC, then there is no point in relocation in the first place if your concern is 'drop out rates' when WC is 'unaccommodating' to students who don't choose to obtain higher education.

I already wrote a letter and discussed this with many alumni of WC so I'm quite tired of explaining my views. Ultimately it's this: relocating WC will solve nothing. Students enrolled in WC with the expectation that they will get into college. Relocating the school is in other words 'closing it down'. It seems the School District has the assumption that moving WC facilities means the students will go along with it when that's not true. Parents and students will simply choose a better school that's closer to their homes. There are a few students who attend WC that require about 40-45 minutes to commute. The reason for this endeavor is because WC provides one of the best learning environments. If that environment is to be disrupted, then they might as well go to their neighborhood school.

The relocation will not increase enrollment in either school. Rather I see, former students from either school to 'drop-out' and move on. I'm sure Rosemont, Florin, Burbank seem more appealing to the parents and students in lieu of their alternatives. This is a point that Jessica pointed out that few seem to take up on. As stated, students attend WC for their high graduation and college acceptance rate. Why risk it when there are better options out there?

Thank You Veve