By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor
DAMON WRIGHT.
File photo
Benicia Unified School District trustees on Thursday approved Benicia High School Principal Damon Wright’s proposal to close the school campus during lunch hours.
Wright delivered a report that had been in the works since October, shortly after he began his first school year as principal. He said the study included an informal staff survey, discussion with the Student Senate, a community forum and a survey of local companies that profit from student business at lunch time.
“We wanted to make sure we were supporting teaching and learning, and we wanted to put the students’ safety first,” he said.
“I think we did a very thorough process.”
He said he found a lot of support for closing the campus. “Many felt the community was asking for this. They felt we would be good neighbors in reducing some of the loitering and littering that is taking place in the local neighborhoods.
“Our teachers felt that the students would be better prepared to learn in fifth period, instead of racing back with lunch in their hands trying to eat in class. They felt that we would address the overall safety on campus by reducing the opportunity for car accidents and potential drug and alcohol use during the unstructured times.”
Some, however, supported keeping the campus open, Wright acknowledged.
“Many felt that the (school) food quality needed improvement, and the increased traffic on campus would increase the trash on campus,” he said.
“In talking to our students, they said it would be a violation of their civil rights, and it would be a punishment to keep them on campus, and why punish some for just the actions of a few.”
Wright’s proposal, approved by a quorum of trustees that did not include Dana Dean or André Stewart, has three stages.
“It’s a merit-based system that considers grade level, attendance records, discipline records and academic records,” he said.
The first stage will take place in the 2013-14 school year, when juniors and seniors who “demonstrate adequate attendance, appropriate citizenship and acceptable academic standing” will be allowed to leave campus.
The second stage will be in the 2014-15 school year and will involve a re-evaluation of facilities to make sure additional students can be accommodated. If so, off-campus privileges will then extend to seniors only.
The third and final stage will take place in the 2015-16 school year, when a determination will made whether to fully close the campus.
Wright acknowledged there will be challenges. “I spoke with the administration over at American Canyon High School. What they do is, they issue color-coded ID cards for the students that come on and off campus.
“I would like to use technology that assists with the enforcement,” he said. “We’re looking at purchasing these hand-held scanners. It takes less than two seconds to scan a student’s ID card to determine if that student is eligible to participate in the program.”
Other financial commitments, he said, would entail three additional lunch lines in the school’s cafeteria and one more in the student center. “This would increase the lines from seven to 11,” he said.
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I think you’ve missed an important point. The board voted to give the principal and superintendent direction to close the campus at lunch time. This proposal is one way it could be closed, to allow time for funding and acceptance, but the actual implementation may vary from this as most board members said they’d rather see this happen sooner rather than later. Included in the vote was funding for tables, equipment and additional lunch and janitorial staff, underlining the board’s determination to clear any obstacles.
All BHS students have been issued color-coded ID cards for a few years now… wearing them was never supported by the administration.
The cafeteria was given enough money from the Good Neighbors Steering Committee for upgrades which would have allowed food services to cook more and better food. Where did the money go?
Sucks for the kids, but nice that I don’t have to make sure to avoid the High School lunch hour when I want to go grab food now.
I think allowing some students to leave campus while keeping others on campus would be a control nightmare. Either have an open campus or a closed campus, period, no exceptions.
To handle the truly need-to-leave cases, have the parent/guardian appears in person during a designated time period to sign off on that student’s need to leave campus – and accept responsibility for that off-campus time.
This has been a six year journey for some of us and only closing the campus to freshmen and sophomores is at least a start but it doesn’t solve the problem of reckless driving, driving with other students on provisional licenses, drug and alcohol use off campus at lunch and excessive tardiness to 5th period or cuts altogether. And some of the top performing students are the worst offenders. Money was secured to remodel the kitchen with the express purpose of closing the campus (to reduce the carbon footprint). To hear that the cafeteria can’t accommodate all the students now is beyond distressing. It is encouraging though that this administration seems far more committed to seeing this through than those in the past who laughed at us and told us “it will never happen” when we raised the issue.
Regarding all the kids late to 5th period, that is what tardy slips are for. If the kids amass enough, they start getting detention and Saturday school. That is a VERY good incentive to get back to school on time.
Regarding pot and cigarette smoking. So, they can’t do it for 45 minutes at lunch. Who cares. When I was at BHS all our ‘bad behavior’ took place AFTER school. Nobody even thought about doing stuff at lunch. By the time you get to where you want to eat, eat, and then come back, there isn’t any time for extracurricular lunchtime activities.
Regarding the ‘reckless driving’. Kids only drive recklessly at lunch on weekdays? That’s news to me. Does someone have some evidence to prove this?
Regarding the “carbon footprint”. Gimme a break already!
Let the damn kids enjoy their 45 minutes of lunch. There are MUCH bigger issues in this town to deal with.
It’s 38 minutes genius and the money that they got from the Valero Good Neighbor Steering Committee was to be used for environmental purposes, thus “reducing the carbon foot print.” They have been giving out tardy slips like chicklets, the kids still break the rules and it disrupts the entire class every time someone comes In late. It is the school’s responsibility to keep the kids safe during the school day, not weekends or other times. The kids who are drinking and smoking pot aren’t eating, they are sitting in front of the neighbors’ houses, ninth st. Park, driving, etc. there may be bigger problems but this is the one that’s being dealt with now.
I will give you credit. In your entire long-winded and asinine response to me, you got one FACT right. I am indeed a genius. Thank you.
Just replying to your long winded and asinine comments.
Karen,
You and others are to be commended for pursuing this. The cafeteria, when it was built over a decade ago, was intended to accommodate all students. The problem we had at the time was a totally inadequate facility. Passage of bond measure Q allowed this to happen. I note that because we too often forget the good things that happen with our bond monies. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that the high school was transformed because of that measure and the state monies that consequently flowed to the district as a result. In any case, the safety of students is paramount and the board and district deserve credit for doing the right thing.
Perhaps we should mandate a nonmeat diet for all the students as well. This, more than anything else, will probably contribute more to reducing the carbon footprint of the school and those awful flatulent little mouth breathing teens…
I know! The high school should put Murphy beds in the classrooms so that they can make all the teens in the city stay there 24/7 so they won’t go fouling up our environment. Thank goodness; we can finally make Benicia the city it was meant to be: Perfectly boring, serene, and family friendly (as long as your family does not contain a teen that is). With the teens safely secured away on school grounds it really will be better in Benicia.
I actually had to chuckle at the “civil rights” comment that was made in the course of the article. Get serious. Close the campus. Period. If the kids don’t like the cafeteria food, here’s a suggestion: brown bag. The attitudes of the students who can’t manage to get their rears in gear and make it to 5th period on time with an open campus, will probably still be a problem with the closed campus, the excuses will just get more creative, i.e., the bathrooms were too crowded, the lunchroom was too crowded, etc.. A solution to that would be allowing 3 tardies, after that the student gets an F for the day in that class for each tardy. I’ll go out on a limb and bet it will cut down on the tardies, but I’m guessing the “civil rights” whining still won’t go away.
Hmmmm excuses? I for one know that the lunch line is ridiculous now. Cant wait to see what is looks like when they have everyone on campus.
I do not understand why the whole of the school should be punished for a few students actions. I know i dont go off all that often but when i do it’s because i need to get away from the people that i see every day. It’s irritating to me that adults that have no idea what we go through every day, how stressed we are, or just simply how crowded it is, are the people that decide if the campus is closed or not. If the teachers get to leave i don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to leave.
“It’s irritating to me that adults that have no idea what we go through every day..”
Hey Annalissa, we ALL know what you are “going through” because we ALL went to High School. Stop playing the victim, pack your lunch and hush. WHEN you are an adult then you can make your own decisions.
As one of the top preforming students at BHS, I find that this is one of the best solutions to our school’s problem.
However, I find it very daring of a few adults commenting on this article to be making assumptions about said “Top Performers” and even scolding a student from BHS. From my personal experience as a Junior, with a 4.5 GPA, I know very FEW students who do break the rules. In addition, none of the students who I have observed to break the rules, are top performers. Secondly, Annalissa’s opinion is valid, as is every one else’s on this article. I find it very disrespectful of some of the aforementioned adults to tell a student to “suck it up”. I also find it very daring of this said adult to also mention that they have “been to high school before”. Of course this is true, but obviously and undoubtedly, none of the adults commenting on this article have been to high school or BHS as a student in a considerable amount of time. I hate to say it, but things at BHS ARE different, and once that is accepted, we can move forward to a community where the students voicing their opinions about what happens to them, is not looked down upon, rather, even praised.
Thank you for speaking up for your fellow student, and for making several good points.
Annalissa, I think you are correct. While adults have gone to high school, it was a different experience for us than it is for you. My younger sister went through the same schools I attended; she was only a few years younger than myself, but she had a very different experience of the “same” schools I attended. In part this was a difference in personality, but there was a huge contribution to the differences of experience due to the influence of societal changes as well as changes in administrative and instructor policy.
I think it is both appropriate and valid to voice the irritation you feel that adults have forgotten the stresses of high school. Perhaps your comments will prompt more of us to take a moment to reflect back on our own time as teens and to listen a little more carefully to those who are currently teens.
‘i’ can only assume that Annalissa’s fifth period class is English/Grammar. Though I suppose texting/tweeting could be a contributing factor.
I was originally in favor of closing campus. Getting district approval on a proposal was the easy part. Now comes the hard work of plan development, execution and enforcement. It’s not going to be easy, but I agree with the tactic of a gradual deployment. That might provide room to make adjustments to the plan.
So that means teachers shouldnt be able to go off campus either then, because after all, they are the ones who need to be the most prepared…
I say let the hellions run wild.. after all it is a right of passage. Funny thing when My child went there freshmen were not allowed off campus and that didn’t stop them. Stop wasting money on trying to keep kids in and spend it on the ones that want to learn!
“Funny thing when My child went there freshmen were not allowed off campus and that didn’t stop them.”
You got that right. I can think of only a handful of times, as a Freshman, that I stayed on campus.
I’m a senior so this doesn’t really apply to me but this sucks for the freshman this year. For the ones who followed the rules and waited to go off all year have to wait another whole year to even get a chance of going off. My favorite part of my high school experience was going off with my friends. Its very depressing that this will be taken from students.
As a former high school student myself, albeit quite some time ago, I can attest to the thrill of ‘Hot-Rodding’ around town during lunch hour ostensively in search of sustenance. However, if going off-campus with friends was your favorite part of the High School experience…something is sorely lacking somewhere.
It was one of the things I looked forward to. So nothing is “lacking”. People are so rude in this town.
I look back on this now, two years later, and find it disappointing that the “adults” were the ones insulting the teens. We had as much , if not more, of a right to voice our opinions. It’s funny how adults say we’re so anti-social or how little we go outside, then they want to pack the teens away so they’re never seen. It’s sad really that on one of my previous comments an “adults” only defense was to attack and make fun of me for one capitalisation error. I sincerely hope campus stays open, it was something that made me happy as a senior, going off gave me a time that I could calm down, even if I only sat in my car.