School board policy: The real story

Benicia is an “Art Town”, and very proud of the fact. So why has your school board recently voted to potentially slash art, theater and everything else that makes Benicia High School a Gold Ribbon-winning model school? Our recent California Ed Board win, Congressional Art Competition wins and Bay Area Maker Faire prowess are based on students being able to have the choice to pursue the higher classes that make these possible.
Under these new rules, made with virtually no teacher input and without respect to parents who want arts or trades classes for their children, all students will be pressed into the ill-fitting, one-size-fits-nobody requirements of the “A-G” University of California system. If students wanted to do that before the new policy, there was no impediments but their own ability and financial status. Only a small number of students’ parents can afford the colossal cost of a UC degree. The new policy clearly implies that students heading off to state college, junior colleges or the trade schools are making a second-rate choice and will not be supported by our high school, proudly UC’s A-G only.
Proponents of the new rules will point out that an individual student may technically be able to reach the higher art and trade classes with a single-minded, laser-like focus on what they want to do, preferrably from the 8th grade on. How many 13 to 18-year-olds do you know that know what they want to do for the rest of their lives?_Did you? I sure didn’t. Students that need to explore different subjects– and who doesn’t?– will be locked out of the higher elective courses for lack of available units to spend. My best students are in musical theater and AP Studio Art, advanced robotics and Art 2. In fact, it was these interconnections that made our program certifiably one of the best in the state. Potentially, that will be gone in four short years under the outlined program of mandatory classes for UC only. Prize-winning classes will be eliminated, and the reason given will be “lack of student interest” not “we chose not to allow students the choice.” Really good teachers, the ones who win one award after another for their students, will have their jobs cut back, be given inappropriate classes, encouraged to leave the district, or be fired “Pink Slipped” outright. It will occur over four to five years in an attempt to spread out the outrage more thinly.
If you are a parent in this district that values the arts or the trades or who doesn’t have tens of thousands of dollars in extra cash to give to the UC system, please put a stop to this disastrous policy by calling or emailing your school board members immediately to call for scrapping this terrible plan. Here is the website you need:_https://beniciaunified.org/governing-board/

Dan Frazier,
proud Benicia High School teacher of the arts

Tobacco ads still targeting our youth

Despite being restricted from television and billboards, tobacco advertising and promotion remain prominent in retail stores, where it can continue to influence our youth to smoke. It’s well known that the tobacco industry targets kids as the new generation of smokers to replace older people who quit or die from smoking. But many people are unaware that tobacco ads are stronger than peer pressure to influence children to try out tobacco products.
Youth exposure to alcohol, tobacco, and junk food advertising increases the risk of youth consumption of these products and the subsequent health problems.
The tobacco industry knows this, so they create agreements with retailers to overload windows and doors with ads, strategically placing ads close to youth friendly products, including on floors, countertops and at eye level of young kids.
According to the 2009 Cost of Smoking in California Report, the total cost of tobacco use in Solano County is near $245 million annually, with 55% of the cost attributed to direct health care services. The equivalent to a cost of $593 per county resident! Tobacco use currently takes the lives of 425 of our loved ones each year—-more than one person each day. Smoking shortens lives by 18 years—-almost two decades.
In Benicia, according to the 2016 Healthy Stores for a Healthy Community Survey, over 87.5 percent of convenience stores advertise unhealthy products such as tobacco and alcohol on their windows and doors.
Excessive window signs on convenience stores can also contribute to crime, violence, neighborhood blight, and other nuisance activities, particularly when they block a clear view of the stores. Allowing law enforcement to have a clear view of the clerk and the cash register can assist in the case of a robbery, dispute or any other situation that could be of danger to employees or customers. Less window signage will also allow employees to see incoming customers.
Finally, an abundance of window advertisements creates visual clutter that damages the neighborhood aesthetics and has the potential to contribute to a reduction in property value.
Neighborhood stores play a critical role in the health of our community, especially on our youth. Researchers have found that young people are three times as sensitive to tobacco advertising as adults. The tobacco industry uses our local stores as a primary way to market its addictive products to kids.
The Solano County Tobacco Education Coalition is actively working on ways to counteract the influence tobacco has on our community.
For more information call (707) 784-8900 or visit www.TobaccoFreeSolano.org.

Annabelle Prasad;
Solano County Tobacco Education Coalition, co-chair; Benicia

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