Principal, staff tackle thorny, longstanding dilemma
DAMON WRIGHT.
File photo
By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor
Benicia High School Principal Damon Wright last week offered details on ongoing discussions over whether to close the school campus during lunch.
Wright told the Benicia Unified School District Board that “we want to make sure that the policy is in the best interest of our students. Our primary focus is and will remain on student safety, but we also want to make sure that we are creating a positive learning environment for our students and our staff members.”
The closed-campus question has been raised frequently over the years amid concerns for student safety, among other questions. Wright, who is in his first fall semester at Benicia High, said he personally became passionate about the topic when he was driving to the district office and saw “a drove of students walking up Military West well after the bell rang.
“They weren’t walking with a purpose,” he said Thursday. “They were just eating their lunch and kind of chatting on their way up the hill.”
When he returned to the campus, he looked at data on how many fifth-period tardies have been recorded this school year. Fifth period is the one immediately following lunch.
“As of today we have recorded 838 tardies in fifth period alone … and we’ve only been in school for nine weeks,” he told trustees.
Combine that with 468 unauthorized absences, he said, and “we have an issue that we need to take a look at.”
Wright said school officials have assembled a committee of staff members to facilitate conversation with the community about the problem and is looking for community members and students to participate.
He has already taken the pulse of Benicia High staff. This month Wright distributed a survey to give staff members a chance to weigh in. “I wanted to know if they had the same thoughts that I had,” he said.
Of about 50 staff members surveyed, two-thirds strongly agreed with revising the open campus policy, with slightly more than that — 68 percent — saying they had witnessed or heard about unsafe or inappropriate activities during lunch time.
Fifty-nine percent said they are in favor of closing the campus completely, while two-thirds were concerned with student safety with the current open campus policy.
Wright told trustees that on Oct. 16 he invited staff members to give written responses and concerns, and to offer pros and cons of a closed campus. “We got some outstanding information from our staff members,” he said.
For one, staff feels like the community wants a closed campus, Wright said, and that students would be better prepared to learn during fifth period. They felt a closed campus would solve many attendance, safety and lateness problems.
“They also felt that it would increase school spirit, because students would be on campus and actively engaged in activities,” he said.
Wright said staff felt a closed campus would be better support for food service operations; that kids would use the restroom during lunch time instead of leaving during fifth period; and that students wouldn’t ask to eat their lunch in class during fifth period.
There is also the issue of the traffic.
“They’re rushing. We actually just had an accident last week in front of the school. It was eye-opening,” Wright said.
Some of the cons raised by staff members: concerns about trash, campus safety and whether there are enough staff to keep students safe and supervised on campus.
Another con: open campus means that the students are also supporting the local economy. “If we close the campus, is that going to impact our local economy?” Wright said.
Finally, a concern was raised about getting all students fed in a timely manner in the cafeteria. “That is something we’d have to take a look at,” he said.
The next step, he said, is a discussion on Nov. 7 that includes the Student Senate. “We think our students need to have an active voice and participate in this process. They need to be heard,” Wright said.
Besides student leaders, Wright hopes to engage other students at a lunchtime meeting the week of Nov. 12.
And, “On Nov. 15 we’re going to open up the conversation to the community, 6 p.m. at BHS,” he said. “Any and all stakeholders are encouraged to come. We would certainly welcome your insight.”
Following all the meetings and information-gathering, Wright said, he will craft a recommendation on how to proceed to Superintendent of Benicia Schools Janice Adams. “I’ll have a decision to Janice Adams and the district administrators no later than winter break,” he said.
Wright pointed out the conversation isn’t just about keeping the campus open or closed — there are other options, he said.
“We can meet people halfway,” he said. “Some people said, ‘Hey, if we let our seniors leave, or upperclassmen leave, students who are doing well academically, who haven’t had behavioral problems …” Those are some of the things we’re going to discuss through this process.”
Trustee Gary Wing said he was concerned about high school students speeding during the lunch period because they claim to not have enough time. “We’ve had numerous reports just this year of speeding high school kids during lunch because they claim they don’t have enough time,” he said.
Wing said last year he saw Benicia High students at the In-N-Out Burger in Pinole during lunch period. “The time between here and there, and waiting in line — it just doesn’t add up,” he said. “What’s it going to take? Last week was a warning. We had an accident right in front of the high school. One kid went to the hospital. Is that going to happen on East Second Street with a rollover? Is that going to happen on the freeway? That’s my concern.”
Wing also asked, “Who is liable for the kids while they are off campus?”
Trustee Dana Dean weighed in with concern about gates. “I have heard from community members, concern has been raised before about having so many students free and roaming around the campus, in the quad area or wherever, and not having emergency access out potentially because of problems with the gates.”
Dean also brought up a potential for alternatives to loss of income of local businesses. “Can they deliver food to the school, to help with the food capacity issue, or something like that?” she asked.
Trustee Steve Messina wanted to know if Wright had any experience with closed campuses. “In my previous school site (California High School in San Ramon) we had closed campus except for seniors. Seniors were able to leave at lunch time,” Wright said.
“Did it work?” Messina asked.
“It did. It was very hard to police. We had 2,600 students and a campus that was probably two-and-a-half times the size of Benicia High School with several entry and exit points,” Wright said.
Messina said school staff should have the biggest voice in whether the campus is closed.
“There’s going to be a thousand people upset with you whichever way you go,” Trustee André Stewart said. “You’ve got that, rest assured!
“We’re going to support the success of whatever the decision is that comes out of it.”
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As watchful members of the neighborhood, we witnessed several life-threatening activities the student participate in off-campus during mid-day: alcohol and drugs consumption (we pick up the containers), buying and selling drugs, fighting, acting out with dangerous behaviors, property damage.
My gut reaction to the suggestion that the local businesses might object to a closed-campus for monetary reasons is to find this rather offensive — surely the ONLY consideration is the safety and welfare of these children.
In today’s world with today’s threats, a closed campus is the most responsible of choices.
After seeing first hhand the level of dissrespect and adverse behavior exhibited by a majority of the students, a closed campus is not only warranted it is a necessity to assist in the health and safety of the students who feel it is necessary to leave campus. A lot of them are very nice and respectable in the the community. but that is just not the norm.
I feel the attitude of local business who want the students because of the money they spend, need to look internally and observe the restrictions they place on the students. IE: 1 to 3 students at a time are welcomed at a time. So it seems that it is just convenient cash flow. All that means is those businesses need to find a way to make their businesses happen without the random Students. It is just the nature of business.
It is obvious that Students will benefit from a closed campus even if they don’t believe it. They never will until they are parents themselves.
I agree with the two above posters. I am surprised there is not barbed wire and armed guards around the campus. We would not want anyone wandering away from the straight and narrow path. It is important they follow all the rules and only do what we adults think is correct behavior. No dissidence can be allowed. That is the only way they can grow up to be free-thinking adults. They must follow every rule and be watched and monitored every moment. Can we get some of those drones to fly over the campus now and then also? After all, our ONLY concern is their safety and welfare.
I believe our concern is also their education. Tardies dropping in during class time is disruptive to both students and teachers. There are plenty of ways students can grow up to be free-thinking adults on a closed campus. They might actually use their lunchtime to do something creative instead of practicing race-car driving down I-80 (not that I in any shape or form disapprove of race-car driving in its proper setting).
Makes sense to me: Our kids just need the ability to fill in bubbles on standardized tests not critical thinking skills. Why let them loose to terrorize the city as they have been doing for so long??? Oh, yeah Beach Bum, you forgot landmines; they need landmines to keep the little critters from making it past the razor wire and sentries.
We have discussed this ad nauseam. The issue has been before the superintendent and the board countless times over the past 4-6 years. The BPD weighed in years ago with data. The Closed Campus Task Force that was set up 4 years ago supplied data, numbers, input from businesses as well as residents, students and parents and STILL nothing was done. When Vice Principal Wheat closed the gates during school hours (when students are supposed to be in class and everyone else should go through the main office) people almost crucified the man!
Schools are educational institutions where rules and regulations are in place to ensure a safe learning environment – they are unfortunately not a democratic voting ground for school policies. (Case in point – how far the last 4-6 years of discussions have gotten us in this matter…) As adults, we are first and foremost responsible for the safety, wellbeing and education of all kids. Everything else is secondary. Those who do not agree with a closed campus policy have the freedom to attend school somewhere else. Is everyone going to be happy? Highly unlikely… so, please, someone (who is not trying to win the popularity contest) just make a decision already.
As a person who lives near the high school I would like to weigh in on this issue:
1) Recent modifications including traffic lights, cross walk and other features have been a big improvement in several ways.
2) We are impacted by traffic patterns during morning and late afternoon. This is a 15-20 minute time frame for each and not an issue for me. We live with it, we knew the high school was there when we moved in and I am not complaining on that issue.
3) Lunch time – This is an issue as it represents a mad dash on the kids parts to get out and back in time. Accidents have been few, but hardly a year goes by when there are not accidents (there was another one last week). To my knowledge no one has been seriously injured or killed. Do we want to wait until someone is before we do something? I would hope not.
4) We have lived here for 14 years and our complaints have been few and always responded to by the school in a timely fashion. They have been a good neighbor.
I would favor closing the campus, but only as a safety issue. Now we just avoid leaving or returning home during the lunch period, which is a very minor issue.
Go ahead close the campus and segregate students even more from the community. The Benicia community at once pats itself on the back for being “a great place to raise kids” as it vilifies adolescence in the community as druggies and vandals. Arguments stating that we should “protect” these students and hold them on school grounds for “their safety” are nothing more than a tag lines designed to be the rallying cry. Teens are not a dirty secret to hide in the closet; our high school students need to be better integrated into and valued by our community rather than being further cutoff from the community. It is easy to see the “bad” students while the students going about their business within the community and are doing no harm are overlooked. When these teens turn to adults who can’t identify with the community and don’t feel a responsibility to the community know to look in the mirror at yourselves.
I’m pretty sure that any effort of integration and/or identification with the community doesn’t need to take place between 12:20 -1 pm on weekdays…
You’re right. This community seems to think it never needs to happen.
It seems to me the major issue is the students getting to and from lunch safely. This could be resolved by offering vendor space to local establishments at the school itself and increasing the time for lunch. In addition to that, traffic safety can be addressed with the timely arrival of the Benicia police traffic officers. A few good tickets would resolve many problems. The same goes for jay walkers.
Closed campuses do not teach responsible time management or good community behavior to our children. This is what needs to be addressed. In addition that, the cost to serve and prepare food on campus is enormous. Close campuses require more time each day, a huge increase in support staff, and additional space requirements for this size of student body. This would require a special tax assessment to fund. How quickly people forget why the campus was opened in the first place.
Outside vendors do not meet the federal nutrition guidelines for schools. Also, please support your statement that closing the high school campus would “require special tax assessment to fund” with figures and facts.
Can you support where in the ever decreasing budget would we find money to fund additional staffing that would be required by increased need for providing nutritional guidelines and the safety staff to monitor the teens on campus? Or should this just be another issue of increased workload for an already stressed staff???
It is federally mandated to provide food according to the nutritional guidelines or the school district will lose funding. The guidelines are spelled out in the board policies for food service. It is there, whether we like them or not. You might need more staff for the kitchen if you want to start cooking, but that is the problem of the Food Services and they operate on a separate budget. I also think that the already stressed staff should bring their grievances to their supervisors to try to find solutions to ease their workload.
As for monitoring, should the administration decide to close the campus, I am sure they will let us know what they need – both in terms of money and staff – to make it feasible. BMS has a huge volunteer pool during lunch hours and the same option has been offered to BHS – many more times than I care to recall.
Love the attitude of “it’s not my problem so who cares”. It is this attitude that promotes Benician’s looking down on certain elementary schools in our community and anyone who is a Vallejoian. Word to the wise… This is our problem regardless of who’s child we are talking about, a Benician from Robert Semple, Mary Farmar, Matthew Turnner, Joe Henderson, or (gasp!) even a Vallejoian student; each child will grow up to participate in our society, and regardless of who’s budget (just who’s responsibility is it to water the lawns anyway???), it all creates an impact on the situation and ultimately the community. The uppity attitude around this community is disgusting.
Just because something is federally mandated does not mean that it is also funded. The trend around the country has been to cut jobs and increase the load on existing employees. The same has happened in the schools. Volunteers are great, but there is also the consideration of jobs in general. I have a concern for how much of an impact cutting jobs from the budget reduces the ability to provide appropriate services to students – especially in services that should be using proffessionally trained or paraproffessionals (which is not specifically a part of this conversation). How long (if ever) will it take to get those paid services back? Busses??? Nobody in the city uses busses so we’ll cut that service. Paraproffessionals in the school? Don’t need those either. Crossing guards? Librarians? We’ve got special funds from private donations to manage that. At some point there needs to be a balance between living with cuts to the budget and no longer allowing the government to continually cut budgets because their view is that private citizens have and should continue to take over those roles in the schools.
I realize this goes beyond your statements, but it is all part of the whole. Unfortunately, I just can’t agree with your stand point and you seem to have rabid need to control teens which negates room for compromise….
If you do not know me, please do not make assumptions about me and how much I care – or don’t care. If you do know me, then please identify yourself and we can continue the conversation.
I apologize for the stark nature of my comments, but I stand by them nonetheless. The majority of my post dated October 26, 2012 really has more to do with the system as a whole rather than your statements specifically. However, I do get the feeling that your stand point is more aligned with which budget funding comes from and generalized control over youth in our community.
So as I see it, there are 1% of the students who are showing up late for 5th period and 99% of the student body is responsible enough to safely make their way off campus for lunch and back again. Instead of the school managment dealing directly with the 1% (who are easily identifiable by their attendance records) the entire school has to be shut down? What a rediculous conversation. School management needs to step up, address the problem individuals and let the remainder of the students live and grow as the young adults they are becoming. Stay strong students. Don’t let the pin heads win this one.