Laugh it up
City's school closures a bummer, negotiations with secret whales a joke
By Cosmo Garvin
cosmog@newsreview.com
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Related stories: Whale bites Will Mayor Kevin Johnson's billionaires club save Sacramento—or eat us? SN&R, 01.31.13. Sacramento city school-closure vote set for next week Sacramento's struggling neighborhoods feel bullied by city district's school-closure plan. SN&R, 02.14.13. |
“Run for our seats if you think you can do a better job.” That was the take away from newly appointed (not elected) Sacramento City Unified School District board member Jay Hansen last week, as he joined fellow Board of Education members Patrick Kennedy, Jeff Cuneoand Darrel Woo in voting to shut down seven neighborhood schools.
That was just one piece of a nasty little lecture Hansen gave on how folks really ought to be more respectful to the board members and should think of those area residents like himself who don’t have kids, but who graciously pay their property taxes, anyway. “I gladly do that. I know it’s good for the community. … But you have to have people like me on your side.” Yes. Nice of you to pay your taxes, Jay.
At that point, Hansen’s team had thoroughly lost the argument on school closures. The district’s school-capacity numbers were fiction, the cost-benefit analysis was a joke. It was obvious to all that the “rightsizing” process had been designed to shut the public out of decision-making.
Board members Diana Rodriguez,Gustavo Arroyo and Christina Pritchettand student board member Katrina Yefilibustered, highlighting the endless contradictions and problems with the plan. (And providing a glimpse of the civil-rights lawsuit to come.)
But Hansen and Kennedy and Cuneo and Woo, along with their boss, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, did what they were going to do all along.
They seemed a little put out that so many people would challenge J. Ray’s dictates on what