Features

New state laws mandate that California public schools must be “clean, safe, and functional,” and that all students be supplied with textbooks and other instructional materials and taught by qualified teachers.  

While these are admirable goals, not nearly enough funds have been allocated to meet them, Associate Alameda County School Superintendent Carlene Naylor told the Alameda County Board of Education last week. 

The requirements are a result of the August 2004 settlement of the landmark Eliezer Williams v. State of California lawsuit. 

“Obviously, this settlement was not put together by anyone who works in the real school world,” said Jacki Fox Ruby, a county school boardmember. 

The class action, filed in 2000 by a group of California parents backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, among others, claimed that the state failed to provide poor and underprivileged students with equal educational opportunities. The administration of former Gov. Gray Davis fought the lawsuit for three years, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger settled it. 

The settlement agreement and its enacting legislation requires that districts throughout the state provide necessary instructional materials to all students, maintain facilities in “good repair” at low-performing schools, and ensure that all classes have properly credentialed teachers. Among other terms of the settlement, parents are to be notified that they have the right to file complaints with their respective districts if they find any conditions in their schools in violation of the settlement agreement. 

The settlement and legislation gives added responsibility to county school superintendents to oversee local districts to make sure the terms of the settlement agreement are met. 

But at last week’s meeting, Alameda County School Superintendent Sheila Jordan and county school board members grumbled that the time given by the legislature to inspect schools, and the funds allocated to correct problems, was far from adequate. 

The Williams lawsuit legislation provided $5 million a year, for the next three years, to be spent throughout the state. 

As a result, beginning this year, county superintendents must annually produce a “state of the schools” report on schools ranking on the low end of the state Academic Performance Index (API). This year one BUSD school, Rosa Parks Environmental Science, was on that list, along with 62 Oakland schools and two Emeryville schools 

In addition, beginning in 2005-06, county superintendents must visit all of the low-performing schools in the first month of the school year to determine compliance with the settlement. The settlement also requires the county school districts to provide textbooks and other instructional materials to students if the local districts fail to comply with state law. 

The settlement legislation also set up an emergency facilities repairs account to fund “unforeseeable emergency needs” such as gas leaks, power failures, or pest infestations. 

Superintendent Jordan said her office was studying its responsibilities under the settlement. A report of the impact of the settlement on county district’s budget is scheduled be presented to the board at its Feb. 8 meeting.