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Coffee Tours & Field Trips

Dear Vallejo Community, are you aware that Dr. Damelio's school bus "Coffee Tour" of Vallejo City Unified School District's new offices and schools is "free?"

While every parent in Vallejo knows that school buses for field trips come at an astronomical cost! My first grade students are going on a field trip in May. The bus alone will cost parents $690!! Two classes will share this cost, bringing the bottom line down to ONLY(?) $345 per class which, by the way, includes the bus driver's lunch!!

Field trips are an important real world, academic learning extension. They build shared cultural experience, extend thinking and learning, and, for many of Vallejo's children, expand the horizons of those who have never even been across a bridge.

How is it that we have "discretionary dollars" (?) to spend on our State Administrator's Public Relations Program, but we do not have the dollars to expand Vallejo's children's learning experience??

Continuing under the topic of appropriate usage of limited dollars:

How is it that we have dollars to spend on new administrators, new administration offices, new furniture for the the new adminstration offices, and, let's not forget, Dr. Damelio's lucrative pay package which comes directly out of the general school fund and includes a 15 percent raise each year he is in Vallejo,

BUT we don't have dollars to keep our classrooms repaired and clean??? More cuts are slated for next year. The latest estimate of $2.5 million will come from school closures, cancelling educational programs, classroom supplies, and laying off certified teachers, other educators and classified personnel. Are these areas where cuts should be made?? I think not!!!

AND please note that not one cut is derived from diminishing administrative expenditures!

Every expenditure needs to be accompanied with the question: How does this best support the educational experience of Vallejo's children?

If the answer is: It best supports the top of Vallejo City Unified School District's Administration, then the Vallejo Community needs to step up and let their voices be heard. Our children's education needs come first!

Paula Cogan, Pennycook Elementary School, First grade teacher of 25 years in Vallejo