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Mr. Damelio, Stop this Train

Dr. Damelio, during your time in Vallejo I've never uttered a disrespectful word toward you or your abilities. Now I must break my silence, hoping I don't offend. We know declining enrollment began before you came to Vallejo. It's a train rolling through many of California's districts. But now, on your watch, this slow train has become a runaway train with no brake man in sight. Closing Lincoln Elementary School will not slow down this out of control train. If anything, this act will only give this train more momentum.

Perhaps the closing of Lincoln can be put into perspective for Vallejo's parents, students and citizens. Closing this school will save the Vallejo City Unified School District $200,000 to $300,000. Your current salary is just shy of a quarter of a million dollars a year, an increase of $15,000 from last year. More than 100 families from downtown Vallejo will have their community uprooted - all for a monetary amount that will barely pay your salary. It's safe to say that you have not shouldered any of the pain that this closing will inflict on so many families.

You can call on parents and Vallejoans to step up to the plate, placing the burden on them to reverse this exodus. By doing so, you fail to realize that trust has been broken and confidence has been lost. Vallejoans see Measure A funds misused to renovate a new and inaccessible district office, one that houses a caf that serves Starbucks coffee. Vallejoans, many living paycheck to paycheck, rose to the occasion and voted to pay from their pockets to salvage Vallejo's public schools for its students - not for its school board administrators. Now, they see these funds abused, and it's a slap in the face to all of us who championed this cause and voted for its passage.

You've lost the confidence of parents scared for the safety of their children in Vallejo's public schools. You can have board members do your bidding by threatening the revenue of a free press or chastising those who dare shed light on this matter. But it doesn't make a valid fear disappear. And continued lack of meaningful action only validates those fears. This is compounded when you use board members as your lapdogs - especially when voters elected them to be watchdogs.

Or look to the A to G requirements forced on all high school students in Vallejo, and the near elimination of vocational education. I have students, good and hard-working students, who love to work with their hands. They have a dream to build, to repair and to create using their unique gifts and talents. Your mandates send a message that cheapens the importance of such talent. So, it comes as no surprise that enrollment is dropping. What else would you expect when you slam the door shut in the faces of so many students? You can claim to be a champion of vocational education, being the son of a carpenter. However, actions speak louder than words. When you send a wood shop teacher with walking paper, after 30 years of service to the district, giving him the option to be rehired should he go back to school so he can teach math or English, then you send a message as to how much you "value" this form of education.

It's good to have high expectations of students. It'd be criminal if an educator didn't. Still, you're ignoring the needs of Vallejo's students by imposing your values on them. Your values are not inclusive. They're exclusive. They don't meet the needs of all our students. Once again, faith and confidence in Vallejo's public schools is lost, and rightfully so. Many feel as though we're back where we were four years ago - or maybe even worse, believing that your policies and your top-heavy hiring practices have become the very monster you were meant to reform.

When you hold your public forums, it would be appreciated if you heeded the words of those who truly know Vallejo. My generation had a song that served as an anthem: The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again." The last words of that song are "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." When you leave Vallejo, Dr. Damelio, do you want those words to be your legacy, your epitaph? One would hope not.

Dr. Damelio, declining enrollment has become a runaway train, and you need to find a way to make it stop.

William Innes, Vallejo educator, Cave Elementary School