The pictures tell the story better than can I.
But to be told that the district doesn't have enough money to keep your child's school open - and then to open the dumpster and see the equivalent of a small library discarded makes one wonder about management policies, oversight and, frankly, competence.
The books in the dumpsters added, say, insult to injury.
There is, one parent quipped, just one short step between throwing away usable books and burning them. Ouch.
I am often pleased to point out irony. The difference in usage, for instance, between the words oversight and oversight. One means accountablity and the other means error. But we here in the canyons have had enough irony, nearly losing our whole canyon and then our school. So, no, irony is not helpful today, not on a day spent rescuing books from god help us, a school! It's not so comforting or even helpful, not when it can't seem to find a place to mean anything. Sigh. Back to sorting. At least these lovely volumes will find new homes. They're destined for an after-school tutoring program in Santa Ana.
Now where is that copy of Fahrenheit 451?
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Clearly the individuals who worked at the school were doing their best (I saw that) - they were given an impossible task - this was failure at the district level.
ReplyDeleteThese people still don't understand what it means to CLOSE a school - not the impact on resources or staff - let alone what it means to tell five-year-olds to get on a bus at 6:30 in the morning.
They threw the books out just like they threw out our children.
Irresponsible, short-sighted fools.
There's no law that criminalizes the throwing away of books - but there is one about taking other people's garbage.
ReplyDeleteThe district could have had a huge yardsale/auction and generated some quick cash. Or how about donating these items? The last thing we need is to fill up our landfills with usable books. We have become a disposable society...including disposable people, like the kids, for instance.
ReplyDeleteThe super and the trustees and the district didn't plan for any of this - they were no shows at every level.
ReplyDeleteThe books in the dumpsters is symbolic of the problems in the district and the poor management. They don't know what they're doing - they make it up as they go along - at the expense of children, teachers and staff.
ReplyDeleteI remain upset that neither the superintendent nor any of the trsutees could be bothered to show up on that last day to recognize the contributions this school has made throughout its hundred plus years...
ReplyDeleteIt goes to show just how much they don't care despite what they said. How the school was and wasn't cleared out just confirms that. The people who worked there did what they could but they didn't have much to work with.
I hope this haunts their futures. Shame on them.
How about that it was public funds, property that they disposed of.... attorney please!
ReplyDeleteI hope these images will haunt these leaders as they go on to other positions (ie, run for other pffices).
ReplyDeleteThrowing k-6ers on a bus for three hours a day and throwing out books to boot. You know, they really don't know what they're doing - they just do it and then later they will feign regret or innocence or blame it on someone else.
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