This is a decisive moment for Riverside Unified School District (RUSD). What happens now will determine what education is like for our children’s children. Many parents who attend RUSD schools, as well as teachers and concerned citizens, have serious concerns about where the current school board and administration are leading the district. The problems are myriad: falling test scores, declining enrollment, and a disturbing unwillingness to shoot for more than just good enough. New, dynamic and passionate voices on the school board would spark the kind of change RUSD so desperately needs.
As the educational landscape changes, the need for fresh voices becomes more important than ever. New voices bring new ideas, and a willingness to reach for new and innovative ways to improve experience. New board members committed to doing more than ‘getting by’ – not willing to settle for ‘good enough’ – will help bring about a renaissance in education in RUSD. It is not just about replacing faces, but about creating a new set of ideas and philosophies that will imbue an ethos of achievement in RUSD that will be held by both employees and the community.
RUSD is facing a lot of obstacles that are preventing students from reaching my full potential. Most of them are systemic and symptomatic because they evolve from long time policies that do not meet the needs of the diverse student body nor prepare students for college or the workforce. We need to implement a long-term plan that focuses on the students as our main goal if we want to maximize our potential at RUSD. Our district needs leaders that can lead us to this point. After seeing the current board be impressed by a report that indicates they are failing to educate because of pretty graphs and purported unverified datasets, it is obvious that we lack those with the tenacity, courage and commitment to right this ship.
Further as I have volunteered to advocate for a student in this district I find the existing board, cabinet and administration completely removed and disinterested in education. They are unresponsive and not concerned with the failings of RUSD. They leave education decisions to attorneys with a goal of the lowest legal supports and NO FOCUS on Education.
Empowering our students includes providing the resources, encouragement, and learning environments needed to help students thrive. RUSD fails to provide the types of learning environments necessary to encourage students to reach their full potential. The district instituted a curriculum that focuses on rote learning rather than critical thinking and, as a result, students are woefully unprepared for higher education and the workplace. The district needs to emphasize customized learning that encourages creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. The district is only focused on minimum standards and repeats failed techniques using failed models as their gameplan.
Beyond the negative effects on learning, mediocre educational results affect civic engagement and trust in communities, as well as real-estate values and future workforces. In short, community expectations are very high. When mediocre results – rather than excellent ones – emerge, stakeholders are understandably disappointed. This can be a very long-term threat to institutions because it dampens enquiries from prospective residents, undercuts student morale, and narrows the pathways to scholarships and other forms of higher education.
Educational leadership in RUSD needs to be infused with values of ambition and a commitment to continuous improvement. A leadership structure that is strong and dynamic is needed to cultivate a culture of success and that takes more than just administrative capacity. It requires a commitment to encouraging growth, flexibility and a readiness to address and solve educational problems. Leaders must model the change they seek, motivating us to create and maintain personalized success for students over a system of mediocrity. This means we must make wholesale changes from the top down.
The declining test scores and enrollment indicate the possibility that the district is in a free-fall. It needs to be intervened, via strategic interventions, such as streamlining curricula, investing in teachers’ training, updating on facilities and providing equipment fit for technology-led education, while also taking the community into confidence by open communication and regular feedback mechanisms to make sure that their strategies mirror what parents and students desire. Such an elaborate intervention is likely to restore RUSD’s credibility and revive its educational glory.
It is imperative that RUSD voters elect new candidates who bring fresh ideas and a commitment to doing what is best for the kids. We must focus on new leaders, not incumbents or their chosen “shills” who have sold out to the unions and an outdated underperforming ideology. So together, we must hold the district accountable. However, these critical decisions must start with us – with the Riverside voters. Our active involvement is essential to hold the district accountable till the transition to new leadership can take place, and beyond. Only determined and visionary decision-makers can lead the Riverside Unified School District into a new era of academic innovation and success. Vote for our children, Vote for our students, Vote for education, Vote for science and VOTE FOR NEW LEADERSHIP. We must not sell our children and future to the union and old boys network’s money.
