February 10 Board of Education Meeting Agenda Available — Contact the Board

The agenda for the February 10 Board of Education meeting is now available on the district website at www.wccusd.net.  It is very important that as many adult education supporters as possible attend this meeting.  People who want to speak (and hopefully many will want to speak) should sign up to speak during the public comment period regarding the budget presentation, which is item D2 on the agenda.   During this item, the results of the voting at the community budget meetings will be discussed, so it is very important that supporters of adult education hear how this information is presented and present our side.

The budget item is “information only”, which means the board will not be voting on cuts to adult school at this meeting. However, they will be hearing recommendations about how to balance the budget that will almost certainly include further cuts to adult education, and this may be our only chance to make counter arguments.

The contact information for our Board of Education members is below.  You can call, email or write  them to tell them why it is important to preserve adult education in West County.

Name/Address	Phone	Email	Date Elected	Expiration Date
Madeline Kronenberg,  President 811 Craft Avenue El Cerrito CA  94530	510-334-9646	mkronen@aol.com	11/2006	12/3/2010 (first term)
Antonio Medrano, Clerk 406 Linda Drive San Pablo, CA 94806	(H) 510-223-0237 (F) 510-222-9465	amedrano3@sbcglobal.net	11/2008	12/7/2012 (first term)
Audrey Miles 1108 Bissell Ave. Richmond, CA 94801	(M) 510-307-4601	msaudreyjean@aol.com	11/2006	12/3/2010 (first term)
Charles T. Ramsey 410 Sea View Drive El Cerrito , CA 94530	(C) 510-682-5600 510-986-0455	charamsey@comcast.net	11/1993	12/3/2010 (fourth term)
Tony Thurmond 1108 Bissell Ave. Richmond, CA 94801	(H) 510-223-4394 (C) 510-681-4127	tony@tonythurmond.com	11/2008	12/7/2012 (first term)

The following are some facts you may want to use in framing your communications with the board:

These facts  from the West Contra Costa Unified School District website show who the children served by WCCUSD are:

• Of the 30,830 students served by the West Contra Costa Unified School District, 45.1% are Latino. 
• African American children represent the next largest group, at 23.2%. 
• 33.8 % of the children in WCCUSD are English Learners, of which 81% are Spanish speakers.
• 63.1% of children who attend WCCUSD schools qualify for free or reduced meals.

These demographics indicate that the majority of WCCUSD students are low-income children of  color, who are more likely to live in the urban Richmond/San Pablo area than in out-lying areas like El Cerrito or Pinole.

Also from the WCCUSD website, here are the locations of the community budget meetings:

• Murphy Elementary, in El Sobrante
• Collins Elementary, in Pinole
• Hercules High School, in Hercules
• LoVonya DeJean Middle School, in Richmond
• El Cerrito High, in El Cerrito
• Downer Elementary, in San Pablo

So while the majority of families and children served by WCCUSD live in the Richmond/San Pablo area, the majority of the community budget meetings (4 out of 6), took place outside that area.

Here are demographics regarding adult education students from West Contra Costa Adult Education’s attendance records:

• The largest WCCAE program is ESL. ESL students made up 44% of  WCCAE  students last year.
• All of WCCAE’s ESL classes are in the Richmond/San Pablo area.
• The second largest WCCAE program is Parent Education; Parent Education students made up 18% of  WCCAE students last year.
• Latinos use WCCAE  more than non-Latinos.  WCCAE students last year were 59% Latino.  The programs most heavily attended by Latino students were ESL (90% Latino), GED (55% Latino) and Parent Education (55%) Latino.
• Women use WCCAE  more than men. Last year WCCAE had 4,898 woman students, and 3160 men.
• At WCCAE last year, the average age of an ESL student was 38, the average age of a GED student was 28 and the average age of a Parent Education student was 34.
• So the most typical WCCAE student is a Latina woman at the age when she is most likely to have children attending WCCUSD schools.

Given the above demographics, we need to point out the following:

• Eliminating or severely cutting back adult education disproportionately affects women.
• Eliminating or severely cutting back adult education disproportionately affects Latinos.
• Eliminating or severely cutting back adult education disproportionately affects the families of Latino children, who make up the majority of the children served by  WCCUSD.
• The community budget meetings gave people in El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, and El Cerrito the opportunity to vote out of existence or cripple a program that primarily serves low-income people of color in the Richmond/San Pablo area.