Between an ongoing concern to tighten the budget and a $12,000 spending fiasco involving Sunnyside High School's superintendent, an unsuspected source of hope emerged at Sunnyside Unified School District's Governing Board meeting Jan. 26.
While the primary concern for many in attendance was answers from the board regarding Superintendent Manuel L. Isquierdo's personal use of a district credit card, a band of students and faculty from STAR Academic Center gathered for a different cause.
The STAR supporters, which included about 40 of the high school's students and faculty, took over the board room during the first hour of the meeting to voice concerns surrounding a proposed redesign plan for the alternative high school. The plan was set to increase STAR's enrollment and force current faculty members to reapply for their jobs before the next school year.
With fellow district high schools Sunnyside and Desert View bursting at the seams, the board went forward with its recommendation to increase STAR's enrollment to 500. But because of the outcry from students, the board will not require the faculty to reapply for their jobs next fall.
STAR is a smaller, second-chance school for students to learn in non-traditional ways and spend more time with teachers compared to a regular high school. It is also for students who may not be able to attend regularly.
With an enrollment of 260 students, the proposed redesign represents a 92 percent enrollment increase.
But for the students, it wasn't so much about the population expansion as it was about keeping their teachers on board.
"We wanted to keep the teachers (and) the staff," said Tony Fierro, a senior at STAR. "We've built such good relationships with them over our time there."
Fierro said the students' goal at the board meeting was to make sure their teachers remained.
The teachers echoed their sentiments as well.
"This is a place where (the students) feel comfortable," said Michael Olguin, a government and history teacher at STAR. "We understand the problems that the district is facing. We just wanted to come here and make sure this was a collaborative effort between the students, the teachers and the district."
That collaborative process, Olguin said, was to ensure that the district wasn't going to force STAR to become a large high school like Sunnyside or Desert View, which have student enrollments of 2,264 and 2,002, respectively.
However,?SUSD is under the constant stress to become more cost-effective. The board says adding students at STAR is a necessity at this point.
"If I could have and we could afford 10 STAR (high schools), then it would be on the table right now," said SUSD Board President Louie Gonzales. "Small schools are great, but it's all about cost."
Gonzales said before the economic downturn, the district was in line to build a third high school to relieve some of the pressure on the district's other two high schools.
With no funding for construction, the district wants to relieve the number of students at Sunnyside and Desert View by increasing the enrollment at STAR. The hope is that the second-chance school can be a success for at-risk students on a larger scale.
"We need to expand for those at-risk students in this district (who) also need help," said SUSD Board Member Eva Dong. "We want them to experience what all of the STAR students have been able to experience."
STAR teachers have an optimistic view of the board's decision.
"You know, great things are happening here," Olguin said. "As long as it's collaborative between us and the district, and not just them imposing rules and regulations on us, even greater things can happen."
