Highlands Academy

Oak Hill Middle School was the best school in Konocti Unified School District for the students they served. The Superintendent and Board made a huge mistake when they opted to close this school. This school had a dedicated, intelligent staff that truly cared about their students. Now, the former middle school students are crammed into smaller classrooms on elementary campuses.

These "new" facilities were not, and are not designed to handle these larger, older students. The tables in the cafeteria are too small; larger students do not fit between the benches and the tables. The computer lab requires these older, larger students to bend down in order to use the computers, (which sit about eighteen inches off the floor).

The administration at the new facilities were not prepared to accommodate the learning environment required by middle school age students. Imagine trying to learn algebra in a portable classroom stuck in the middle of the playground. Picture trying to learn anything with younger student's playing tetherball and making noise right outside your class window. Imagine trying to learn how government works while students are running up and down the ramp, or dragging sticks across the corrugated outside walls of your classroom. These are some of the horrible conditions the Superintendent and Board have subjected these most vulnerable of students to.

Now, picture attempting classroom management and teaching students under an administration that deals with the problems associated with older students as if they were still primary grade students, and one which does not back up the teachers. Imagine maintaining any semblance of order in a classroom when students sent to the office for disruption, defiance, fighting, or swearing at the teacher, return to the classroom laughing and eating a candy bar given to them by the principal who "counseled" them by saying "Don't do it again, okay?" Picture a teacher after sending a student to the office for fighting and having that student scream at them from the middle of the playground (in front of several other teachers and classes) that they are a "f**** liar." Imagine the amount of respect shown to that teacher after the principal calls, while the student is with them, grills the teacher about the incident, (while on speaker phone), and concludes the conversation by saying that the student reports they never said that, and who then sends the offending student back to the classroom with no consequences.

These are only a few examples of what teachers and students have had to deal with due to the bad decisions made by the Konocti Unified School District Board and Superintendent. The students and teachers of Konocti Unified deserve better. It is time for a change. Vote the current Board out.