Schools

By Gus Morrison

Education is important to making a city strong and vibrant.

• The city paid 25% of the cost of the new swimming pool at American High School.
• Ardenwood, Forest Park, and Weibel schools sit all or in part on city land.
• We worked out an agreement with the school district to improve and share the tennis courts at Mission San Jose Community Park so that Mission High could make improvements to its parking.

We need to continue to innovate in order to free up more money for the classroom. We need to think "outside the box." Here's my latest idea....

Joint Powers Agency to Improve Education

The school district currently spends a significant amount of its budget on non-classroom activities, such as building and grounds maintenance. I propose the city and the school district establish a joint powers agency to assume responsibility for all non-classroom activities currently performed by either the city or the district. Each entity would contribute to the agency the amount we currently spend, and the agency would manage the pooled assets.

The benefits would be professional, efficient management of the assets and a savings through reduction of duplicate effort. The agency would be able to accomplish more for the same money and/or return money to educational use. The school district would be free to focus all of its funds and attention on the classroom.

In the end, we could have better facilities, higher citizen confidence, more attention to education, and a more open, cooperative spirit between the district and the city.