The Forgotten School

I must admit that I really hate the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District. They have little funding, and they are now spending a portion of that on advertising the school that they haven't put money into in a long time. Because the school district has lost so much enrollment they decided that it was completely necessary to spend money that is suppose to be on education, for newspaper ads and billboards telling parents to send their kids the the gang infested Rancho Cotate High School.

I am a high school student at Technology High. I am part of this school district, yet you will never hear the school board mention us in an article. I don't even know why they won't! My school is located on Sonoma State Campus, I get to take college classes, and technology is involved in EVERY class I take. We are the reason that the test scores are high, but do you see them telling the media about us? No, of course not, that would be LOGICAL. The STAR testing scores in our school are among the highest in the state, because we are able to learn from teachers that are intelligent and actually want to come to work everyday. We are able to learn from projects, instead of learning from a book and taking a test after.

They justify their spending by saying that they will get the money completely back by enrolling three new students. While this may be true, that money could be used in so many other ways. Even if they want to just advertise Rancho Cotate, they could use that thirteen thousand dollars they have as a budget for advertising, to start a new program there that would actually attract new students. All of the local high schools have something that makes them different, whether its an art program, college prep, international program, they all have SOMETHING that makes them different. Rancho doesn't have these things. They don't have a program that is recognized as part of their school.

So, in closing, I ask why the district chooses to forge the school that brings up the test scores, puts a new spin on learning, and established a connection with the university in the area?