SAVE DUNLAP ELEMENTARY!

Attention Parents, Homeowners, and Taxpayers!

Help us fight to save Dunlap! The proposal to close Dunlap Elementary affects us all regardless of whether or not you have children at the school. Our property value will plummet if Dunlap is abandoned, and it will become a cesspool covered in graffiti and filled with vagrants and troublemakers. Don’t let the school district punish taxpayers for the district’s inability to manage our money!The school district is spending $200,000 a year to lease turf for the high school football field and yet they can’t afford to keep Dunlap open. Contact the school board and tell them to get their priorities straight!All of your phone calls, emails, and letters are working – the school board has taken Dunlap off the chopping block for now, but they are going to decide the fate of the school at a later date. They are trying to wear us down, but we will not stop fighting. Contact your elected board members today. Tell them that closing Dunlap is not an option!Offer the school board other cost cutting options such as:-Cuts at the district level-Furlough days for district employees-Across the board salary cuts-Eliminate TOAs (Teachers On Assignment)-Eliminate administrator cell phones-Delay the adoption of new textbooks-Reconstruct school boundaries to make all schools smaller and thus eliminating the need for assistant principals-Eliminate home to school transportation – on the district website it is said that this alone would save $860,000Don’t be fooled by the district’s claim that Dunlap is not cost efficient or that it doesn’t have enough students. This year the district sent a third of Dunlap’s students to fill the brand new multi-million dollar Chapman Heights Elementary. That is why Dunlap is the smallest school in the district and why it costs more per student to operate. Tell the district to bring our students back to Dunlap and to stop fudging the numbers.

Please contact the school district and the school board members before the next board meeting. Don’t let them jeopardize our quality of life just because they can’t manage our tax dollars!

Yucaipa Calimesa Joint Unified School District – 797-017412797 3rd St.Yucaipa CA92399

Superintendent Sherry Kendrick – 797-0174 ext.101Sherry_Kendrick@ycjusd.k12.ca.usSchool

Board Members:
Sue Brown 797-2199 Sue_Brown@ycjusd.k12.ca.us
Chuck Christie 790-1123 Chuck_Christie@ycjusd.k12.ca.usPatricia
Ingram 797-0535 Patricia_Ingram@ycjusd.k12.ca.usJane
Smith 790-1684 Jane_Smith@ycjusd.k12.ca.usJim

Taylor 831-7651 Jim_Taylor@ycjusd.k12.ca.us

NEXT BOARD MEETING MARCH 10TH AT 6:30pm AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE - COME AND SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY!

We will always keep you informed here on the latest Save Dunlap News. http://www.dunlapschool.blogspot.com/

email us at savedunlapeleschool@msn.com see how you can help.

IMPORTANT MEETING WE ALL NEED TO ATTEND!

Today is the District Board Meeting and we all need to attend. Alot is said in big numbers! Please come help up save our school and also fight for CSR. We know budget cuts our inevitable because of the economy, but help us be sure the District is making the cuts that will least affect our children and teachers! We need your help. Come fight with us! Please be at the district office on 3rd street at 5PM today! Thank you!

COME JOIN US TODAY!

We will be at Yucaipa Blvd and Oak Glenn today 3:30pm till ?. Support the SAVE DUNLAP, TEACHERS, CSR and BAND. Tell the board to stop fudging the numbers.

WE ARE NOT DONE FIGHTING YET!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very sorry to say but the teachers and the board could not come up with an agreement. So no deal was made. Putting Dunlap back on the chopping block for the next meeting. I would really like to know what exactly was afforded to the board by the associations? More importantly what the board was asking for too? I feel what would work best is 7 furlough days during the summer so we can also save in AC and water cost. Along with a 3% pay reduction across the board. Or skip the pay cut and realign the boundaries lines to eliminate vice principals. With this move we keep small schools with smaller class sizes. The board feels this would be far more work than they are willing to do. Their fast fix is close Dunlap and band. This tells me they don't care for the needs of the children. Our childrens future depends on the boards decisions. Bad rash decisions like these will devastate our kids learning capabilities. I urge you to make this meeting on Tuesday Feb. 24th, 2009 @ 5pm at the district office to protest this hasty and poor decision.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

First, I would like to thank all the parents & teachers plus that participated in our efforts to keep Dunlap open. Our work has just begun and the fight is not over. We need to continue to work together to make it know to the public that saving Dunlap does not only effect us but them and teachers as well. If Dunlap is to close more teachers will lose there jobs, school will lose class size reduction and the list goes on. So don't be fooled by the board. Another thing is we support our band and choir program and do not want to see it go. So I propose we work together to come up with ways to fundraise, volunteer or donate money/instruments. It is a shame it took something like this for us to find common ground and know we need each others support. Don't let the boards decisions turn us against each other ,but let it bring us closer together in the fight for our children. So please know we care and support the bands future. The board has once again postponed any decision in whether to close Dunlap for now. Further talks are to be had with all involved parties. Next district will be held on Feb. 24th, 2009 at 6:30pm. please be there too!

FAMILIES STICKING TOGETHER FOR AN IMPORTANT CAUSE! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!

Thank you to all the families and friends who care and are helping to save our school. Remember today at 3:15pm we will be picketing again at the corner of Yucaipa Blvd and Oak Glen Road. Also it is so important to get as many people as possible to be at the District meeting tonight at 6:30pm. Numbers make a difference so please come join us and help us save our school!

POSTPONEMENT OF PROTEST

If it is raining or too wet, we will postpone the protest till Tuesday @ 3:15pm. We will do it until just before the board meeting that night. Pray for two hours of sun. Please remember to attent the Board Metting at the district office on Third Street. The more people there, the more we will be heard. I'd like to thank the teachers and staff for doing what they can too. I know times are tough, but together we can make it through. Please know you are greatly appreciated.

OUR CUMMUNITY MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

Here is an article written after families showing up with their signs to save Dunlap Elementary on Saturday! Thank you April White and all the families and friends that are fighting to save our school. Do not forget we will be picketing Monday February 9th at the Corner of Oak Glen Road and Yucaipa Blvd.... Bring your family and friends and be sure to make your own signs too.... come help us in the fight to save Dunlap Elementary School!

http://blogs.sbsun.com/yucaipanow/ This is the article written by Bob Otto. Thank you Bob.

PLEASE ATTEND AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!

SATURDAY FEB. 7TH @ 9AM THE SUN NEWSPAPER WILL BE TAKING A PHOTO OF THE PARENTS AND CONCERNED CITIZENS. Please bring your protest posters. Thank your SUN YUCAIPA NOW. Someone cares!

IMPORTANT MEETING THAT WE ALL NEED TO ATTEND!

Next YCJUSD Board meetings is at the district office on 3rd street in Yucaipa at 6:30pm Feb. 10th, 2009. Come and let your voice be heard. The more people at this meeting the more impact it will have. Bring a chair and get ready to be part of a great cause! Lets not just talk about what someone else should do but what we all can do. Be active in the solution.

THOUGHTS FROM ONE OF THE MANY PARENTS CONCERNED ABOUT DUNLAP CLOSING

To whom it may concern,

Due to ridiculous budget cuts in excess of $500,000 just for this year. The school board of Yucaipa & Calimesa are proposing to close Dunlap Elementary. This school has been serving the town of Yucaipa for 50 years. It holds some great experienced teachers that have even taught some of the parents. Now because they built a new school for the more well to do people of Chapman Heights they are closing Dunlap in Dunlap acres. The only school in this neighborhood. In closing Dunlap they will force our children to attend schools in surrounding area. Therefore overcrowding these surrounding schools. Making a situation where all students will lose. They will also propose forcing these great experienced teachers of Dunlap into early retirement. They will lay off 22 teachers and an additional 20 more making this a total of 40. There is a significant economic status difference in the families of Dunlap and Chapman Heights. This I am afraid will compromise our student academic and social growth. The board has kept this a secret so that we could not come up with ways to resolve these issues at hand. I feel we have been railroaded by the school board. Today we will be attending the school board meeting to ask for more time and an alternative solution. Our kids should able to attend a school in their own neighborhood with peer of families like their own. It wasn’t enough to take away their principal and office staff now it is their school. My three children have and do attend this famed school . My 1st grader reads at a 3rd grade level and my 5th grade at a 7th grade level. We have bright students with good testing scores. This is not a broken school but the opposite. What Dunlap teacher are doing is working. Working for the futures of our children. Throwing them in this desperate solutions will diminish our hopes for a better future for our children . I call on the help of our communities to come to our aid. We need to come together and help the future of the children of the United States. Next years proposed budget cuts will be 1 million dollars for this district alone.

April White

HELP US SAVE OUR SCHOOL!

Closing Dunlap School will result in overcrowding of the other schools in the district. More traffic congestion surrounding the adjecent schools such as Chapman Heights Elementary and Valley Elementary. It will also bring the property value down for the Dunlap Acres area. Let the YCJSD School Board know that you disapprove. A united community makes a better community. Dunlap has served our community for over 50 years. Let's work together to do what is right. We will be walking around with petitions all week at different schools. Please email us at savedunlapschool@msn.com if you would like to join this fight to save our school. We will also be picketing Monday February 9th at 4:30pm. We will meet at the intersection of Yucaipa Blvd and Oak Glen Road. Please make your own signs and come make a difference with us.

ANOTHER WAY TO HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Concern over school budgets? Write or call our State government and help them make better decisions for our children and their future!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) Website: gov.ca.gov
Sacramento Office:California 95814Phone: (916) 445-2841Fax: (916) 445-4633
Los Angeles Office:
300 South Spring Street, Suite 167Los Angeles, California 90013Phone: (213) 897-0322Fax: (213) 897-0319
Sen. Robert Dutton Website: http://ca.nea.capwiz.com/webreturn/?url=http://www.senate.ca.gov%2Fdutton
Sacramento Office:5094 State Capitol,California 95814Phone: (916) 651-4031Fax: (916) 327-2272
Rancho Cucamonga Office: (more district offices)
8577 Haven Avenue, Suite 210Rancho Cucamonga, California 91730Phone: (909) 466-4180Fax: (909) 466-4185

Asm. Paul Cook (R-CA 65th District) Website: republican.assembly.ca.gov/member/65/
Sacramento Office:5164 State Capitol,California 94249-0065Phone: (916) 319-2065Fax: (916) 319-2165
Yucaipa Office: (more district offices)
34932 Yucaipa BoulevardYucaipa, California 92399Phone: (909) 790-4196Fax: (909) 790-0479