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