Letters to the Editor: Students Respond to District Budget Crisis

The following are letters e-mailed to the editor. The letters have not been edited and appear as sumbitted. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, or to have your own blog on Union City Patch, email Zoneil Maharaj at zoneil.maharaj@patch.com.

Amy DeForest:

Dear Editor,

My name is Amy DeForest, I am graduating senior at Conley-Carabello High School. Through the year I myself have used the extra curricular activities in order to graduate on time and stay on track. Being a teen mom, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to graduate with my class. With the help of childcare at Logan and going to Adult School at night I will be able to graduate High School with my friends of the class of 2011.With Measure B not being able to pass other teen parents that may have the same dilemma as me and in the future will have a harder time trying to graduate and stay on track with out the extra help. The most recent drop out rate for our district is 2.95%, state wide the drop out rate is 4.46%, imagine how high the number will rise if our extra help is deprived from us. If our children stop going to school, most will be out on the streets, criminal activities will rise, and they will be lower real estate values in our own community. I believe everyone deserves a second chance, if given the opportunity I have faith that Measure B needs to pass because the futures of the students now and students to come depend on it.  

Sincerely,

Amy DeForest

Rameez Khan:

To The Editor,

I’m writing in regards to Measure B. Measure B was the emergency funding designed to minimize class size increases and reductions to the school year and also to fund after school activities. All these extracurricular activities that go on are keeping the youth from being involved in dangerous activities outside of school. These activities also help keep students on track and look forward to succeeding in something. Also with Measure B not passing the libraries will close and they will also take away summer school, which a lot of students use as a second chance to succeed. I myself have experienced a lot of failure but Conley has pushed me to want a second chance to graduate and summer school will help put me on track and adult school will also be closed which a lot of student and adult learners that go for a second chance to succeed will not have a place to go show what they are made of. The 2/3 majorities do not reflect against democracy. In a democracy it should be 50% plus 1 for majority to win. Votes are also being held out and I believe it’s unfair because the students of the New Haven Unified School District deserve this chance and the students want their education and especially where the economy is going education is important. The majority of people who voted for Measure B wanted it to pass. Measure B not passing will have a drastic change for a lot of students and teachers. We want Measure B to pass.

Sincerely,

Rameez Khan

Camille Masana:

Dear Editor,

I’m a graduating student from Conley Caraballo, the continuation school down Mission and Blanche. Not passing Measure B would not only effect the future generation education, but also the extracurricular activities that have students pursuing their grades would be diminished. Having no extracurricular activities would have the students not willing to even try to keep their grades up because all the activities they are looking forward to attend or be a part of are all taken away from them.  Having not passed the bill would have more students dropping out of high school. As of right now, the drop out rate alone in the New Haven District is up to 2.95% and the rate statewide is at 4.46% imagine how much that percentage would increase if everything that helps students get back on track are taken away. I know for a fact, if adult school or like the library were taken away, there would be no way that I could get myself back on track and graduating with my class this June.  Having none of the services that the community provide there will be more crime; the possibility of teenage pregnancy would increase because there would not be any services that will to teach them about how to protect themselves from getting pregnant at such a young age.  The health center has a lot to offer to those who need their help. I know from experience the service that the health center provides for their patients.  Having the health center or other free services provided would make it difficult for those who can’t afford them, to actually get the services they need, Measure B has a large impact on the education of upcoming generations with regards of creating well rounded students.

Sincerely,

Camille Masana

Julian Villegas:

Dear editor,

I am a graduating senior at Conley Caraballo High School. I have voted to support Measure B and to hear that it failed to pass really made me upset. Id this doesn’t pass, it will not only affect students but the community itself. In 2008-09, 2.95% of the students in the district, dropped out. Knowing this and relating this to Measure B, the drop out rate will sky rocket. Also, if there are more students on the streets, there may be a chance that the crime rate will increase.

From my own experience, I have attended James Logan High School for three years and the class sixes were 25-30 students per teacher. Having that many kids made me struggle because of constant interruption and most of the times the classes are loud, and for the classes to get bigger, student like me will struggle more. My senior year at Conley Caraballo helped me because the class sizes are smaller and the teachers are there to help you if you need help.

Measure B must pass. “Our kids are the future”. If kids are not doing too well in school and the only choice that they have is to drop out, just because Measure B didn’t pass, because their chances were taken away from them, like adult school. People that voted against Measure B, that have children, will soon realize that they made a mistake. This is to help kids express themselves and for them to prepare for the future.

Sincerely,

Julian Villegas

DeVante Harris:

Dear Editor, 

I’m writing this letter today because of the Measure B complications.  We need this to pass your not understanding what this can do to the children of this community. Not passing Measure B means no sports, no after school activities, no credit recovery none of all that it will be gone completely. What will us students do? With everything gone grades will drop, attendance will drop. Where do you think students will mostly end up on? The streets? Or in a body bag?  They are going to want to do something else and they’re going to need to something .to do because at school they are going to feel like they have no future because of what’s gone is what they were good at. Reconsider passing Measure B. Save us now and save our future.

Sincerely,

DeVante Harris

Bryan R.:

To the editor

I’m writing this letter today because of the failure of measure B. I was under the impression the under a democratic voting system the majority should prevail . now I’m not a genius when it comes to mathematics but 7,851 is a far greater number than 3,967. further more in a democratic system you would only need 50%+.01 needing a two third vote is FAR from a democratic voting . Having this fail to pass will hurt the majority, and the minority that declined its passing! Something has to happen to pass this measure because without it kids in sporting activities grades will drop, and their attendance in most cases.

Sincerely,

Bryan R.

Erik McCall:

Dear Editor

I am a student at Conley and I have come to understand that you are trying to get rid of summer school, adult school, sports, music, and arts. If you get rid of those I would surely not graduate and not have things to do after school. I need to graduate to get to do the things I want to later in life. I am ere to tell u my reasons why you should pas measure B.

One reason measure B should be passed is because some adults that haven’t passed high school. Adults need to be able to get a deploma so that they can do things they want to make money so they can support themselves. Also some students may need adult school to get the last bit of credits to pass or they might need it to pass period. If you take adult school away that means there goes students education and peoples hopes of getting a job.

Another reason is that some kids or students need summer school for extra help or credit. If you also take that away that harms the kids and students education to pass and be successful in life. So you can’t take summer school away so the kids and students will have that extra help to pass or get some extra help with a subject. If you had kids that needed help you would try and get them into summer school wouldn’t you?

One other reason is sports, music, and arts why take those away? Some kids and students want to make a life out of those. Why would you even think about taking them away? Some students and kids grow up and go to the NFL or become a singer/rapper or even a painter. Taking these away from them makes it hard for them to stay out of gangs and not get into trouble so think about this. This might crush their dreams and hopes of ever doing what they want.

These are my reasons why you should pass measure B. I think that it should be passed because of our kids and students that are at risk of failing and need that extra stuff to get where they want to be. Please really think about what u guys are doing to the kids and students of this area. Thank you for listening to me and hearing me out.

Sincerely,

Erik McCall

Tori Neubert:

Dear Editor,

When measure B didn't pass it make me think of myself and all the other students who are not graduating on time. In the world today us youth need all the education we can get because we are the future. We need libraries and extra school time such as adult school, summer school and continuation schools so that we can learn everything we need. Also, some adults in this world never graduated from high school so they go to adult school so that they can better their lives and give their children a better future. Schools shouldn't be paying for sports instead they should put all the money to libraries and school items such as books and materials. After school programs and clubs shouldn't be taken away because we raise money ourselves for those and we need these programs so we have something to do. Students don't want to go home right after school they want to hang out. If you take these clubs away then they will have too much free time. Free time is good but if you have too much people end up hanging around the streets and thats where you get into trouble. Basically what im trying to say is don't take our education away from us. Its not fair that the world gets to decide our future when measure B affects us the most, we should be the ones voting. This is our future so we should make the decisions and we should be the ones in charge because we are the future.

Sincerely,

Tori Neubert