It's back to school day for the Western Placer Unified School District (WPUSD) which essentially serves the City of Lincoln.  While the first day of school is always an exciting one, there is no doubt that WPUSD is a troubled school district.

[Full disclosure - I live in the WPUSD and my kids attend school at Twelve Bridges Elementary]

I am sure that running a school district is hard.  And no doubt, managing facilities, budgets, and the like in a district that experienced the kind of growth Lincoln has (Lincoln is the fastest growing city in California as a percentage of population) is a big challenge.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not say that the administration and faculty and staff at TBES are great.  My son had an outstanding teacher in fourth grade last year who went to the extra effort of placing him with a fifth grade teacher that was just right for him.  The principal tries very hard to listen to concerns of parents and communicates well.  He's had to work under difficult circumstances.

So with those disclaimers, I can tell you that the parents in Lincoln are getting increasingly bitter about the school district.  While the newer schools at Twelve Bridges and Foskett Ranch score well (but not great) on statewide testing, WPUSD consistently has the lowest scores in South/West Placer County.  Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis, and Granite Bay all score much higher.  And at least in the case of Rocklin amd Roseville, they face similar challenges.  Older neighborhoods along with extremely fast growth.  But the best schools in those district beat the good schools in Lincoln, and the older schools there similarly beat our schools, sometimes by a wide margin.

In terms of facilities, residents of WPUSD know how bad it is.  The district is over $100 million in debt after mismanaging developer fees and making bad bets on interest rates and Certificates of Participation (COPs). 

When many of us newer residents moved into Lincoln, we were all told of the new schools that would be built.  And while there are a few new schools, the promised new Twelve Bridges High School is now delayed by at least another 6 years.   Even brand new campuses, like Twelve Bridges Elementary, are already dotted with portable classrooms, as the school last year served several hundred more students than it was originally designed for.

Lincoln Crossing Elementary opens today only partially completed and already at design capacity, with students who were supposed to attend that new school scattered around the city.

The biggest complaint, however, is about Lincoln High School.  Everyone knows the school is overcrowded.  A bunch of new portables are on the campus today, and the plan now, according to WPUSD, is to grow the school up to over 2,000 students before even contemplating building Twelve Bridges High.

I can tell you in my neighborhood that the number one complaint is worries about older elementary school kids and middle school kids who dread having to send their children to Lincoln High, which, as mentioned, is an old, overcrowded campus with a mediocre academic record.

Meanwhile, just across the border in Rocklin, closer in fact to my neighborhood than Lincoln High, is the brand new Whitney High School, which is a gleaming campus that is already earning top scores academically on statewide tests.

I generally hear five attitudes:

1.  "Let's all go into Lincoln High and fix it."  Unfortunately, this is the small minority view.

2.  "How can I get my kids transferred to Whitney?"

3.  "I am going to buy a house/condo/apartment in Rocklin, claim I live there, and send my kids to Whitney."

4.    "Where is the best private high school?"

5.  "I don't care if I take a loss, I am selling my house and moving back to Granite Bay."

For all of this complaining, some of which I do myself, the district needs to address the facilities problem and the academic standards problems.  A recent facilities study by the district just, in my opinion, papered over the problem. 

I have been told that, even with the lower vote threshold of 55% for school bonds, WPUSD believes they can't pass a school bond because Sun City-Lincoln Hills residents, who dominate the electorate in Lincoln, won't vote for a bond.  That may be the case, but I'd like to see the polling.  I am not sure I would support a school bond, but I don;t write it off either.  Something has to be done.

Another suggestion I have heard is to convert Twelve Bridges Elementary School to a K through 8 school, and use Twelve Bridges MIddle School as a high school to relieve overcrowding at Lincoln High.

I would love to hear some creative thinking from WPUSD administration.  Right now, from what I have heard and read, they offer excuses and talk about the challenges.  As I said at the top, I understand it is a challenging time for WPUSD, but challenging times demand more than excuses, they demand us all stepping up.