Health & Fitness
Welcome Back Mr. Sanchez
I often disagreed with Mr. Sanchez during his previous term but since his return, after being away for two years, I find I am agreeing with him more often.
Some interesting developments from this week’s Beaumont Unified School Board meeting:
The board approved the “Commemorative Naming of the Beaumont High School Athletic Field” for former Beaumont High science teacher and coach Don Smith. The district’s Facilities Naming Committee recommended the action and the board approved it with four votes and an abstention by Mr. David Sanchez.
The board received a report from the administration on the progress of the District’s English learners. The report showed minor but gradual growth in the number of students mastering English up until last year. The results from the CELDT (The California English Language Development Test) for last year showed the students’ progress towards learning English was going the wrong way. Mr. Sanchez asked the cabinet how long ago they moved some teaching specialists from the classroom to become coaches for other teachers. The administration’s representatives indicated the coaching program is in its second year. Mr. Sanchez told the cabinet that he had confidence that the state’s universities and colleges were providing competent, qualified teachers that shouldn’t need coaching and he wondered if the decrease of the CELDT scores might be attributed to removing specialists from the classroom. The administration’s position was that the coaching program was too new to properly evaluate it and that improving scores for English learners from the State’s standardize test (STAR tests) could be used to argue in favor of the coaching program. I believe Mr. Sanchez is right and returning the “coaches” to the classroom is something I’ve argued for in the past.
Find out what's happening in Banning-Beaumontfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
During his previous term on the board, I often disagreed with Mr. Sanchez but since his return, after being away for two years, I find I am agreeing with him more often. He has shown a sincere interest in holding down costs and holding the administration, as well as his fellow board members, accountable for the programs and services they’ve instituted during his absence. I’m beginning to like the new Mr. Sanchez.
