Sequoia Candidate: District Needs Diversity

Editor’s Note: Patch will run a profile of each candidate. Candidates include: Larry Moody, Carrie B. Du Bois, Allen Weiner, Lorraine Rumley and Olivia Martinez. Election Day is Nov. 8, 2011.

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By Cassandra Feliciano

As long as there is no representation from the underserved feeder schools, the achievement gap within the will continue to exist, said 2011 board candidate Larry Moody.

“It’s always been the elephant in the room,” Moody explains. “Sequoia’s biggest challenge is: how do you manage the relationship with the Ravenswood district.”

While district leadership has in the past acknowledged the educational disparities among its students, there has been little active outreach toward the Ravenswood district. Consequently, Moody said that there is a lack of communication between these districts and “often times there’s no voice” to speak on behalf of the community.

“We totally believe that the Ravenswood community has to be represented, it’s long overdue,” he added.

Of the high school district’s more than 8,000 students, about 1,500 come from Ravenswood schools, said Moody, and less than half graduate with a high school diploma. One of the reasons for this dip, some candidates have pointed out, is that the transition from middle school to high school is especially difficult for students from these communities.

However, Moody, who lives in East Palo Alto, said that he is in a position to guide the dialogue on solutions not only because he sees these issues unfold daily, but also because he has been working to curb its effects for the past eight years.

One of Moody’s most recent endeavors involves the Built to Last (BTL) Collaborative, a support program funded by a three-year AmeriCorps grant that aims to provide academic coaching to ensure graduation for Ravenswood students in the Sequoia district. But more than remedial help, Moody said that students can look to BTL for motivation.

“When you’re competing against students who are coming out of West Menlo Park, Belmont and San Carlos, when you walk into that classroom, it’s going to be pretty intimidating,” he said. “You’re going to be like, ‘Don’t call on me.’ You’re not going to have the attitude of ‘I want to compete in the classroom.’ You just want to survive.”

According to Moody, who has two seniors at Menlo-Atherton High School and a Woodside High School graduate, these dynamics are complicated by external factors that aren’t always obvious to school administrators who don’t live in these low-income communities. For example, aside from fewer resources, Ravenswood students might also face language barriers, pressures from being the family breadwinner or even direct connections with criminal activities.

Moody has taken steps towards addressing those issues as well by regularly holding meetings and focus groups between city and school leaders in both the Sequoia and Ravenswood communities.

This is not to say, however, that his educational policy stance is one-sided, he argued.

“It’s a community development agenda,” Moody said. “Because if we are constantly sending kids into the district and they’re failing to graduate at a 60 to 66 percent rate, then what are those indicators going to mean for our community?”

His philosophy, he said, is “quality education for all our sons and daughters,” regardless of what middle school district they may transition from. But because the gap revolves largely around the students matriculating to Sequoia from the Ravenswood District, it is important for that sector to have a representative at the school board level.

“[Moody] knows the East Palo Alto community as well as anyone, and has worked hard to advocate for kids [here],” said Chris Bischof, co-founder and principal at Eastside Preparatory College. “Based on his tireless efforts to help kids in this community, [Moody] has developed a great understanding about the challenges that our students face.”

Bischof, who has worked with Moody for the last 15 years, believes that the candidate can offer the board effective ideas on closing the achievement gap. Moody’s other endorsers include East Palo Alto mayor Carlos Romero, former Sequoia board trustee Sally Steward and former State Assemblyman Ira Ruskin.