People of Richmond: How would you improve WCCUSD schools?
on September 15, 2022
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity.
Q: If you were superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, what would your top priority be?
“I would make sure that students have enough teachers.
Right now, a lot of the classrooms are overfilled and the students don’t get adequate attention. It’s better to have more teachers or tutors in each class. We also have to get the younger kids prepared for when they go to high school and take their SATs, so they don’t have to be struggling then.” (Jason Desantos, maintenance worker)
“If I were superintendent of the WCCUSD, my top priority would be to make a specific plan to
encourage and motivate students to study.
I see after the Covid pandemic, the students are not interested in studying and the pandemic had a bad impact on students’ motivation. I even see that the students are not interested in going to school.” (Gilberto Juarez, carpenter)
“Find more teachers that will engage with the students. Most teachers are aloof. They need more engagement. The best way to do this is with more extracurriculars like music programs and sports programs.”
(Rudy Moran, warehouse worker)
“If I were a superintendent, my top priority would be to provide equal education for everyone.”
“The quality of the schools here is not the same and the fair education has not been provided and this is not a good system. When you pay more, quality education is provided to your children and you decide that the quality of school education should be better, but when you don’t pay or you pay less, the district superintendent decides what the quality of education will be.” (Margarita Deleon, prep cook)
“I was born and raised in this neighborhood. I went to school in this district.
If I was superintendent, I would make sure there are continuation schools for troubled teens and kids who are unable to perform well. It’s bad right now. There are not enough continuation schools down here for kids of our community.” (Tahira Mitchell)
“The first thing I want to do is give more to the teachers to help them. They need more money, right, because look what they’ve been getting right now. Not having enough money is hard. If you give them money, it can fix some problems.”
(Claudia Hernandez, McDonald’s crew member)
People of Richmond: Should police be paid more?
2 Comments
Richmond Confidential welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Richmond Confidential assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Richmond Confidential
Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. Our goal is to produce professional and engaging journalism that is useful for the citizens of the city.
Please send news tips to richconstaff@gmail.com.
I would engage with the students more.I would make more of an effort to be available to the parents and the students. If we ask them and their families what specific needs, wants to begin a new way of communicating and learning. Then ask how and what has been the students and families recovery methods since Covid.
Having come to the area fifty-eight years ago almost directly from the area of Richmond, VA, I had to say that although the east coast’s Richmond, VA is definitely an area of obvious patriotism, Richmond, CA can definitely become a place one can call one of loyalty and allegiance as the people and the place that is Richmond, CA continues to be is as progressive as ever.
Today, I would say that the subject of SAFETY would be something on everyone’s mind and especially where our children and schools are concerned. Safe neighborhoods and communities, including schools would have to be a priority before we could even address othe options.