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Dear Parents, 

 

The second semester has started off well. Of course, there were the
usual concerns that many of you have about your child not getting a zero
period or not having a particular class but that happens. Unfortunately,
it is nearly impossible to give everyone what they want especially when
they don't turn in their registration forms. What is more important is
for you understand that we do our best. I get letters or emails from
parents stating that their child is a good child with good grades and
cannot understand why their child cannot get that specific class or that
0 period. Please note that we have a lot of good kids. I currently have
63 seniors with grade point averages of 4.0 or above and 215 seniors
with a 3.5 or above. I have 186 seniors who do not have one single entry
in their discipline files for any reason. There are 55 juniors with a
4.0 or above and 209 with a 3.5 or above and 233 perfectly behaved
angels with no discipline entries. I only mention these two grade levels
because they are the grades that usually have the most requests. My
point is that we have many, many good kids running around our school.
Please understand that we do the best we can to accommodate the children
and it is not personal if they cannot get what they desire. For the
record, almost 60% of the senior class takes at least on class after
lunch so please don't let your senior con you into believing that they
are the only senior at school after lunch.  

 

 I also want to take an opportunity to thank all of you who responded to
my last email. I did read each and every one. I was particularly happy
to read the ones that students sent me. I must say they were very well
written and quite insightful. Those kids are getting a great education
from somewhere. :-)

 

Since the end of the last football game, I have spent a great amount of
time reviewing the program and its coaching staff. I have spoken with
parents, students, coaches and other colleagues on the matter. In
attempting to meet this head on what I have discovered is that there are
broader problems that everyone knows exist but find difficult to
address. These problems include parents moving children from school to
school for athletic reasons which mainly revolve around playing time or
"exposure." This leads to another issue which is the obsession to get
the "scholarship". Yesterday's signing of national letters of intent did
not make it any easier. I am sure as a middle school parent you look to
see who has the most recruits to possibly see if that may be a good
place for your future athlete. I recently read an article about how
colleges are now offering scholarships to 7th & 8th graders.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/884969.html These
kids have not even taken an SAT or even received a semester report card.
What a smack in the face to all of those 4.0 students I referred to you
above. If you read the article I attached, USC is offering one of them
to a student not yet in high school.

 

I am just going to stop there because my blood is beginning to boil. The
reason that it is boiling is because in my humble opinion, it is all
about money. A successful college program brings in lots of money to the
university. A successful college player could make a lot of money. A
family can suddenly become wealthy or achieve fame and huge status
within their community.  As a result, the pressure on high school
coaches and school administrators to have competitive winning programs
becomes intensified. Place that pressure in an affluent area such as
Orange County or my old district in Manhattan Beach and the expectations
are magnified a hundred fold.

 

This is where your principal has conflict. My vision of high school has
always been one where the kids from our neighborhood grow up together
from elementary to high school. They play on the local pop warner and
little league teams together. They come to high school and play on the
school team. They develop long lasting relationships playing sports and
then go off to college where maybe a lucky few will get a full ride
scholarship, not one in which the college just pays for your books.
However, I know that that sort of thinking is outdated and I go back to
being old fashioned again. You are probably thinking I need to go back
to the 60's. To think that we could be really good some years and then
have some down years is not in step with today's reality. (Look at my
poor Yankees. :-)) I look for head coaches who can be positive role
models, who care and love working with kids and have great knowledge of
the sport. As parents you expressed to me at the last Coffeehouse Chat
that you wanted your children to learn teamwork, be disciplined, to
develop a strong work ethic and learn to work hard. You made it clear to
me that day that it was not about the won-lost record but how your
children were being treated that is most important. You want them to
have a good experience. We are in agreement on that.

 

There is a lot of energy that we are expending on who should be the head
coach of our football team. In a time when I am trying to prioritize
what is important in the classrooms of this teaching institution, I find
myself mired in an extracurricular activity that although a positive
source of entertainment, is not vital in the pursuit of our children's
academic needs. Here we are in the midst of one of our country's worse
economic crisis and school and district administrators are being forced
to spend a huge amount of time on the many opinions on high school
football. 

 

On Monday night when I meet with our football parents we need to discuss
how to improve. Let's talk about how we can improve the strength of the
players. Let's talk about how we can improve their diets and eating
habits. Let's talk about how we can attract additional quality coaching
staff. Let's talk about how we can better incorporate discipline into
our players. Let's talk about how to improve the academic performance of
our players. We need to get positive. That's the first step. 

 

We need our school and our community to get aboard and support our
program. We can all be a part of the solution. Remember, this is about
our children not about you or me. We need to work together to help
provide them with what we want them to have. During the Christmas break,
I met with a group of dads to discuss the football program. I had
invited a couple of dads that had expressed such displeasure with what
occurred during the season. They decided to help make a change and get
involved in the program. That is what we need, which is for all of Aliso
Viejo and Laguna Niguel to get involved. We must build from scratch. It
is oh so easy to run to some place that we think is so much better. It
is not always greener on the other side. We want to think it is, but it
isn't always. 

 

Let's place a stake in our program. Let's stop talking and let's get
working. Our kids are working so let's join them.  We can turn it
around, but we must do it together. I would like nothing more than to
see our school's program be the model of kids who grew up together and
being successful in high school together without the constant influx of
transfers. Oh, I forgot, that's old fashioned thinking. 

 

Your friendly neighborhood principal,

 

Charles Salter  

csalter@capousd.org

 

 

 

 



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