By Olga Steele
Every now and then you meet someone who gets you fired up enough to believe they”ve got what it takes to solve problems elected officials can”t. Recently, I met someone who got me fired up about the state of our schools. Frankly, there”s good reason for everyone to be fired up about the state of our schools. A case in point is Upper Lake High.
Upper Lake High School has many excellent and dedicated teaching and other professionals. But they also have problems that require good leadership. Among Lake County schools, Upper Lake High has the highest dropout rate. Although the rate dropped from 27.6 percent in the prior year to 20.1 percent in 2007/”08, it bothers me that the administration blames the problem, in part, on how the California Department of Education tracks and classifies dropouts. This is distressing because the issue is not how statistics are reported ? it is that we are failing children ? the consequences of which are unforgivable. And fussing about getting the statistics right is not the answer. Rather, the answer is getting at the root cause of the problem so that it can be properly addressed. That”s where everyday people can make a difference. People like Claudine Pedroncelli, who has the leadership qualities and will to improve our schools.
As a former school board member and parent who became so discouraged with a failing public school system that I moved my children to private schools, I came to realize that the difference between schools that succeed and those that don”t is in the leadership. I”ve personally seen this play out several times, most recently while on the board of a conservation corps and charter school in the Bay Area, where good leadership, pure and simple, is graduating some of our most challenged youth.
Good leaders can be hard to find, but, lucky for us Claudine is running for the Upper Lake High School District Board of Directors.
Claudine won”t spend a lot of money to fund a fancy campaign ? you won”t see flashy signs or slick and glossy informational flyers ? but, as evidenced by her successful efforts to organize the Upper Lake Community Free Dinner Program, she sure knows how to get things done. As Claudine explained to me how and why she started this program, several key leadership attributes surfaced. First, her visionary and creative leadership ? necessary to even consider such an undertaking; second, her persistence and the ability to influence others to do good ? she had to recruit helpers; third, and perhaps most importantly, her selflessness ? the willingness to work as hard as any problem requires, with no expectation of personal reward. You can”t buy these qualities with money ? and Claudine isn”t asking for any. In fact, if elected, she will return to the school the health benefits stipend offered to school board members.
The state of our schools today is everybody”s problem and we should be fired up enough to vote the right people to our district school boards. These are not elections we should sit out and I urge my fellow citizens to vote. Now, more than ever, we need to come together in good old grass roots fashion to support candidates, like Claudine, who are willing to give of themselves for no other reason than for the good of all children and our Lake County communities.
Olga Steele
Lakeport
