EDITORIAL - The senior class of Madera South High School, like many senior classes throughout our country, has lost the best year of high school. They lost their proms, senior trips, yearbooks, and any chance of having a “normal” graduation. Their school year ended on the night of March 13th when in a closed session meeting the Madera Unified School District decided to shut the schools down. But unlike other schools throughout the country or even just in our home town, the class of 2020 at Madera South also had to face being ignored by their school and principal.
While other schools put up signs of encouragement to their seniors and students, first-year Madera South Principal Ami Anderson has refused to allow any signs to be placed on the school's fences or any school funds to be used in any way to honor the class of 2020. I know of at least one senior from the class of 2020 who sent the principal an email asking if the class would still get their traditional senior sweatshirts with the entire roster of the class printed on the back. Ms. Anderson answered back telling the student that was not an “essential” item to get people to leave their houses.
Meanwhile, the students and seniors at Madera South saw their counterparts at Madera High School receiving parades, signs of encouragement on the school's fence-line, senior shirts, and yard signs nearly a month ago. When asked about the Madera South Seniors, the schools’ administrations answer has always been, “We can’t spend money on things like that.”
Now today the Madera South Senior Class came back to campus to pick up their caps and gowns, and this senior “gift basket” that was to include their very first alumni shirt (not included), alumni stickers (a generic paper ‘class of 2020’ sticker) and a yard sign (about 40% of the size of the ones handed out to Madera High Students). Also not included were the two tickets for graduation the graduation ceremony, such as it is, for the parents use. Now, our kids have seen what was given to the students at the Flagship Madera High School, they know they have gotten the short end of the stick.
Maybe when local rabble-rouser Ron Montoya accused the district of “Institutional Racism” he was partially right. Families of students that attend Madera South are much lower-income than the average families of students at Madera High. 92% of Madera South Students come from low-income households, compared to Madera High School the low-income student population is only 78%. Madera South also has 92.7% Hispanic and 3% white student population compared to Madera High’s 85% Hispanic and 10% white student population.
You would think Madera Unified Superintendent Todd Lile and his board of trustees would know these numbers and realize there might have been some significant difference between the numbers that the poorer school might need a little help in making things equitable between the schools. Todd Lile said in a text message when asked about the differences, “It all comes down to funds earned by the seniors. We cannot buy these to level the playing field. If we use district funds for seniors it becomes a gift and that is illegal.” This comes just days after the school district approved a videotaped graduation “keepsake” for all district seniors to the tune of $140,000.
I knew there was a difference between the two schools when my oldest daughter started on the varsity golf teams during her freshman year. When jerseys were handed out, they were very plain and did not include a hat. So I ordered 20 MSHS Golf visors from one of my vendors and gave them to the girls. Then a fundraiser came up for the team and my daughter and I raised a few thousand dollars for the golf team that ended up paying for two sets of golf shirts for both the boys and girls teams, with money left over for the future. When my daughter wanted to join the swim team we saw the same problems with uniforms. So for the next two years when the swim-a-thon took place, this overweight, diabetic, high blood pressure Dad jumped in the pool and raised nearly four thousand dollars for the swim team. Well, it would have been $4000 if it weren’t for a couple of District Office folks that could never seem to find their checkbooks when the bill came due.
So there are things that Madera High students expect to get that Madera South students have learned to be grateful for if they come, but know not to expect to be treated the same. So when Mr. Lile talks about the senior class not “earning” enough funds or “leveling the playing field” it makes me wonder about Ron Montoya standing in front of the school board yelling at them about treating our students equally. I always thought he was just crazy, but maybe Mr. Montoya should be on our school board just to keep the district in check.
There are also issues with blaming the senior class for not having “earned” enough money last year. For example, when they put on the school's prom, they had to also pay for transportation of all the students from Madera to Sanger and back at a minimum of $750 a bus. This was in order to hold prom at a facility owned by a family member of the Madera Unified Board of Trustees. In hindsight possibly not a good decision?
Having saved that ‘transportation’ money alone probably would have been enough to ensure that the senior class of Madera South High School could have been given a “gift bag” that was better than one they would have gotten from the recycling booth at the fair.
Someone also needs to answer how our Stallion seniors have been treated since the school closed. Ms. Anderson has shown a lack of empathy for her students from day one. During a winter rally earlier in the year the students started chanting “Bring Back Rodriguez” when Anderson walked into the West Gym. We are now wondering if this was the students’ way of bringing this problem to our attention.
Madera South has had a long line of great principals since the school opened. Not one of them would have ever ignored a class that has missed out on so much. Ami Anderson has not handled herself well in “earning” the position she currently holds. She has ignored the needs of our students, especially our senior class when they needed a leader the most. We see no indication that she will perform any better in the future. This alone is enough to fuel my belief that she needs to be removed as principal of Madera South High School.
Jack Porter is the publisher of Big Valley News, a parent of two Stallion daughters, a five-year member of the Madera South High School Site Council, three-year chairman of the MSHS-SSC, Madera South representative to the MUSD Parent Advisory Committee and the 2019 recipient of the Madera South High School Athletic Stallion Support Award.
