Effort begins to save Hogan from closure

bring the troops back from afghanistan to take back our schools. i applaud Jairus Cook's honesty to tell things like it is. i disagree that the solution is to allow the gangs to dictate how the school system will work. there already is a mass exodus from the schools by any parent or grandparent of any race who can afford to do it and many who can't. that is the reality of Vallejo schools. if closing Hogan brings the ugly truth out of the closet and forces VUSD to deal with it, then maybe that is the best outcome.

With luck it will either be vandalized or razed to the ground after it closes. It has happened before and it will happen again. Only then will the city realize just how badly it needs the school when overcrowding becomes a problem. Like the saying goes, hindsight is always 20/20.

If they don't want Hogan to close the best choice is to make personal visits to the deadbeat Moms and Dads who don't care that their kid doesn't attend school. The attendance and the funding associated with attendance appears to be a major driver here.

Closing Hogan High School is not a good idea. Vallejo should build another high school, as we can see and probably have notice an increase in population here in Vallejo which is a good sign.

PT Barnum wrote:

If they don't want Hogan to close the best choice is to make personal visits to the deadbeat Moms and Dads who don't care that their kid doesn't attend school. The attendance and the funding associated with attendance appears to be a major driver here.

Attendance, Detention and Expulsion are just some of the tools that can be used to deal with troublesome kids. I say there should be a three strike law that makes it a crime to neglect the education and behavior of a child.

I went to Hogan last night, but did not know where they were meeting and couldn't find anyone to ask. I will be there at future meetings to SAVE HOGAN- I want to be a Hogan's Hero. My feeling- shut down the cushy plush new VCUSD offices on Mare Island instead.

NoBreaks wrote:

With luck it will either be vandalized or razed to the ground after it closes. It has happened before and it will happen again. Only then will the city realize just how badly it needs the school when overcrowding becomes a problem. Like the saying goes, hindsight is always 20/20.

You are probably right.

PT Barnum wrote:

The attendance and the funding associated with attendance appears to be a major driver here.

This is true. That's why Hogan embarked on Career Tech Academies. Other schools throughout California have shown that academies raise attendance, lower the dropout rate, and keep students from leaving the public school for private schools. Now they want to close us down just when we got them going.

I am wondering if we would have to close Hogan if the District would not have had to waste money firing 3 superintendents, moving the district office to Mare Island and hiring people to fill the new district office. I am appalled how VCUD says the care about students, but there actions seems to say -pad and cover my you know what. We have to close schools do to decreasing enrollement, but they contine to hire more administrators using so called categorical monies. It seems there needs to be a way to use categorical money for Vallejo students not administrators and their staff.
Hogan is becoming a model school with Small Learning Communities and Career Academies so lets waste more money - when they loose those grants.

Please close Hogan!

I wonder if Damelio and the bunch at Mare Island really care about how closing Hogan and the other changes will affect people. Hogan has many great programs going on, the academies, the Small Learning Communities, the NJROTC and others. What will happen to them? The Hogan faculty has not yet been told anything by the principal but has learned what might (probably will) happen from the newspaper. What leadership is that? I'm glad someone is trying to save Hogan but it is a lost cause with Damelio making his recommendation and he controls the money. Good luck to us all at Hogan.

This comment as a parent concerns me alot from the article.....
"It would be community suicide," Hogan site safety supervisor Jairus Cook said of bringing together students from competing gangs and neighborhoods.
First of all, the schools should be rid of gangs---period... Schools are where students are suppose to have an education, and where they should have an opportunity to go further in their education. The decision to close the school should not be based on fear of gangs and neighborhoods, but based on the needs of the proper education for the kids.....
Schools should be based on their academic goals and acheivements, and for the best interest of the kids, and not a place to hangout. School budgets in every district are being cut and officials are trying to best to give the kids the best education possible as we all go through the pain of this economy.
We need to think about the kids' education, not whether they are affliated with other gangs. In a matter of fact, gang colors or gang affliation should be band from school grounds, areas of activities of school performances, which would give every student the opportunity to feel safe in schools and priotize their education.
Schools should be evaluated based on such academic achievements on whether they will be closed or not. We should pray for the school board that they make the right decisions in school closures, and think the best solution to benefit the kids in their education.

Well said!!!!!!!!!! Had they of done this the town would prosper and the kids would learn and feel safe. I really think we should file a lawsuit on the school district for putting our children in harms way.

Concerned Citizen wrote:

This comment as a parent concerns me alot from the article.....
"It would be community suicide," Hogan site safety supervisor Jairus Cook said of bringing together students from competing gangs and neighborhoods.
First of all, the schools should be rid of gangs---period... Schools are where students are suppose to have an education, and where they should have an opportunity to go further in their education. The decision to close the school should not be based on fear of gangs and neighborhoods, but based on the needs of the proper education for the kids.....
Schools should be based on their academic goals and acheivements, and for the best interest of the kids, and not a place to hangout. School budgets in every district are being cut and officials are trying to best to give the kids the best education possible as we all go through the pain of this economy.
We need to think about the kids' education, not whether they are affliated with other gangs. In a matter of fact, gang colors or gang affliation should be band from school grounds, areas of activities of school performances, which would give every student the opportunity to feel safe in schools and priotize their education.
Schools should be evaluated based on such academic achievements on whether they will be closed or not. We should pray for the school board that they make the right decisions in school closures, and think the best solution to benefit the kids in their education.

Close every school in Vallejo. This city is doomed!!!!!!! Let's stop running buses and fixing roads too. Oh yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh close HOGAN!!

Parents - don't allow this school board to close any school in Vallejo. The school board alreay knows that pushing Hogan students into Vallejo and Bethel is a disaster waiting to happen.. And when the disaster strikes they will blame it on the students and the parents. This is yet another case of terrible leadership at the Valejo Unified School district impacting our children. BTW - I heard the Hogan vice principal was a total flake last night.

JHillyard - Hogan Teacher wrote:

<quoted text>
This is true. That's why Hogan embarked on Career Tech Academies. Other schools throughout California have shown that academies raise attendance, lower the dropout rate, and keep students from leaving the public school for private schools. Now they want to close us down just when we got them going.

Here are numbers from the California Department of Education

In 2003, there were 510 9th graders at Hogan. Four years later, there were 290 graduates and only 22 of them had the prerequsites for UC/CSU admittance. In 2004, you had 645 9th graders, their graduating class had 273 members, 52 of whome had the UC/CSU requirements. Ninth grade 2005?--668 kids but the graduating class only had 273 with 29 eligible to be admiitted to a state university.

I will not bore you with more numbers, but if you check you will see that every year, there are more than twice the number of kids in 9th grade as there are in 12th. The reality is, a kid's probabilty of graduating increases greatly if he can make it out of your ninth grade.

The career academies start in grade 10, right? Maybe they will help the kids who make it to tenth grade, but how are they going to help the logjam of kids stuck in 9th grade?

Question you should really look at: "How will career academies help the drop out rate when we are excluding the children most at risk of dropping out?"

If you have an answer to this, I know we would all love to hear it.

Hogan is lame wrote:

Close every school in Vallejo. This city is doomed!!!!!!! Let's stop running buses and fixing roads too. Oh yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh close HOGAN!!

Your Hella DUmb, Keep Hoqan Open !!

JHillyard - Hogan Teacher wrote:

<quoted text>
This is true. That's why Hogan embarked on Career Tech Academies. Other schools throughout California have shown that academies raise attendance, lower the dropout rate, and keep students from leaving the public school for private schools. Now they want to close us down just when we got them going.

I am serious--if you have a solid answer to my question, I will be at every Save Hogan meeting and rally their is. I desperately want options for our kids. But I am really fed up with stories of how great things are going (when the numbers don't bear it out) or how great they are going to be (when there is no proof and people are just looking out for their own).

Andres wrote:

<quoted text>

The career academies start in grade 10, right? Maybe they will help the kids who make it to tenth grade, but how are they going to help the logjam of kids stuck in 9th grade?
Question you should really look at: "How will career academies help the drop out rate when we are excluding the children most at risk of dropping out?"
If you have an answer to this, I know we would all love to hear it.

Good question. VCUSD ended the policy of keeping students in ninth grade if they don't earn enough units. The lack of units effects their graduation eligibility, but they will still move up the grades. Our academies accept and encourage students who did poorly in ninth grade, as well as those who did well.

I really hate the idea of closing Hogan High School. My years there were such positive ones. To me it is a grate high to attend. I never felt unsafe there, sure we had our differences but we respected one another. Please save this school from closing. It would be such a shame if it does!