School boundaries may need to be revisited in coming years
Maybe it is time for the Delano Joint Union High School District to consider a review of the boundaries of the three public high schools, Delano High School, Cesar E. Chavez High School and Robert F. Kennedy High School.
My “facts” and assumptions are not perfect, I am sure, but they bring up some questions that the district may want to consider.
When the third high school was added
(Robert F. Kennedy), a chart at that time indicated that within a short time all three high schools would have enrollment of somewhere between 1,400 and 1,440.
Delano High was for years the school with the highest enrollment, but in the last three years DHS has slipped to third — or last — among the three schools and is likely to continue slipping in numbers.
I always questioned why a small area near Kalibo Park and near Inyo Street was placed in the Kennedy district far across town. Another question is why the Chavez boundary includes homes to the west of the railroad tracks and across the street from Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and the area south of Garces Highway. I’m sure a study of the boundaries would check my understanding of these boundaries.
Since many new homes and apartments have been constructed near the Marketplace commercial development, I have often heard the public remark that those residences will help lift the Kennedy enrollment. They do not know that any increase in that area will go to Cesar Chavez High School.
Location is not the only thing considered when placing an area in a specific school’s district. In order to avoid being sued, districts also consider ethnicity and economic status of an area. Once I heard that test scores were also considered. All these reasons are so that districts do not try to create “elite” schools.
When I saw online a planned housing development, I thought it was to the west of Legacy Estates, but I was told the development was in the area between Albany Street and the railroad tracks, near the Tony’s Firehouse Pizza street running north and south. That makes more sense as that area has rested unfarmed for several years.
Between Albany Street and Hiett Avenue (I still think the Avenue should be listed as Road or Street!) and from Cecil Avenue to County Line Road there are Legacy Estates and Albany Park and Albany School with some homes near the park and school. But there is a large area of land that has not been put into agricultural production in recent years that apparently is being “saved” for homes.
Delano city limits stop on the north at County Line Road and no development to the north is likely, though Best Western Motel, Denny’s and Jack in the Box have situated there with some type of agreement with the city.
At Delano’s south end east of the freeway lies Memorial Park, the airport and the industrial park. The only area that might eventually become housing is behind the post office.
There may be homes to the east in the future, in the area from Villagio housing development to Cecil Avenue and/or from Cecil Avenue up to the Cesar E. Chavez campus or even south of the campus.
I believe that building is more likely to take place in west Delano because the cost of land is less than it is to the east of Browning Road. I have also heard that property owners along Browning are reluctant to sell the land for housing and prefer to keep it in farm production.
Delano High’s boundaries seem to me to be “locked in” whereas RFK and CCHS have the possibility of adding territory and housing. Maybe Delano High would benefit if there were new housing in the future in Earlimart, which “feeds” Delano High.
As the years pass, Delano High’s area in its Delano boundaries has become the “older” part of the town and with families less likely to have children in the schools.
I can recall years ago writing stories about the elementary school district welcoming back more than 7,000 students in the fall. Years later and the number has not climbed but rather dropped below 7,000.
When Wonderful Prep Academy began a charter school in Delano, many, myself included, thought that the school would have little impact. Wonderful’s enrollment was not too great when it was located at the Kern Community College District property along Randolph Street. The charter school is able to offer much that public schools cannot and does not have some of the requirements of the public schools.
Wonderful was able to open its new campus east of Villagio, and that opened up the prospect of many more students. That school’s unique campus appearance, a high school program working with Kern Community College District to see that Wonderful graduates are able to complete a full slate of college programs while still in high school, an imaginative slate of class offerings, and the prospect of scholarships for all Wonderful graduates with a C or better average have added up to very appealing reasons to attend Wonderful, both for parents and students.
While Wonderful announces to the public all the reasons for students to attend that school, the public schools are either not announcing the good reasons to attend the public schools or are not doing an effective job.
For high schools, for example, the ESL, AVID, and dual enrollment classes would be something to “crow about” for the public schools, but is the public aware of these reasons or even understand what the initials stand for? Maybe it’s time for the public schools to “blow their horns,” hold events that would draw parents and the general public, and then explain in SIMPLE terms the positive reasons to attend public schools.
There may be no wholesale change in boundaries, but it might be feasible to make some minor changes in the next few years in the school boundaries. Apparently the RFK campus was built with a plan for not as many students as can be enrolled at the other two high schools. I don’t believe enrollment growth as forecast has reached the level that was expected when plans were made originally when CCHS and RFK opened in the early 2000s.
If anyone agrees with the above, let me know. IF anyone disagrees, I am fairly sure that I WILL hear about it!
Suzanne Villaruz has been elected president of the board of trustees of the Delano Union School District.
Clerk of the board for the new year is Irene Martinez.
Delano High’s Athletic Hall of Fame did not hold an event last June because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has also postponed the 2021 dinner/ceremonies with hopes of resuming the event in June 2022.
The year 1976 is the cutoff date for inductees for the next event, and once the late 1970s and early 1980s are reached, there will be several sports added in for their outstanding athletes to be considered, including boys soccer, which was apparently started at Delano High in 1975, and girls basketball, which started in the 1976-77 school year.
Efrain Rodriguez, retired high school district administrator and a current Delano Union School
District board member, coached the 1975-76 soccer team to fifth place in the valley tournament, losing the semifinals to Fresno-Roosevelt 1-0. As the EYL’s second-place team in 1976-77, Delano advanced to the playoffs before losing again to Roosevelt, which was the North Yosemite League champion and defending valley champion. Again in 1980-81 Delano gained a playoff trip but lost to Fresno-Hoover High.
Delano has struggled in recent years in girls basketball but has had a storied past. Current head coach Shauna Gravelle was looking forward to this season — likely to be canceled totally — because she had a core on the varsity that started as sophomores and seven of nine expected varsity players had two or more years of varsity experience.
Girls basketball at Delano High began in 1976-77 with the team led by Debbie Bervel and notching an 8-2 league record, the league championship and a 15-3 season mark. DHS beat Bakersfield 43-39 and Hanford 33-24 to reach the valley finals before losing to San Joaquin Memorial 48-19 and Lemoore 48-46. Bervel and Maurice Smith were stars of that team. Bervel continued her playing days at College of the Sequoias and Fresno State University. She went on to become a medical doctor. Delano basketball girls were valley champions in the mid-1980s in successive years.
The recent notice of the death of basketball player/coach K. C. Jones reminded me that the only college basketball game that I ever viewed when I attended Fresno State was a Tuesday evening matchup of Fresno State and the University of San Francisco.
I was in awe of USF’s great duo of Bill Russell and K. C. Jones, but I never imagined that the two would go on to such famous accomplishments as players and coaches in the NBA.