Alum Rock schools’ weed crusader
Amid the infrastructure woes dogging the Alum Rock Union School District, weeds might seem like a small thing. But the profusion of knee-high greenery on playing fields and vigorous volunteers erupting through playgrounds irk a number of people, including Fischer Middle School music teacher Randy Barber.
He’s been chronicling the growth of a weed spurting up Jack-and-the-Beanstalk style through a crack in the quad. “Kids see this every day upon leaving the cafeteria,” he said, noting there are many other examples on campuses. “It has to affect how the kids feel about their situation here in the East Side.”
On May 24, Fischer held an open house to recruit incoming sixth-graders, part of Alum Rock middle schools’ competition for students during open enrollment. The weed, partly trampled, was still bursting through the crack.
Barber had expected a crew might spiff up the campus before visitors arrived.
Not. The weed he had tracked and many others, including some that had sprouted from debris on roofs, were untouched. “You would think district would be embarrassed,” he said.
Yes, Barber is the same teacher who complained about a regularly overflowing urinal in the men’s faculty bathroom. In April, the district replaced the urinal and seems to have addressed the drain problem. But in the women’s bathroom, which serves faculty from both Fischer and Renaissance Academy, only one toilet is working.