Letters to the Editor

Learning happens on this field

Liz Malinoff | Davis | April 16, 2009
I’m so thankful to the Board of Education for partnering with The Blue and White Foundation to provide a safe, usable stadium for all our students. Knowing we’ll soon break ground is surreal.

Coaches first identified this need back in the 80’s, and discussions continued throughout the 90’s. It wasn’t until The Blue and White Foundation stepped forward to help 7 years ago that we were finally able to gain traction on the project.

After waiting so long, many of us thought we’d never see this day. In fact, two of my children will have conducted their entire K-12 career over the course of these discussions. Gratefully, future students (over 1,600 enrolled in P.E. or competitive sports each year), will wait no longer.

Yes, we are a high achieving, academic community. But the truth is, many students stay focused and in school in order to participate in athletics. Kids we would otherwise lose are motivated; and our exceptional, compassionate coaches hold them to it.

As the mom who sat on the sidelines, worried about preventable injuries due to poor field conditions, and as the daughter who held her breath helping my mother traverse hazardous, and often inaccessible bleachers, I ask our community to get behind this effort.

Learning happens on this field, but it has been limited far too long. Let’s get it Back on Track.

BJ Kline | Davis | April 9, 2009
I’d like to congratulate the school board on their decision to modernize the Davis High School stadium, and express my appreciation to the Blue and White Foundation for making a substantial financial commitment to the project. This public/private partnership is the kind of synergy we need in today’s economy. 

No matter where Davis students begin their education, most will attend Davis High School. This flagship school is the last stop before college, or workforce entrance, and its programs serve as the final preparation for transition from childhood to adulthood. What goes on at DHS is vital to the life success of all students.

Sadly, our district’s largest, most utilized classroom, the track and stadium, is unsafe and too small to meet the needs of state mandated physical education, student athletes, and school wide events. This isn’t surprising given the facility is nearly 50 years old.

While other district facility needs have been met, the stadium has waited, and costs to maintain it have mounted.

We are right to be proud of our students’ academic success, but that kind of success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens by engaging in activities that build life skills like teamwork, commitment, and self-confidence. It happens when the unique gifts of all students are embraced. And most importantly, it happens through healthy living, something our district prioritized with the adoption of a Wellness Policy. There is no question regular exercise and healthy foods have a fundamental connection to achievement.

A modernized stadium is an exciting opportunity for our entire community. Join me and support the generous efforts of the Blue and White Foundation. Let’s get Back on Track.

Julie Cole-Marie | Davis | February 27, 2009 07:35

I wish all of my high school students loved Shakespeare, could lose themselves in rich novels and were mesmerized by live, dramatic performances. I would like to think that my classes, when I taught in a South Sacramento high school, were exciting and that I nurtured each child wholly. But some kids came to my class and barreled through soliloquies or poetry simply so they could play in that week's game. There were times these athletes sweated over homework and extra credit and did everything humanly possible to pull a C-minus, the minimum weekly grade needed on their progress report. When they would come to me on Friday afternoon, I would hand them a goldenrod slip of paper and they would beam. Literally beam. There were also times their hopes of playing in the big game, or running in the track meet were crushed because they earned below- average grades. What I know for sure is that they continued to come to my English class some days simply so that they could play sports. It doesn't matter if I agreed with it, or even understood it really. It just simply was.

Davis High School needs a new stadium. Does it seem frivolous considering that our teachers are being asked to take a pay cut? Yes. But the funding for the new stadium and the financial efforts of the Blue and White Foundation cannot be used to pay teachers' salaries. Funding for facilities and monies for teachers and programs are separate. Wouldn't it be great if we could tell each athlete, 'Are you sure you don't want to try acting or singing? We have a top-notch performance arts center!' or 'Just give chemistry another try. You might really like it!' I agree we need to get back to basics, but it is not up to me to determine what those basics are for each child. For many, basics are played out on the field, on the court and on the track. Continuing to use a dilapidated stadium sends the message that our athletes are not as worthy as the scholar or actor or musician. And that is a message no child should ever hear.
Julie Cole-Marie Davis, Davis Enterprise

Stadium project is right thing to do

Tracy J. Beckwith | El Macero | March 05, 2009 14:37
I support modernizing the Davis High School track and stadium. Davis does an excellent job providing students with rich academic offerings, but can we say the same about the one facility that nearly all DJUSD students will use as they move through our public system?

Academic excellence is a source of pride for the community, but are we educating the total child? Is a 50-year-old, run-down track and stadium the best we can offer our children?

The DHS track team ranks among the best in the state, but cannot hold home meets due to the unsafe condition of the track. Athletes often suffer injuries from repeated training on the inferior track. Would we allow any classroom in the district to operate under conditions where injuries regularly occur? The need for an updated stadium is more than a matter of esthetics or desire. It is one of student safety.

While these are truly troubled economic times, the immediate reconstruction of the track and stadium could serve as our community's mini-stimulus package. As a means of keeping the expenditure local, I would urge the DJUSD board to favorably consider Yolo County contractors, suppliers, architects and vendors when negotiating construction contracts.

Let there be no confusion that costs of a new stadium have absolutely no bearing on the depth and breath of class/academic offerings. The school district is legally disallowed from using facility monies to fund programs and teacher salaries. Those facility funds include the sale of the district's real property, such as Grande and other valuable real estate. The decision to move forward is about how and when we can do so at the least expense. Now is the time.

I extend special thanks to the folks at the Blue & White Foundation, who have for years been stewarding this issue. I write in support of their efforts not because I have children who will directly benefit (mine prefer water sports) or because I am an alumna, but rather because it is the right thing to do for our students and community. Let's modernize the track and stadium. Let's educate the total child.

Charlie Swanson | Davis | March 11, 2009 08:50
As a Davis High School stadium project supporter, the son of two school teachers, a local business owner and an Emerson parent (eventually times three), I felt it was time to clear a few things up in plain English.

No. 1: Facilities money can never, ever be spent on salaries. It's the law; please look it up and move on.

No. 2: Emerson is safe. It needs updating but it is safe.

No. 3: I do not believe any school in Davis meets every single updated safety, ADA,

energy guidelines or building codes.

No. 4: The stadium was in poor condition when I attended in 1980 and has not been modernized at all.

No. 5: Like it or not, a stadium is the face of a high school. More people within and beyond a community attend high school events there than anywhere else. How can we deny our kids the right, after their years of high school, to graduate at their own school?

No. 6: As the parent of a former football player and a current cello player, I would like to compare 'priorities.' A football player pays around $500 for the right to represent his school and play in a 50-year-old, run-down facility. A cello player gets a free instrument (if he so wishes) from the school and a state-of-the-art performing arts building.

For me to see my football player play, I must pay $6, along with a thousand other supporters and parents. When I go to a cello performance, it is free. Which one of these is costing the district money for participation? Where are the cries for 'Cut the arts; save teachers'? It sounds silly when it impacts something that is important to your student, doesn't it?

Please join me in supporting the board of trustees, our current administration and Superintendent Hammond, as they are clearly trying to move forward with our kids' best interests in mind.

Rhonda Mohr | Davis | March 05, 2009 14:38
For his excellent letter and support of the renovation of the football stadium at Davis High School, we send Mike Satre kudos. Mike covered all the facts and benefits of supporting this effort (Davis Enterprise, March 1). We all realize some of the benefits, such as:

-- Playability: The synthetic turf can be used in any weather, it can be practiced on, played on and still will be in great shape;

-- Safety: It's safer than natural grass, with studies from Penn State University showing construction of turf fields are up to 20 percent safer than plush grass fields; and

-- Maintenance: Instead of mowing, fertilizing and spraying, the field needs only to be brushed monthly.

Football isn't the only sport that benefits from these renovations. Others who will gain are the track team, field hockey, physical education classes, cheerleading, dance team, band and the many Davis residents who run or walk around the track.

The turf will afford more practice time in the off-season and allow other groups and activities to use the field without destroying it. This stadium can become a center for community activity and give our children a place to play and learn during all weather.

The high school would not be complete without this improvement and it would not be safe to continue using the field or seats in their current state. My husband and I have sat in the stands wondering many times who is going to get hurt, as many of the wooden seats are no longer attached to the structure.

The renovation will only strengthen our Blue Devil pride, strengthen our sports/ physical education programs and community activities, and strengthen the value of our homes and community support for all DHS programs. Remember, other DHS programs hold fundraisers at the football games.

Thank you, Mike Satre, for your words. We hope the residents of Davis will support the stadium efforts.

Charnel James | Davis | March 14, 2009 22:13
As an educated community, we need to learn more about how school funds are spent. Simply, protecting my children's safety does not mean the laying off of teachers or elimination of programs. It is simply not true.

I have two teens who attend school in Davis and use the high school fields. It frightens me every time one of my children is on that field.

Driving by the field on my way home tonight, I noticed the number of student activities (various sports) happening on the field, and the track and part of the field are flooded. This is a hazard for our children, and we as a community are asking for a lawsuit when one of these children is injured because of the condition of the field.

I have sat in the stands and watched spectators hold each other's hands as the try to climb up or down the bleachers because they are dangerous. When my mother, who is handicapped, comes to watch her grandson play she has to sit on the bottom row, because there are no accommodations for handicapped people to sit and watch the game.

Every day that passes without something being done is another day the district is exposed to lawsuits. When the school district is sued for negligence, the award will not come out of the facilities funds. It will come out the general funds and the district insurance policies. That will mean higher costs, more layoffs, more cancellations of classes, and more degradation of our children's education and future.

We need a new sports complex. We need a safe place where our children can learn, excel and succeed. We need to protect the district from unnecessary exposure to lawsuits. We need, as a community, to get behind the school board in its decision to update the sports field.

Please let the school board know we want our children to be safe. We want our residents who support our children to be safe. We want exposure to legal liability drastically reduced. We want our stadium upgraded as soon as possible.