City Of American Canyon Online Community Forums

I go back to 1961 when the School District promised a High School by the time I was ready for High School, I was 6 months old and my parents were promised such a school. My father was involved in many local issues, along with Mr. Mickolojick.

I have heard this concept of our school district and am not against exploring it, but unless you are willing to pay close to $15,00 per houshold, it aint happening right now. I am not aginst it though, it will take decades to get to it.

I'm afraid your history is off. A high School on the radar has no control at the local City Council level and COlcleaser did nothing to derail it. We were not big enough and had not grown out enough to demand the new school economically. Unfortunately the driving political issue for this bond is the need to relieve over-crowding. There wa sno over-crowding until it beag about a decade ago

Like I said the High School was on the Radar in 1961. I just spent about three hours speaking with Micky Mickolojick about this. He is the resident expert and our own district will not work at this time.

Colcleaser buried this HS and half of the driver policies of the General Plan, fired planning commissioners who disagreed with him and started us down the path of ruin, took his cash and ran.

I left the above quote, because I have to ask you how does one person on a 5 member council run anything good or bad? He is one o ffive. He can not fire anyone, or bury a General Plan. Tell me one aspect of the General Plan that has been abused?

I haven't heard anyone of his appointees apologize for this. You are perpetuating his failures.

Who is he? Who did all this on his own?

Measure G must pass for the future of American Canyon.

Ed West

Our own school district would be a good and is possible. What I am looking for is facts to dispute what Measure G put in the sample ballot. I don't like the words "On our list", "Proposed", "If", etc. In order for me to vote yes I would need to see in writing: This is the plan for the new high school, see the architechs drawings, then a the cost to build it and how long it will take to get the main infrustructure built. Oh, I would also would want to see where they have requested for donations from outside sources and were turned down. Then I would consider saying yes.

What you don't know is that I worked on the incorporating committee and Amcan was NOTHING until we incorporated. Cecil Shaver was AGAINST incorporation... so was Colcleaser...

We shot up growth 10 years ago because we had the LAST available land for developers... basically they had nowhere else to go... or you can take it another way... they desired to build everywhere else but here until they had no choice.

The City Manager did not have enough experience to manage this rapid development and the PC just rubber stamped everything. I was here too. In my opinion, the first City Council did most of the heavy lifting.

I worked with that Council too. Now I have seen Don's gang (Cecil and Cypher) derail most of what they did. We NEVER needed this much growth to have the services we do. Thats a flat out LIE proposed by businesses who want zero risk. What we needed was to be more selective about who builds homes here.

No we have to deal with the problems they created by not following the GP. Congestion and division. But we will continue... won't we?

Preparing for the Measure G exam
By SALLY BURNHAM
Friday, November 3, 2006 7:28 AM PST

My mother was a school teacher — a very good teacher. Before she gave her students a big test or exam, she would say, “Let’s review the material we have already studied.”

Following Mama’s example, let’s review what we know about school funding and bonds prior to the upcoming Nov. 7 election.

In 1988, Proposition 98 passed, barely, which guaranteed that California education K-12 and higher education shall receive 48 percent of the entire California budget. That means that all of the other services provided by the state — transportation, public safety, CHP, prisons, health, etc. — got what was left over after education got its allotment.

In 1996, Napa Valley Unified School District asked for and received $23,000,000 in bond Measure Y.


In 2002, NVUSD requested another $95,000,000 in Measure M. Again, this was approved. My math isn’t the best, but I think that totals $118,000,000 of bond money in six years that NVUSD received in addition to whatever portion of the 48 percent of the California budget it receives.

As of 2002, NVUSD had received $20 to $30 million from the California State Lottery. I phoned County Superintendent of Schools Barbara Nemko’s office in 2002 to see how lottery money was used and they could not tell me. A Napa Register article in 2003 revealed that lottery money went to staff bonuses, with those who have the highest salary getting the biggest bonus. Seems unfair.

A letter to the Napa Valley Register on Oct. 23, 2002, written by Barbara Nemko, said that “maintenance of schools has been deferred (a nice word for ‘neglected’) for 30 years.” In the same Register issue on page A2, Don Evans, NVUSD general service manager, stated that he had held that position for 30 years. Is that some kind of coincidence where the supervisor/boss (Nemko) states that the employee (Evans) has deferred/neglected to do his job or just a bad joke? Both should be held accountable but both are still in their respective jobs. It reminds me of the old fox and hen house tale.

American Canyon needs a high school. My question is how much did the super Wal-Mart and all of the construction companies that built all of those new homes and businesses contribute to the cost of a high school before the population of American Canyon was allowed to triple?

California Proposition 1D on the current election ballot asks for $10.5 billion for schools. According to the San Francisco Chronicle on Oct. 8 on page A14, school bonds totaling $37.5 billion have been approved since 1996 — 10 years. That is in addition to almost half of each annual California budget. It is a lot of money in any case.

NVUSD has never informed the citizens, who are paying for the schools, specifically how the money for the deferred maintenance repairs has been used. The oversight committee should inform us about what was spent for what. On, that’s right! Barbara Nemko’s office told me in 2002 that the oversight committee for the 1996 bond had stopped meeting because of poor attendance by committee members.

When I shop at Safeway or Ace Hardware, my cash register receipt shows specifically what I bought and how much each item cost and the total amount I paid. Shouldn’t our school district do the same? Why wouldn’t they tell us? Is it just easier to keep asking for more money every four or five years? Has all the money resulted in better school graduates? If so, then why does California rank 47th in school graduate performance?

This completes my review of the material about school bonds for NVUSD since 1988. I hope this will help when you take the test and vote on Nov. 7.

(Burnham, a registered nurse, lives in Napa.)

Glad you posted Frankie G. While I want a high school just as much as one, I just hate to see more of our tax dollars wasted and AC get screwed out of getting the best high school we deserve. Just say "No"