Month: March 2019

McClatchy students joined in a passing protest against the District Attorney’s decision to not charge the police officers responsible for the shooting of Stephon Clark last year. The Thursday afternoon protest was largely made up of Sacramento City College (S.C.C.) students after they walked out of classes earlier that afternoon.

The protest induced a large police presence that included six unmarked vehicles, two officers on motorcycle, and at least 15 officers on bicycles.

The demonstration that made its way past McClatchy stopped briefly at the front doors of the school, where protestors chanted, “Why are we here? Stephon Clark.” and “Join us!” Some protestors were seen knocking and banging on the doors. The student and staff parking lots were locked. Some reported that more than 50 students walked out of the school to join the protests.

McClatchy’s Principal, Peter Lambert, said on the protest, “Students have a passion. I think students should always be concerned about issues going on within our city and our society, so they definitely should be involved and concerned.” He added, “They have a right.”

Said a spokesperson for Sacramento City School District (S.C.U.S.D.) in a statement to the Sacramento Bee, “We want to encourage students if they want to exercise First Amendment rights that they do so on campus. We have a responsibility to keep them safe when they’re on school grounds. We take that responsibility very seriously.”

Students expressed frustration over the events of the past week. One McClatchy sophomore who walked out to join the protest said, “I think it’s really important to protest these injustices.”

Chrysanthe Vidal, a McClatchy alum, who now attends S.C.C. said, “I’ve been hurting all weekend. I finally started listening to the news on Monday and I was disappointed and mad and this is a good outlet, I think that this will help.”

The peaceful demonstration was in response not only to the DA’s decision but to the arrest of 84 protestors on Monday night, including two journalists.

The protest made its way to Sacramento Charter High School, where they chanted “Come on out!” The protest also marched through Oak Park where chants of “Gentrifiers come through” were heard. The protest then headed to the state Capitol building.

One protestor, speaking to the crowd with a megaphone, who identified herself as a Rosemont High School student said, “I was very sick this last week when I found out the news about what happened, about Stephon Clark, about the whole case…it brought tears to my eyes so it also really makes me happy to see everybody come out here today, so please make sure that you’re tapping in to one another.”

As the march reached the Capitol, it had swollen to, by some estimates, over 300 people, most of which were students in the S.C.U.S.D. and Los Rios districts.

After nearly four hours of marching, the group reached the Capitol, and leaders took turn with the megaphone, speaking about their cause. Assemblymember Kevin McCarty also spoke to the group, telling the students and demonstrators that “this is your Capitol.” McCarty is a co-author of AB 392, a bill that would change the standard for deadly force used by an officer from “reasonable” to “necessary.”

Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) has dolled out over $6 million in vacation time payout to their administrative employees, causing pushback from the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) as they prepare for a possible strike.

The District has adopted a “use it or lose it” vacation policy in which administrative employees are required to either use accrued vacation time or cash it in for the salary they would have made during this vacation time.

Alex Barrios, a spokesperson for the District said on the implementation of this policy, “The goal [is] to comply with what the law requires us to pay out for unused vacation time, but in the most cost-effective way.”

Such policy has resulted in over $6 million paid out to administrators across the District. McClatchy’s Principal, Peter Lambert, received over $70,000. The largest payout reached over $160,000.

Barrios added, “the District has reduced its financial liability by $4 million and will be saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year thereafter,” because of the payouts.

According to the District, the accrued vacation time became costly. In a statement released by the District, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar said, “When employees accrue vacation every year and do not use their vacation time for many years, the cost to the District of that accrued and unused vacation time increases every year…This costs the District more money.”

McClatchy teachers and SCTA raised questions surrounding this policy, highlighting the District’s current financial crisis, wherein SCUSD is projected to run out of money by November of this year.

“The District is claiming poverty. It boggles the mind. Every teacher is demoralized by this,” said one of McClatchy’s SCTA representatives, Lori Jablonski. “Unused vacation time can be handled multiple ways. Including, instructing people to take their vacation time. That’s the simplest. There’s structured ways you can do buyouts, from what I understand, to minimize the cost at any particular time.”

Aguilar also stated that administrators are now no longer able to accrue such large amounts of vacation time. “This reduction in vacation days will help the district save money. In addition, non-represented management employees are now required to either use or cash out any vacation carryover above 15 days to further reduce the district’s financial liability and lessen the cost of vacation benefits so more resources are available for our students,” said Barrios.

SCTA has complaints on the method these vacation payouts were distributed. “As with a lot of laws, the district has a lot of leeway as to how they’re going to comply with the law,” said Jablonski. “It’s up to the judgement of the district leadership and the school board to determine what is the proper and most effective way to comply with the law given the financial troubles that they are experiencing.”

“It’s hard to reconcile the District’s budget fiasco with their refusal to address this bureaucratic bloat and scandal,” said SCTA in a statement to teachers across the District.

In response to SCTA’s complaints, Barrios said, “The Sacramento City Teachers Association has been the most vocal critic of the District’s compliance with unused vacation time laws. If the SCTA disagrees with the law, they should advocate at the state level to change it. The District will continue to conduct its business in compliance with the law.”

“This may be legal but I would argue that given the peril that they are claiming that they are in, this is not an ethical, I would not even say it’s a moral decision, that they made. They had a lot of room there for how they wanted to handle this, and this is how they decided to handle it. So they need to accept the criticism of this and they need take responsibility for it,” said Jablonski.

This comes during a tense time between SCTA and the District. After agreeing to and signing an agreement with SCTA to avoid a strike last year, the District has backtracked over a portion of the contract. Disagreement over what was an agreed upon scheduled salary bumps for teachers and guaranteed reduced class sizes have resulted in the District filing suit against SCTA.

“If you have a disagreement over the language of a contract you go to arbitration, which is well established in labor law. So what the district did in trying to sue us was virtually unprecedented,” said Jablonski.

Elected SCTA representatives unanimously chose to vote on a possible strike because of the issue. McClatchy teachers will be voting on a strike at the upcoming staff meeting in early March.

The gym is filled with sound. Screams of celebration and loss emanate from a student section with a 10 year history and a bit of a rocky past. McClatchy’s Legion comes together for what feels like the first time in a long time at February 19th’s playoff game against St. Mary’s of Stockton that ultimately knocked McClatchy’s women’s basketball out of the sections tournament.

McClatchy students packed over half of the bleachers section.

Less than a week earlier, in one of the first playoff games of the season for the Lady Lions, this same student section took up one portion of one section.

“Back in the ‘90s it was a packed house. I want to say the drop off was only in the last couple of years. But all the same, in the last couple years, whenever we got to the playoffs, things changed.” said McClatchy’s Athletic Director Robert Feickert in the hours before the game. Feickert is referring to the student turn out spike that occurs when a team makes it to the playoffs.

These heavily attended playoff games usually see an increase in ticket sales over regular season games.

Feickert explains that most teams do get a spike in student turn out when the playoffs begin, but in recent years, turn out at both regular and playoff games have shrunk. “This year the only games that we had an organized student section was the Kennedy home game on January the 25th for basketball. For football, we only had 5 home games, and I think two of them were an organized event to where the student section was there.”

During regular season games, ticket sales go directly to the athletic department to cover equipment, officials, and athletic training supplies. Though, during playoff games all revenue goes directly to CIF Sac Joaquin Sections, with no cash flow going to McClatchy. Meaning the spike in revenue experienced during playoff season cannot be used by the athletic department.

“The playoff games make a little more money just because it’s a bigger game when we get to the playoffs, we’re playing an opponent that also qualified for the playoffs, as compared to a regular season game. But in my thinking, there shouldn’t be that much of a difference because all our games should be supported by our students,” said Feickert.

Feickert suggests that something at McClatchy’s core has temporarily been lost, causing the lack of turn out to regular season and even playoff games, “I think it’s part of the culture of the school that needs to be addressed.”

In recent years, McClatchy has experienced its fair share of culture-shifting events. Two walkouts, racially charged controversies, bomb threats, and a lawsuit or two, namely. In recent months alone the school has experienced two shooting threats and a deep involvement in the  mounting tension between the District and the Sacramento City Teachers Association.

Walk down the halls and hear snippets of conversation: “McClatchy is trash” or “I hate this school” are not uncommon phrases tossed around on campus.

One October morning, Theo Dopkins (‘19) discussed with The Prospector the past controversies McClatchy has experienced. “Even though I love this school and I love most of the people that go here, it reminds me that we’re still all normal people. There’s still people that make stupid mistakes, and they don’t think when they do things, and they’re still kids. Those things aren’t okay and they shouldn’t be accepted, but I don’t think it represents us as as a school.”

Dopkins, along with Madeline Feickert (‘19), is a Legion leader that holds out hope for the over 10 year old student section and the culture of McClatchy.

“I think there’s a lot of people who probably feel guilty…they see the stuff online they see the stuff in the papers, they see the way they’re talked about and then they probably feel bad about it, but I think what people are forgetting is that they’re still individuals, they still can make a change by being themselves and doing the right thing and also still going to school here,” said Dopkins.

McClatchy has not always been this way. For years, the student section was packed. “When you walked into the gym, the [players] were completely astonished by how many people were there,” said Feickert. “Parents came over afterwards and told me that it was the best experience they have ever had because of how packed it was, how loud it was.’”

This Legion of old was not built from an eager and raucous student body, but from a year that began in tragedy. At the beginning of the 2007 school year, five McClatchy students passed away. This same year, girl’s volleyball, boy’s soccer, and girl’s basketball all made it to the playoffs. For some of these teams, it was the first time in a long time. Legion was founded in the midst of this year, one where students clung to the catharsis of a winning team to boost the spirit and the culture of the school. “Each game just grew and grew, the whole section was full,” reminisced Feickert.

Tragedy built Legion. Now Legion looks to put McClatchy’s more recent tragedies in the past, “People are still excited to go to this school, and I’m still trying to do my part to get people excited about doing the right thing and going to this school and just being good people and good students,” said Dopkins.

Though culture may not be the only thing deterring students from coming out to games. The question of outreach was brought up by students and staff alike. “I feel like more efforts could be made to expand the audience we reach. The majority of the time it’s the people who signed up in ASB and although it’s expected for ASB to come out we should have more people from the general public come,” said Madeline Feickert.

“I know there’s roughly 100 students in ASB and I think that it’s there job as a class to create the culture here at McClatchy,” said Robert Feickert.

As the Lady Lions continue into the playoffs, now looking towards a possible state championship game, turn out continues to grow.

“I haven’t been to the games all season, mainly because I have other sports but we have to support our teams to make them feel more motivated and encourage them to play better during the games,” said Reagan Marr (‘22) at a recent playoff game.

“What are you gonna do cheer for another school? Like no. And like you go to this school so just have a good time and cheer it on. Why not?” Dopkins said at a playoff game in early February.

“I don’t even like this school. I’m just having fun and making a fool of myself,” added Maya Steinhart (‘19).

For now, Legion sets its sights on expansion. “Until we have every single student, and every single teacher coming to the game there’s never gonna be a full Legion. It’s always gonna be, ‘we could be bigger,’” said Dopkins.

The question of ‘how’ seems far from the minds of those that keep hope for McClatchy. The question for the awakening lion only comes down to when: “It doesn’t matter if it’s not possible because we’re still going to try. It’s something we should strive for,” finished Dopkins.

Regardless of school politics and culture, it seems we have basketball games to win, and seeds of hope to be planted. The Lion can only roar louder.