This letter was provided by Pinky exclusively to the Country Journal. We have reprinted it as a news story. We are fact checking his claims, but at first look he seems to be writing about a different school. The residents have voted down three school bonds and half of the parents have rejected his school as out of every 100 students that start in the Acton Agua Dulce district only 50 graduated from his high school. And the School still will not disclose the number of out of district students that make up that 50 students.
When we get factual data instead of self aggrandizing puffing we will print it here. Note: Pinky never mentions the 1.2 million dollar closed gym and the weight rooms which he insisted onm with no library or lunch area. Here are a few links to stories about the high school during his years.
11-18-04
Massive errors in Superintendents report
9-10-04 Vasquez High School fails No Child Left Behind Act
8-30-04 - Vasquez fails the college bound student
8-29-04 - Kill an AP
program and keep Acton School open for Behavioral problem (expelled et al)
students from our district
and others?
8-26-04 The Math at Vasquez Just Does Not Add Up
6-25-04 4 million down the drain
at Vasquez
5-16-04 Will the real surplus school site stand up?
3-11-04
Issues for the school board to consider to improve the schools
and to bring the schools into greater acceptance by the community.
11-5-03 Vasquez
High School re-labeled as Trailer trash High School. School claims it was done by vandals at night behind several locked gates
under their bright "security lights". You be the judge.
1-19-00 Further Adventures of Dumbing Down the District
LA County 99 API High School Rating List Vasquez is
57 of 168 schools
2 -2-99 "Firing" of the High School Principal at Vasquez
Here is Pinky's version of his separate reality.
Dear Acton-Agua Dulce Communities,
I was distressed to read this past weekend (Country Journal Edition of December 31, 2004, page 10) about Mrs. [Stacey] Bailey's issues she had with me and the school now that she has left, mostly because she never took the time to address her concerns with me. I appreciate her passion for teaching biology and for her individual classes; it's unfortunate that she could not see the big picture. As principal, I had to make decisions every year on scheduling classes; and when class participation falls below a certain number to justify, compromises have to be made.
This past year in spite of the success of AP Biology, only a handful of students registered for the course during registration. The great news was that over 50 had signed up for AP Physics; so last summer, a compromise was reached within the Science Department to alternate AP Physics and AP Biology each year in order to keep the classes full and at the appropriate academic level. Her assumption that the athletic director's position had anything to do with her schedule is completely false and misleading as Mrs. Bailey was part of the decision-making process with the Science Department Chair last June.
In fact, it wasn't until August that the school board mandated that the assistant principal not be over athletics and that it be given to a teacher on staff. What she fails to understand is that while her program was important to her, all of the school's programs were important to me, and that sometimes decisions had to be made to accommodate the majority of students.
I would like to take a moment and thank the community for the opportunity I have had to be the principal at Vasquez High School for the past six years. It has been a great experience for me and my family. A lot has happened during this time, and I have enjoyed the successes that we have had and been pained by the setbacks that seem to come around all too frequently.
When I first came to Vasquez in 1997 (meeting over at the High Desert site), I decided that I was going to take a more active role in my school and my new town. I started out as a physical science teacher and then was asked to be the ASB director. Two months later I was placed in the administration building as the Dean of Students. The next school year started and they asked me to be the assistant principal, and then at mid-year to assume the principalship. The school was struggling and enrollment dropping every year. The school had begun quickly, without proper planning and without a home. There were very few staff members who had ever worked on a "real high school" campus, but we were committed to making Vasquez High School a great school.
With support from people like Andrea Mathews, Annette and Richard Anderson, Jim Duzick, Mark Nielson, and Don Banderas, we moved Vasquez off the junior high dirt and onto our own dirt, but at least we could call it ours. I along, with these great community members set out to establish a "real high school." As this move took place, we needed to have real high school programs; so I wrote the Digital High School Grant, and we received $154,000 to bring technology to our school. A computer lab was built, Internet was wired into every classroom, computer stations were set up in every classroom, and courses were developed to enhance our curriculum and give our students new choices and opportunities.
We soon found that we needed more computers so I wrote another grant for technical support worth $40,000 with the goal of implementing a portable computer lab and to reduce the number of students per computer to 4.5 to 1, which we did.
With the constant call from students for more electives, I looked for a way to meet their needs by writing the AP Challenge Grant, $75,000, which allowed us to offer AP Biology and Physics along with other college prep elective courses via the Internet. This was a great program for students and offered a variety of courses with great flexibility. In order to get these science courses off the ground and to outfit our new labs, I applied for state science funds that provide $18,000 for science materials.
As all of these programs began to take shape, there was need for long-term goal setting and career exploration by our students. So I got us involved in the Santa Clarita Schools and Business Alliance that allowed our students the resources of the Hart District as well as $40,000 to advance our school-to-career programs like Culinary Arts, technology, visual and performing arts and begin our Agricultural Science program. It also allowed us to put on College and Career Fairs on campus, and provide intern and job shadowing experiences for our students. During this time, I added other AP courses in social studies and English as well. We went from having just two AP courses 1997 to now where we offer eight, with the possibility of several others via the Internet.
As I went about building the high school curriculum to match the needs and interest of our students, there was still something missing. There was still a lack of enthusiasm and school pride. I brought in Tim Jorgensen to be the Associated Student Body (ASB) director, and his support and efforts to raise the school pride have been unmatched. There was a need to hire legitimate athletic coaches, whose experience and skills would take our struggling teams and teach them how to compete and to win. Grant and Tessa Moore have done it with the Cross Country runners, Tim Jorgensen has done this with the basketball program, Bob James has done this with the baseball team, and Tim Evert has done it with the football program. These people and their programs have made Vasquez a part of the community like nothing else has.
We had over 1400 community members at our first night football game this year. Over 400 Acton-Aqua Dulce baseball fans showed up to Jethawk field to watch our boys beat Rosamond last year. These programs are gathering support for our school through hard work and commitment. They are being recognized outside our community as programs of excellence, and people want to know how we do it. In the first nine years of the school's existence we had only three teams qualify for playoffs; last year alone, we had five, and it looks to be the same or better this year. This kind of success makes students proud to wear purple and gold. When they are out in our neighboring communities, they can speak about their school with pride and boasting about their accomplishments. Their peers look at them with envy, that they can have these successes and still be able to attend a small rural school.
Athletics is not the only area we needed to improve on; we needed to get our parents on board. We needed to give them a sense of pride in their school also; that's when Sheila Cook came into my life and established a PTSO. Her hard work and organization got our parents involved and gave them ownership of our school. Sheila, along with many others like the Sextons, Combers, Reeds, Siscos and many others worked to get our school message out to the community. They and a great number of you worked attempting to get school bonds passed to get our children what they deserve: a "real school." Thank you for your hard work and efforts.
I also found students who were looking for other ways to express themselves, so we began a play production program. Great people took this program and developed it for our students. Mike Lamb began the program with exceptional students like Garrett Devereaux, Aaron Tye, Karen Kraut and Ben Morey. Their legacy has brought on our current program. After several years of trying, I was able to get a band program started this year for still more students to participate in their school. It was with great pride that I watched and listen to these students perform their first mini-concert at lunch just before we went on vacation. I look forward to their future success.
I look back over the past six years and see the changes and growth our school has had in promoting a strong high school curriculum, success on the athletic fields, establishing visual and performing arts, test scores that are among the top half in the state and continuing to rise each year, a school enrollment that has continued to increase (from 450 to 600) in spite of the districts declining enrollment. But the greatest sense of accomplishment of all has been when graduates come back to see me and talk about their lives, careers and accomplishments they have had and how my little school impacted their life. When I hear their stories I know I have done a good job. And I know that I have served them well.
In the first class I took to get my administrative credential, we were taught what it meant to "serve at the pleasure of the board," because as a principal that is the length of your contract. You serve your school until the board is no longer pleased. So apparently they are looking to take the school in a "new direction," which as a school board they are entitled to do. As a parent with three children in the district, I, and I'm sure all of you, are anxious discover what that direction is.
There are so many students, teachers and parents who have been a great support to me in this position I can't possibly name them all but I do need to thank my administrative team, Buck Weber and Denyce Evert, for their tireless work and support on my behalf; I could not have done it with them. It has been my great pleasure to serve the students of Vasquez High School, and I wish them all the best in the future.
Steve Pinkston
Addendum:
A partial list of where we have come the past six years:
Grants:
Implemented Digital High School Grant ($150,000)
Wrote the TSST (technology) Grant ($40,000)
Wrote the AP Challenge Grant ($75,000)
Participated in the School and Business Alliance, school received ($40,000) .
Science Grant ($18,000)
Carl D. Perkins Grant, Career Ed. ($12,000/year)
Library Grant ($25,000)
TUPE Grant
Testing:
STAR test and API growth 5 out of 6 years
SAT average score has increased every year; percentage of students taking the
test also has increased yearly,
CAHSEE scores have been well over county and state averages
Curriculum:
Created 4 career pathways, Culinary Arts, Visual Arts, Computer Tech, Ag Science
AVID
Program
Added 4 new AP courses
Added online honors courses
Added remediation courses in math
and English
Ag Science courses
Computer Tech courses
Media art course
Directed the entire Accreditation (WASC) process, wrote the report and
coordinated all aspects of the review
Received award for Top Performing School 2002-03
Created PTSO
Began California Scholarship Federation on campus
Began National Honor Society on campus
Every 15 minutes program
Creation of Saturday School and after school
Detention
Implementation of Truancy Citations
Brought in KIDS Inc. (drug dogs)
Implementation of Student Portfolios for
College and Career
Wrote the school handbook
Student Guidebooks for College and
Careers
Student day planners for every student
College and Career Fair Day
Senior Exit Interviews
Graduation Rate of over
99%
Served on District Advisory Committee
Increased Articulation between HS and middle School and HS and Colleges
Chaired on California Distinguished School visitation committee
Served on WASC visitation committee
Implementation and creation of Parent Orientations (all grade levels)
Student of the Month Program
Member of the A team on Measure S
Implementation of Healthy Kids Survey Data
District Coordinator
Secondary Curriculum
School Safety
Establishment of ASB
Created the student store
Wrote ASB advisor handbook
Implemented ASB finance procedures
Created ASB finance forms
Athletics
Dedicated to bringing in. the most qualified coaches we can get
Wrote Student - Athlete Handbook
Created new academic standards or all extracurricular activities
Working with CIF to form new league
Undefeated Cross Country League Championship
Baseball Quarterfinals
Football Quarterfinals
Basketball Qualifier
Soccer Qualifier
Cheer National Runner Up
First Team CIF player
All of thus has brought an incredible amount of school pride to our campus and has brought students back to our school.
Community
Founder and am President of the Crown Valley Youth Athletic Association
Provides 100 kids the opportunity to participate in football every year
100 cheerleaders every year
150 kids the chance to play basketball
Scouting, I work with local troops and help young men organize their Eagle Scout projects. We have completed at least ten in the past two years, with others in the planning process.