$1 • Friday, October 27, 2017 • Vol. 123, No. 43 • morganhilltimes.com • Serving Morgan Hill since 1894
Student absences result in $3.3M loss to district ALL SCHOOLS DON’T ECLIPSE 96 PERCENT ATTENDANCE RATE Scott Forstner Reporter
➝ Absences, 16 THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
OCTOBER 27, 2017
OU T & AB OU T OF NDAR CA LE EN TS EV
A section of the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
Hollister’s Swank Farms moves its annual harvest attraction
Maze & grace BARTENDERS UNION P8 | AUTO WINTERIZING P16 | PROPERTY SPOTLIGHT P19
Inside this issue: Swank Farms sets new roots
6
58015 02004
1
Michael Moore
Morgan Hill Unified School District missed out on $3.3 million in potential state funds because of student absenteeism in the 2016–17 school year. This nugget of information was introduced at the Oct. 17 school board meeting after a question from trustee David Gerard during a presentation led by Linda Row, the district’s director of student services and enrollment. The district loses $60 per day per student when a student is absent from school, whether the absence is excused or unexcused. “Those dollars ($3.3 million) would have gone directly in the general fund, which can be used for a wide variety of purposes within the district, including hiring staff,” Row said. The district’s general fund was a little more than $74.5 million in 2016–17. (The general fund is made up of a variety of state and federal sources.) Morgan Hill’s six elementary and two K–8 schools compiled attendance rates ranging from 94.98 percent to 96.36 percent for the 2016–17 school year, with PA Walsh STEAM Academy at the low end and Los Paseos Elementary at the high end. Trustee Tom Arnett said he would think twice about planning any vacations that would force his children from missing any school days after learning of the financial impact. “To me, it was pretty startling to hear how much money we lose (due
TALENTED TEAM Operation Freedom Paws Director of Marketing Megan Wenholz and Executive Director Mary Cortani pause for a photo during an Oct. 24 tour of the nonprofit’s facility in San Martin. For more information about OFP, visit operationfreedompaws.org.
Vets run helps vet groups NOV. 11 RUN WILL RAISE FUNDS FOR NONPROFITS Michael Moore Editor
It is often said that U.S. military veterans communicate among themselves with an unspoken language as well as an understood, unbreakable trust.
Perhaps that’s one reason Charles Weston, organizer of the upcoming Veterans Day Run, knows he made the right call in supporting Mary Cortani’s Operation Freedom Paws as one of the fundraiser’s beneficiaries. Cortani—a U.S. Army veteran who, like Weston, served in Vietnam—gave a tour of OFP’s 4.2-acre San Martin site earlier this week to a small group of
donors, including Weston. OFP is a unique nonprofit that matches rescued dogs with individuals—primarily veterans—who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injury symptoms and other physical, neurological, psychological or mobility conditions. OFP’s program works with each client to train their own dog, then certifies the dog and handler
together as a service team in a rigorous 48-week course, during which the dogs are housed at the OFP facility. The service is therapy-intense and available to clients 24/7: Cortani said it is common for a client to call her in the middle of the night “in crisis,” wanting to come over to see their dog. “We’re dealing with the families too,” Cortani told the group Oct. 24.
OFP even offers spousal support groups and other family services. Cortani, who founded OFP in 2010 and was a finalist for CNN’s “Hero of the Year” award in 2012, said as of last week, the nonprofit has matched, trained and supported 316 clients with service dogs. About 85 percent of the clients are veterans, ➝ Freedom Paws, 16
Trustees differ on test scores’ meaning RESULTS SHOW MHUSD LAGS BEHIND SCC AVERAGE
the district Director of Instruction, Curriculum and Assessment Glen Webb presented statistical anomalies across the state and nation that he said were the result Scott Forstner of flaws in the testing Reporter method. With school district leadSuperintendent Steve ers taking a strong stance Betando said of the test against the validity of the scores, “This is worse than latest standardized test not taking the test at all.” scores, trustees on MorHowever, not all of the gan Hill Uniboard shared that fied’s board of perspective. education had Board Vice Prestheir own takes ident Tom Arnett on the data from said state tests are the 2017 Smart“an important indier Balanced cator of how our Assessment schools are doing,” Donna Ruebusch but also are not “a Consortium. All seven perfect measure” board members listened in determining student at the Oct. 17 meeting as achievement levels.
“Test scores aren’t the California Department of only way we should gauge Education’s database. the progress that students Morgan Hill School in our schools are mak- District’s overall scores ing . … We have to be cau- in ELA and math, which tious in not overcan be viewed generalizing what on the Calithey mean,” Arnett fornia Departsaid. “Are they 100 ment of Educapercent valid and tion website (cde. 100 percent relica.gov), dropped able? No. But do slightly from the they mean nothprevious year’s ing? I’d say no to David Gerard 52 percent at or that as well. I’m above in ELA and not in favor of throwing 41 percent at or above in them out altogether.” math. In Morgan Hill, half As for countywide the students tested in results, 62 percent of stugrades third through dents met or exceeded the eighth and 11th, met or ELA standards compared exceeded state standards to 49 percent of students in English Language Arts/ statewide. In math, 55 Literacy, while nearly 40 percent of county stupercent did so in Mathe- dents met or exceeded matics, according to the the standards compared
to 38 percent of students statewide. “In education, the solutions aren’t easy,” Arnett added. “The first step is to recognize the challenges we’re up against, and there are some hard challenges.”
Prez encouraged by math results Board President Donna Ruebusch believes the state testing system is a work in progress and improvements are necessary to better gauge student achievement. “In general, I think that the understanding is this is still only preliminary data as they are trying to refine the test and ➝ Test Scores, 12