A blast from the past. Our longtime schools superintendent Terry McAteer is up to his eyeballs in Inyo County, where he now runs the schools there. Terry is launching a community reads program and coping with the same budget crisis on his side of the Sierra:
•Terry M. described the cuts to the state schools’ budget as “grim” and “shameful,” with “dire consequenses,” as the Inyo Register reported.
As with our area, the Inyo County schools face a March 15 deadline to notify teachers of layoffs. The schools are one of the county’s largest employers.
•Terry has launched the county’s first community reads program, which he also helped initiate here. “The concept behind the Community Reads program is to celebrate reading one book as an entire community,” he told the paper.
The book is “Farwell to Manzanar,” about the Japanese American War Relocation Camp on Highway 395, south of Bishop — a good choice. You should read the book and visit the camp if you haven’t. It’s a sad side of our history.
• Terry also has backed a newly passed truancy ordinance where students in Bishop who ditch school can wind up in court, with fines of up to $300 and up to 36 hours of community service.
“So many people talk about raising the bar when it comes to education … I want to raise the bar from the bottom up, to bring up that bottom 5 to 10 percent,” he told the paper.
Keep it up!
(photo from school district)
