Education - What does Escondido need?

City has choices to make on education

Escondido is known in San Diego county as a poor performer when it comes to the education system and the overall performance of the cities students in comparison to the rest of the county. For families looking to move to San Diego county, the results are clear, according to the real estate site Zillow.com, Escondido is a poor performer. 19 of the schools rate a 5 or below out of 10. This takes into account API, test results, graduation rates, and more. Hardly a shining endorsement for parents with children or those looking to begin a family.

In a time where all cities are looking to stimulate economic growth it is important to have a qualified pool of potential workers to encourage businesses to come to our community. Recently the newspapers and bloggers have been working hard to paint one of the highest scoring schools in the county as a deviant and exclusionary school that is harming the community.

For those who have been hiding under a rock, the East Valley Community Center and Library has been less than half filled since the closing of several storefronts in the center going all the way back to the City of Escondido Credit Union and the East Valley utility payment and city office. Since that time when there was a surplus of finances coming into all cities throughout San Diego county, several businesses have come and gone as well as non-profit offices in the EVCC. Recently the decision was made by the City of Escondido to close the East Valley Library and open a computer center.

For a more detailed review click here.

For the proponents they say it will be a huge step to increase the quality of educational opportunities available to all students in Escondido. The Heritage Charter School was ranked number one in California by University of Southern California in 2011.

Opponents on the other hand are saying that the school will take away a community resource, however there arguments tend to be less based on facts than on their opinions of the quality of education and need for Escondido to succeed.

Read this post from opponents to the school.

I attended my first Escondido Charter High School board meeting.

Yesterday was Wednesday and there was no City Council meeting, so I took the opportunity to attend an ECHS Board meeting–click here for Agenda.  It was scheduled for 6 pm and I got there a little ahead of time, but the meeting was already in full swing.  (Not a complaint, just an explanation.)  The discussion I walked in on was, as far as I could tell, the people from the Christian Youth Theater–CYT.  (Mission Statement:CYT is dedicated to developing character in children and adults through training in the arts and by producing wholesome family entertainment, all of which reflect Judeo-Christian values. For more info click here.) They all agreed that CYT “shared the values” of ECHS. They wanted to continue using the ECHS theater for their productions.  After much discussion and basically a love fest, the board agreed to allow them to use the theater for another year as along as they were flexible since–”the theater is being used constantly by all our schools.”

The rest of the meeting was fairly brief–maybe an hour from start to finish–with Coach Snyder, yes, everyone calls him Coach all the time, reporting on his many activities over the last month.  They are all listed on the agenda but he made no mention whatsoever of any of the Council meetings he had attended.  The last of order of business was thanking George Weir for his ongoing support of the Charter, both through his efforts and his financial support, since he will be leaving the Board–no other explanation given.  The meeting was controlled by Vikash Sanyal, ECHS Board President, who is founder of Life’s Building Blocks, Inc., a privately held company that sells an extensive line of unique products and programs dedicated to helping parents develop morals and character in children as well as Scratch Golf in Poway that is aimed at students 7 to 17.  Interesting, no?

Not having attended the board meeting, and only being a reporter, I decided to research the facts on this and found in the Escondido Charter board information and applications that the terms are for two-years and the George Weir's term had come to an end. Actually a good idea to keep fresh talent and ideas cycling through a board of directors. As for Sanyal serving on the board of directors, a quick Facebook search shows that he has children attending the school.


I have never been to a meeting before nor have I visited this campus.  Here are my quick observations.  The campus is huge, gorgeous and brand new.  As to the meeting, these folks say “I love you” a lot and they regularly discuss their “culture” and a term I’d never heard before–”being charterian.”  There was no one representing the school who was Latino. The meeting was in the library, which also serves as a meeting space, and I was surprised how few books there were, basically filling one small section of the space.

 The school being gorgeous and brand new is an interesting observation. Looking at their school records the new campus was opened over 10 years ago. When inquiring about the newness of the school I was informed that the students take pride in their school because of the high standards that are encouraged. It is open to all students and anyone can enter the lottery, because attending this school is such a privilege, the students strive to keep it a special place. 

The library having only a limited number of books. This is something that consistently has arisen throughout the EVCC library closure and now here. However as a researcher and journalist, it has become evident that hard copies of books are a thing of the past at many of the top schools in the nation. Learning can be done on computers and personal tablets. A building with rows of books is not needed in today's education system the way it was 10 to 20 years ago. "Public schools begin to transition to bookless libraries."

“Coach” Snyder is definitely revered by the people in this meeting.  They are all on the same page and they all feel everything is absolutely wonderful.  And based upon the facilities I saw, they can complain about the paucity of the funding they receive, but their campus was something all the truly public schools would be thrilled to have. 

Is this the right type of school for Escondido? The school raises funds to make up for the smaller pot of money they receive from the government and put out a product that is seeing success while establishing a demand and good will for the City of Escondido. May the 29th was filled with news of a minority student from this school who was representing San Diego at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

This will definitely be a topic to watch in Escondido and one that will continue to be on the agenda as the City of Escondido works to emerge from a reputation as an underachiever in the education arena.

What are your thoughts? We want to know where you stand on the issue, leave your comment below or on Twitter: Escondido Report