A Letter From the Warner Springs Superintendent

"The report of my death was an exaggeration," Mark Twain said in response to a reporter that had told him that he had been reported as dead by other members of the press.

I know how he feels, because every so often I hear something similar. You see, I'm the superintendent of one of San Diego County's smallest school districts, Warner Unified. We offer a full comprehensive program pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, but our district has been experiencing shrinking enrollment.

Our API scores have increased during the past two years and our current high school senior class is the highest academically qualified that we have ever had.

Unfortunately, because of our small size, a rumor keeps popping up in surrounding communities of the backcountry. The rumor: That we are closing our doors.

In June, the business manager of another local district phoned our district's business manager to ask how many students they should expect when our district closes.

Just the other day, one of my staff said her daughter's friend on a local soccer team asked, "When will you be coming to our district?" Her friend had heard, through the grapevine, that Warner Unified was closing its high school.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Our program and staffing have adapted to the changes brought on by fewer students and are better for it.

Here is the reality of Warner Unified's continued successes. This year at the Achievement Gap Task Force press conference, our district was one of four districts in San Diego County that could boast a 100 percent pass rate on the California High School Exit Exam in math.

That's out of 42 districts countywide. We also had a 100 percent pass rate in language arts. That means that every student in last year's senior class passed the test and graduated in June. San Marcos and Vista school districts were both at 98 percent. San Diego Unified's was 97 percent.

Our district's elementary school Academic Progress Index (API) scores were up 20 points this past year and our high school scores were up 55 points to 708. That puts our high school, as rated, higher than half of the comprehensive high schools in San Diego County. On the state list of comprehensive high schools in San Diego County, Warner High's API score was higher than 41 of the 82 schools.

So why have we been improving?

+ It is our 15-to-1 student to teacher ratio at the high school.

+ It is our renewed dedication to improvement at the elementary and high schools levels.

+ It is the personal attention that teachers pay to students that's more reminiscent of a small, private school than the typical large district's school.

+ It is the fact that all our students have the chance to know faculty and staff, and that all of them have the opportunity to play sports and participate in extracurricular activities.

+ It is because we have a diverse population of rural kids that get to know about each other's cultures and lives.

Whatever it is, the district and the students are doing well.

Warner Unified, and its schools, Warner Elementary and Warner Jr./Sr. High are all fully operational and doing well. We are fiscally sound and on task, providing quality education for years to come.

I am proud to say, "The report of our death is an exaggeration."

Dr. Richard Swanson

Superintendent/Principal WarnerUnified School District

www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/districts/warner/