Daily Bulletin
By Monica Rodriguez
Oct 25, 2008
POMONA - Parents, residents, teachers and others will gather at Lincoln Elementary School this afternoon for a rally in support of Measure PS.
The event, organized by the Associated Pomona Teachers and One LA-IAF, will begin at 3 p.m. at Lincoln Elementary, 1200 N. Gordon St., that will include a walk to gather support for the measure going before Pomona Unified School District voters next month.
If approved, Measure PS would help raise $235 million to pay for school infrastructure improvements ranging from replacing outdated plumbing and electrical systems to improving systems in order to accommodate new academic programs such as the creation of specialized schools within schools that the school district refers to as academies.
For parents at Lincoln Elementary that measure is a means of bringing a badly needed improvement - air conditioning.
Guadalupe Gallegos said during the first years of his education, her son frequently had headaches and regularly was sick in school. When it came time for Gallegos' daughter to start school she too had headaches. Then Gallegos was told her daughter was falling asleep in class.
Finally after speaking with other parents Gallegos figured out her children's problem, she said.
"I didn't know there isn't air conditioning" in the main school building, she said in Spanish.
Gerty Marquez knows all too well the kind of heat that students and teachers contend with at Lincoln.
"Lincoln's such a beautiful school," Marquez said, but she can also visualize the faces of her own children and others leaving their classrooms at the end of the school day faces red from the heat.
Students weren't the only ones suffering.
"The teachers looked so tired," she said.
The school district has set up a temporary cooling system but a permanent solution needs to be found, Marquez said.
The heat makes it hard for students and teachers to work, and voters need to understand passing the measure will is a necessary.
"How can they expect the kids to learn in these conditions?" Marquez said. "Whether we spend the money out of our pocket or we're taxed, it's still going back to our kids."
Gallegos, who has been working with One LA and Pomona churches and organizations to work with the district and find a solution to the air-conditioning matter, said if people want improved academic performance, then schools must have certain improvements that create a better learning environment.
Today's event has the goal of energizing people as well as giving them a chance to ask questions as they prepare to go out and speak to others about supporting the measure, said the Rev. Michael Fronk, pastor of First Christian Church and a member of the Pomona-Inland Valley cluster of One LA-Industrial Areas Foundation.
One LA is a grass-roots organization that works on issues that affect families such as education, schools, housing and public safety.
The organization supports the measure because "it's all going to be used for existing schools and to make school a better place," he said.
District teachers are also supporting the bond because it would address some very fundamental needs.
"The bond is about basic infrastructure," said Morgan Brown, president of the Associated Pomona Teachers. "It's about a basic level we all would expect from a public institution."
Board of Trustees President John Avila said he'll be on hand and will attempt to answer questions people may have about the measure.
Avila is a member of a group of district residents supporting the measure.
He said he and others are concerned about the current economic climate and voter reaction to the request for funding. Still, word about the measure is spreading and people seem to understand why the money is needed.
Superintendent Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana has listened to parents and residents requests for signature programs and other facility improvements but to offer them an investment must be made, Avila said.
"They can only be implemented if we have a facilities bond measure," he said.