School District May Tap Hercules, Calif., Funds for Job

Aug. 23–HERCULES — While some school districts fork over thousands of dollars to root out students attending their school using fraudulent transfers or fake addresses, the city of Hercules is trying to take the matter into its own hands.

In October 2003, the City Council approved $75,000 to hire a person to investigate claims of residence and caregiver forms that may be used to award transfers into the district.

Outsiders had crowded out students who actually live in the area, said Hercules City Councilman Trevor Evans-Young.

“There were Hercules children that were being rejected from school while other kids from outside were getting bused in,” he said. “Parents were complaining that they couldn’t get into school.”

Until now, the money — and the West Contra Costa school district’s interest in using it — lay idle. This past week the West Contra Costa school board considered using it to hire a truant officer for Hercules Middle/High School.

Board member Dave Brown said the school’s safety committee asked that the position be changed to assistant principal: someone who could also handle truancy and students with behavioral problems.

“This seemed to have a lot of support,” Brown said. Parents had been asking for additional administrators to handle the school’s burgeoning population of middle and high school students.

Board member Charles Ramsey said though the names had changed, the position could potentially be used to unfairly target for investigation problem students or those with caregiver forms.

School board member Karen Leong Fenton warned that adding a significant administrative job such as a vice principal should not be taken lightly — nor funded by outside agencies.

“We’re not in the business of selling positions,” Fenton said.

The board is expected to vote on the issue in September.

Board member Karen Pfeifer said she didn’t see the problem.

“If the city of Hercules wishes to fund its citizens’ paranoia, that’s fine with me,” Pfeifer said. “It is my hope that this very generous gift can be used to the advantage of students in Hercules. I don’t understand what we’re afraid of.”

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