As you may know by now, at this point, because of the uncertain budget situation, the Albany Unified School District has not been able to allocate to WCC the parcel-tax funding that has traditionally supported the program at Albany High and Albany Middle School. We all share the dismay about the budget situation in Albany and, although I do want to communicate the reality of school funding in AUSD as it affects WCC, I also want to share how much the program is valued, from the very top with Superintendent Marla Stephenson all the way down through the district staff, school administrators, teachers, students, and, of course, the coaches.
That depth of feeling makes us all determined to maintain some kind of presence in the district, starting with summer-school coaching this year (contact Nick Berger if you'd like to coach students at AHS this summer), and continuing with on-going exploration of some kind of limited coaching for 2009-10 at one site, or at both AMS and AHS, or, if the budget planets align just right, perhaps something resembling a full program at one of the schools. We just don't know yet, but the shape of the state and school budgets make the chances for each of those potential programs increasingly more challenging, in the order I mentioned them.
I do hope that in Albany next year, writer coaches will be sitting down with some students, somehow, somewhere. And if you've already been coaching in Albany, I hope one of them will be you!
Bob Menzimer