Terry Abbott
Terry Abbott
country flag fly foreign government
We're a government institution and it's not appropriate to fly the flag of a foreign country over one of our schools. It was not the right thing to do.
cause duress families happened natural situation
We have families who are under duress from what happened with the storm. It is natural that a situation like that is going to cause some tension.
afford anymore cut fact funding giving grad librarians order project proposing schools small somewhere
We have some really small schools that are so small that they can't even afford counselors, librarians and nurses. In order to do that, because of the fact that the Legislature is not giving us anymore money, we have to cut somewhere and what we are proposing to cut is part of the funding for the Project Grad program.
district learning leave reputation school stake
What's at stake is reputation of the school district and the learning of the children. Those are very important things and we can't leave that to chance.
certainly improve invested money recent security
We're working always to improve it, but we certainly have invested a lot of money in recent years to make security upgrades.
amount enormous ultimately
We've done an enormous amount of outreach on this. Ultimately it's the parents' choice.
gotten ugly
We've gotten some real ugly things. It's been disappointing.
anywhere chief close department fight gang increase keeps kids mean police seen watch
Our police department keeps a pretty close watch with their gang-intervention officers, and the police chief (John Blackburn) said we have not seen an increase in gang activity. Kids still fight like they do anywhere in the country, but that doesn't mean it's a gang-related issue.
behavior campus event general held inspector office
Our office of inspector general is investigating inappropriate behavior at a school-sponsored event held off campus back in February.
action department police school
The action by our police department was immediate, as was the action by school officials.
authority baseball certainly children copy distribute equipment junior offensive principal remove school
Mr. Rios used taxpayer-funded school equipment to copy and distribute to children an offensive statement. The principal exercised his authority to remove Mr. Rios as junior varsity baseball coach, and it certainly was an appropriate decision.
ability affect credit grade graduate promotion students ultimately
If they get more than that, they don't get credit for their classes, so it could affect the promotion of students from grade to grade, and ultimately their ability to graduate on time.