Yuba schools meld nicely

It was only seven months ago that parents of Alicia Intermediate School students gathered in the auditorium of that now-defunct institution and shared — with the help of Spanish and Hmong interpreters — concerns about their children's immediate future.

Plans to bus Alicia's roughly 400 students from Linda to Yuba Gardens School, three miles away in Olivehurst, prompted fear that an already-existing student population there would prey upon the newcomers.

But on Thursday evening, many of the same parents were in attendance at a Back to School celebration in the schoolyard outside Yuba Gardens School.

They looked on as their kids laughed and played with new friends, watched Hispanic and Hmong dancing — activities imported from Alicia School — and marveled at all that was familiar and unfamiliar.

"We worried about fighting," said Alma Gonzalez, mother of an eighth-grader who made the move.

"It was scary. I didn't know the teachers."

But things seem to have worked out nicely, she said. She is no longer worried.

Special efforts, some which were spearheaded months before the start of the school year, have been largely responsible for the peaceful transition, said Yuba Gardens Co-Principal Cindy Thomas.

Those efforts, like the early introduction of ethnic dance programs and a break-dancing club, are largely the work of teachers who volunteer extra time.

Thomas gestured toward a well-organized dance troupe, and the large cluster of kids and parents who were cheering them on. "Those teachers," Thomas said, "are not paid for doing that."

Teacher Rene Giese, who migrated with most of Alicia's staff to the merged school, agreed that the successful start owes much to her peer group.

"We did what was best for the kids, even though we didn't want to leave (Alicia)," she said.

But what impressed and surprised her most during school's opening weeks, was the sight of "all these kids playing together out here in 108-degree temperatures."

"Each day gets better," she said, "and the kids have been 100 percent perfect."

Marysville Joint Unified School District officials made the decision early this year to close Alicia because of a combination of problems. It had been recently discovered that an underground fuel line ran beneath part of the property. In addition, the flight path of planes from a nearby airport were deemed dangerously close to the school. And the building itself was old and in disrepair.

As eighth-grade teacher Jonathan Kinsman pointed out, Alicia had been the center of the Hmong community. Parents, he said, were understandably fearful.

Now, he said, "Yuba Gardens is the center of the Linda-Olivehurst community."

Kinsman extolled the benefits of expanded diversity at the school.

"Alicia had more Hmong students, we had more anglo kids here. We had Latinos in both (schools). It's a good mix, just like California," he said.

The fact that the populations merged, he said, "will ease their entrance to Lindhurst High. Now these kids have seen each other two years beforehand."

"I think it's wonderful how we're adjusting to one another," added Gloria Castro, an outreach teacher who moved to Yuba Gardens from Alicia.

More diversity at the school, she said, is healthy.

"We are very fortunate," she said, "because we have all the flavors.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or at npasternack@appealdemocrat.com