This is the real Rick Boster, who is the Principal of Murray Elementary and DUSD GATE Coordinator. I don’t know how to validate that, since anyone who comes to the arounddublinblog.com site can type in anything they want into the submission fields. Right George? I agree it would be nice to add a personal account feature to the blog to validate those that comment, this may cut down on the negative bent of a few; however absent this feature, you can look me up on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/rick.boster

or follow the events at Murray Elementary by joining our FB group:
http://www.facebook.com/MurrayElementary
(I maintain that FB group as the admin, but anyone can join and post)

I know that in the past there have been “Rich’s” that post as well in addition to some other people who post lengthy informative comments that shed light on the blog posts. That is especially true in the “schools” category. Seems like it is one of the most followed as of lately. Sounds like you have hooked an English major there in the post. Sorry, my background is science, computers, and technology.

Since there are a lot of implied assumptions and allegations in a post above, I think that I need to publicly clear the air by saying a big THANK YOU to John and Jimmy for all of the articles they have published over the course of the past two years while I have been at Murray and in DUSD. For the naysayers, John does have a balanced approach to things if you would tally the articles, I have included a list of the ones with a Murray or DUSD focus that apply to projects I work on. Read the articles and draw your own conclusions. The blog is a good place to get information about Dubliner’s viewpoints and if the Facebook Fan page is any indication of those that follow the blog, it looks like he is nearing 500 fans. (I believed I joined awhile back when it was just above 200.)

Regardless of your viewpoint, the http://www.arounddublinblog.com is quite an accomplishment and should be applauded for the accolades that have followed its success. Congrats to the Around Dublin Blog Team!

Some of the sample articles that John has authored over the years:

http://www.arounddublinblog.com/tag/murray-elementary-school/
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2008/09/congratulations-to-dublins-gifted-and/
http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2009/04/dusd-summer-camps-for-kids/

As for the charter school, it is up to the school board to make their decision. Parents of students should strongly advocate for their viewpoints. I wouldn’t expect anything less since parent involvement, in their child’s education, is one of the biggest factors behind their student’s success. You’re absolutely correct, I did post a comment http://onedublin.org/2009/12/14/charter-school-should-be-a-local-decision/#comment-13 concerning working with the district. I have had a great experience working with Sharon Kovalevsky and the Pathways program leveraging district resources while working with the program to build a school/program choice for Dublin families. Dublin is still small enough that you can get involved and help make the schools stronger on a tangible level. It is a well-known fact that small schools/ programs do face funding challenges due to scale of size. This is true of businesses as well. I would be interested in reading an article from John concerning how the finances will work for the new charter. I am sure it will be in their application.

Concerning the Pathways program, we have grown immensely from the first class of 20 that started the program seven years ago. Our present year enrollment is 60 (up from 50 when I started at Murray) and we do have plans to expand to 4/5 in the year to come. There are some natural constraints that impede the explosive growth of the program. For instance, all families participate in the classroom for an hour and a half of volunteer time per week and they must serve on committees that support the school. This requirement is based on the program philosophy. Not all families can make this type of commitment, but we have found creative ways for everyone to meet these requirements if they would like to make the effort. We hope we can achieve our expansion goal given the challenging budgetary times that all schools face. Presently during our break, I am editing an informational video that I hope will highlight this worthy school choice program. We are planning a media campaign beginning in January so please be on the lookout for more information. We target preschools in the Tri-Valley but I am sure that others may be interested as well.

For full disclosure, since it seems that some are really into that, I do have students in the Dublin schools, and yes they have attended the Pathways program. Furthermore, I do subscribe to both the http://www.onedublin.org blog and http://www.arounddublinblog.com as well as their fan pages on Facebook. I leave constructive comments where I can shed light on the subject at hand. Give me a call if you want more info, need API scores explained, desire to validate a posting, or just want to find out more information about the Pathways program.

(925) 828-2568 ext. 5401

Keep the dialogue going! I enjoy the more informed comments with substance and honest questions from residents vs. the trite, anonymous jabs that seem to proliferate some threads. However, it has been my experience that John typically catches those incidents and addresses the personal attacks redirecting the comments to constructive dialogue.

Have a Safe and Prosperous New Year!

Your mind certainly seems boggled to not be able to comprehend that there may be differences of opinion about your hero, blogs that promote of charter schools or charter schools. Don’t be such a baby when you hear a little criticism.

“has no reason to do it other than his love and passion for this city” hahahahahaha..try not to be so naive. He tried to use the blog to get on the city council.