An Old Pro’s Parting Look at LUSD – Then and Now
I am going through boxes of material that I have put off for years. I am faced with what to do with treasures from the past. Should I smile and then throw away or should I secure its memory in some more modern fashion besides placing it in a box for later.. When I found this newspaper article from May 1979, I decided I needed to preserve it for future generations. My father was interviewed by the local Stockton Record back in the time when the paper provided much more local information. My father, Floyd Swagerty, was retiring after a long educational career and the paper featured him as “Saturday’s People” which was a weekly feature that spotlighted people of interest.
Things have changed in Floyd Swagerty’s 33 years in public education in San Joaquin County. Swagerty began as a history teacher who doubled as coach for almost all sports at Linden High School. He rose to become a cornerstone in the administration foundation of the Lincoln Unified School District.
He’s now retiring as LUSD’s assistant superintendent for business and will be honored at a “surprise” party to begin at 6:00 p.m. May 5 at Elbert Covell Hall at University of the Pacific’s alma mater.
Swagerty ticks off the changes during his tenure:
- He’s seen a move away from physical discipline in school to parents prone to sue if physical discipline is administered.
- He’s seen more state control come over the shrunken dollar used locally for education – and whoever controls the purse strings also controls the program.
- He’s also seen court rulings that in his opinion were legislative instead of interpretive of education law. And Swagerty has seen the North Stockton school district’s character change from almost elitism to a more representative cross-section of the city’s population.
Swagerty said he believes the biggest change has come in discipline. “Before parents used to back you up. Now they are prone to sue you.”
He believes students have no respect for elders and even less for the personal property or rights of others.
In the past students would step aside and let an elder pass in a hallway. “Now you’re lucky if they don’t knock you down,” said Swagerty who blames peer pressure and psychologists for the “Me! Me! Me! attitude of today’s students. “Psychologists have done this,” said Swagerty. “They tell parents to ‘let your children express themselves.’”
“What they need is guidance at home from their parents.”
With proper guidance from home, students could stop peer group pressure by telling peers “my parents won’t let me do this,” Swagerty reasons.
After the passage of Proposition 13, school funding is foremost in the thoughts of assistant superintendents in charge of business. Swagerty is no exception. Recalling the days when he first was named to the position, Swagerty said there was more local control over spending. Now, the state allows very little leeway, Swagerty said.
And at the same time, administrators are swamped with time-consuming paperwork needed by the state to ensure that programs are being run the way it wants.
The solution, Swagerty said, could come in the form of “an equitable amount of state funding spent per child, but as little state control as possible.” Swagerty said that court rulings haven’t helped.
He considers many rulings detrimental to the educational system and wonders “why judges can sit there and make rulings about education. They are legislating rather than interpreting the law.”
Despite the detrimental changes Swagerty has observed, he believes Lincoln Unified is the best district around. “We have been blessed,” he said. “The district has had above average children to work with,” he said.
Now that the district is getting older, classrooms no longer contain only the children of professionals. There is a more representative cross-section.
Swagerty believes Early Childhood Education programs have helped the district to maintain excellent results despite drastic cuts in funding. Swagerty said he probably would do it all over again.
Swagerty said that when he first began teaching, he had no idea he would eventually become an assistant superintendent. When a position as principal opened up, he took weekend and summer courses to obtain his administrator’s credentials.
After becoming an administrator, he soon began to miss the day to day contact with students. The only ones he sees now are the student journalists, student council members or award winners.
To prepare for retirement, Swagerty has purchased a home near Arnold. It has a garage he’ll convert into a workshop. Then it’s golfing and fishing and traveling to visit former foreign exchange students who have lived with him and his wife.
He is leaving Lincoln Unified with a final thought: “We must remember that the only reason we are here is the children in the classroom. We are here to back up the teachers. If we do that, the rest will fall in place.”
I can remember discussing this article with Dad after it was published. He took exception to some of the writing or interpretation but accepted that it was out of his hands. I am amazed that he had such insight in 1979 that could be said today.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 