OPINION: No More Foreign Exchange Students in Lamorinda?

My family has just been informed that the Acalanes School District Superintendant has decreed - without public input, and without explanation - that the Acalanes district will not accept any exchange students this year. Now this concerns me, and it outrages me that this is being done without due process, so to speak.

Just as a matter of background, both my wife and I were exchange students in our day. While we certainly had excellent secondary school and college education, we believe the exchange experience was an essential part of our overall education. The exchange program I was on was aptly named Youth For Understanding (YFU).

My eldest son, Christian, who recently graduated from Campolindo, has spent this last year in Slovakia as an exchange student with the Youth for Understanding program. He has confirmed what his parents knew – that you can not understand other cultures without the context of direct contact with the people. He was also on YFU.

During this year, while Christian was overseas, we hosted an exchange student from Norway, Karoline, who attended Miramonte. From what we could tell, this exchange was quite beneficial, both for Karoline as well as for the students and the families with whom she interacted. Karoline was also on YFU.
 
Because of this exchange success, perhaps, Christian's host family sister, Klaudia, has enrolled in Youth For Understanding for a direct placement with us - which we supported wholeheartedly. We immediately contacted the district early in the year, and were informed that the district's financial situation needed to be resolved before any decision on exchange students could be made. We were NOT informed that there might be a problem with the very concept of exchange students.

So, we, like many others, urged our fellow residents to vote in the increased support the high schools needed, and we were relieved when the tax passed. We assumed that we could now let Klaudia know that she was California-bound. We were constantly in contact with the district on Klaudia's behalf, until it was politely suggested that we let the exchange organization handle it, that, as parents, we could let the professionals handle it. We regret that decision, under the circumstances.
 
Very late in the process, we understood that the district superintendant was reviewing the exchange organization's qualifications, and even whether there would be ANY exchange students. This was, of course, a shock. YFU has been a reputable and reliable organization for over 30 years, they are approved, supervised and regulated by the US State Department, and they have been a trusted partner of many Bay Area school districts.
 
We have now been informed that the district superintendent has decided to bar exchange students. Evidently, he is willing to consider students from Rotary. No reasoning was given for either the ban or the exception. We also seem to be the only district around that is barring exchange students – Danville, San Ramon and Berkeley are districts that we know are accepting students.

We are concerned, and we are outraged. If you share either concern or outrage, or if you just like the idea of student exchange programs, please share it here on the Patch, directly with the superintendent, or with the Acalanes School District Governing Board.

Tom Chesterman
Moraga