Overwhelmed By Weeds

 

A Hirsch Elementary School student bikes along Dove Street, as weeds consume the fence line.

The weeds at Hirsch Elementary School are growing faster than Tracy Unified School District?EUR??,,????'???s understaffed grounds crew. The result is a set of overgrown campuses in this community 40 miles east of the San Francisco Bay Area.

While the district has built nine new schools since 1987, the crew still only has six members to tend to 21 campuses.

?EUR??,,????'??We?EUR??,,????'???re stretched thin,?EUR??,,????'?? district maintenance and operations coordinator Bill Willner said.

Weeds stretch more than 100 feet down a fence in front of Hirsch. Pieces of litter, like a paper plate, have found a new home in the overgrowth.

District spokeswoman Jessica Wakefield said the district hired a seventh groundskeeper in 1998. The position was later cut as a result of budget reductions.

Wakefield said the district doesn?EUR??,,????'???t have any immediate plans to hire another groundskeeper.

?EUR??,,????'??An extra groundskeeper could alleviate the workload of our grounds crew, but that is not where our money is budgeted right now,?EUR??,,????'?? she said.
Of those six employees, Willner said, one mows all the big playing fields and another fixes broken sprinkler heads.

The other four have the responsibility of tending to the landscaping at schools and the district?EUR??,,????'???s central office.

With a small staff, there?EUR??,,????'???s only so much work that can be done each day.
?EUR??,,????'??We are just doing everything we can to mow and keep up,?EUR??,,????'?? Willner said. ?EUR??,,????'??We catch the weeding when we can.?EUR??,,????'??

Source: Tracy (Calif. ) Press