Clovis North Orchestra performs for CUSD Board meeting

J.T. gomez jt21gomez@gmail.com

March 16, 2023 - At the latest CUSD Board meeting, the Clovis North Orchestra Band played two selections to open the Special Presentation portion of the meeting.

The first selection paid tribute to all five sections of the armed forces with the playing of their respective anthem, properly titled “Armed Forces”.

The second selection was a hymn that had personal value to Clovis North Band Director Michael Chang, as he explained the hymn used to be sung to him by his grandmother.

“Hopefully this music, will create peace in your heart,” said Chang as he and the band began to play.

Mr. Geoffrey Dean, Coordinator of the Visual and Performing Arts program in Clovis Unified took a moment to introduce the band.

“This group of students on average have a weighted GPA of about 4.12. They regularly perform at festivals and community events and recently received superior ratings.”

Dean explained that this weekend of March 17th-19th, the Orchestra Band will be participating in the Anaheim Heritage Festival, competing against fifty schools nationwide.

“Recently, seventeen of these students were accepted into the California Directors Association Honor Orchestra in San Diego. This was the second highest number of students from any one school in the state of California and the most from the Valley.” Those students mentioned were apart of the “All-State Concert” that performed last December.

Board member Tiffany Stoker-Madsen ended the presentation, praising the orchestra by saying, “Thank you for your time and your effort in preparing for tonight and preparing for competition. Thank you for coming out and sharing with us your talents.”

Clovis.

A cornerstone of success to the City of Clovis has been public safety. I was fortunate to work for the Clovis Police Department for nearly 29 years and be Chief of Police for six of those years.

The men and women of the Clovis Police Department are truly extraordinary in what they do every day to keep us safe.

However, the cornerstone of safety in Clovis is currently at a crossroads and is facing the most critical challenges our city has ever seen.

Current state laws have made keeping criminals in jail an overwhelming challenge. The one—size—fits--all approach simply does not work.

Our biggest challenge is this: The Clovis Police Department has the lowest police officer staffing numbers in the valley per capita. We average less than one officer per 1000 residents.

Since the great recession of 2007, the Clovis Police Department has been struggling to increase staffing numbers. At one point in 2006, the police department had 116 officers.

During the last major recession in 2007 and 2008 it was reduced to 91 officers.

Currently, the Clovis Police Department is authorized for 112 officers.

A recent study completed showed the Clovis Police Department should have a minimum of 133 officers. Yet, Clovis PD remains a full-service department.

It’s this full-service department that has made and continues to make, Clovis PD special and different.

When you call your police department, they come. It is evident that this full level of service is becoming harder and harder to maintain. This cornerstone of safety is truly at a crossroads.

There are several factors as to why staffing numbers remain lower than they should. The main one is simply everything costs more than it used to.

Over the years, everyone has worked on more affordable solutions to help with a staffing shortage. This included the use of volunteers and citizens on patrol. However, with the COVID shutdown many of the volunteers have not been able to return for various reasons.

Maintaining a level of high service is due to the community’s willingness to call and work with the police as well as the commitment and dedication of every employee and volunteer working with or for the Clovis Police Department.

We acknowledge and thank them for their continuing service.

So, the question we face is what do we do? Reduce service levels that include no longer responding to certain calls or find a funding a solution to ensure the Clovis Police Department always has the adequate staffing to meet the needs of our growing community.

There will have to be tough discussions with the Clovis Community on what we want and how we get there.

The time is now for us as a community to decide how we remain the “Safest City in the Valley”.