2 letters: complaint about Gavilan College; City rec staff in the dark about South Valley pool

Staff at Gavilan College needs to step up its game to give students necessary support
Dear Editor,
I have a complaint about Gavilan College. I have been attending Gav for three years for my general education. Since being there I’ve always witnessed my friends or family that also attend bad talk this college. Up until this semester I had little problems – here and there, but nothing major until this semester (my last).
I applied to a few colleges to transfer in December 2011 and, according to my counselor, everything was good and my transcripts were sent in January 2012. I applied to a college in southern California, but the only thing they received was my application, After that I never heard back.
May 1 is the deadline to pay an enrollment fee, and I hadn’t received an acceptance or denial letter. Come to find out after a phone call that my preliminary transcript was never sent. This transcript is what determines whether or not you can be accepted.
I am very angry about this and, to top it off, I’m not the only one that this has happened to. I am writing to get the word out, that this school is unorganized and that as a community college there should be more help and a better staff.
This is unacceptable, this can jeopardize my future education. I know I can apply next time, but it’s a $55 fee just to apply. That’s my money wasted. I have been on top of what I needed to do, and I did everything early to avoid this type of problem. I even made an appointment with my counselor to check if everything was good and was told that it was.
Hopefully others read this and share their issues, so Gavilan can get their administration and record office in order.
No college is perfect, I understand, but there are so many imperfect things about this college that I feel need to be fixed. No student trying to better their education should have to deal with and stress out over the things these counselors and staff members are getting paid to do, and were hired for.
Desiree Alfaro, Gilroy

City staff didn’t know what was going to happen to the swim offerings at South Valley pool
Dear Editor,
In The Word column by Dispatch Editor Mark Derry in Friday’s edition  there were some opinions that need to be responded to in order to more accurately convey the facts surrounding context and public outreach related to swim programs at the South Valley Middle School pool.
For background, the City of Gilroy has been providing and promoting recreational swim programs and subsidized swim lessons at the SVMS and Gilroy High School pools for decades.
During the past two years, the SVMS pool, owned and operated by the Gilroy Unified School District, has experienced serious operational problems that raised health and safety concerns. Because of this, it was necessary to relocate the subsidized swim lessons and to the GHS pool in 2010 and 2011.  In 2011, only one week of pool use was available at SVMS because equipment failure prevented the school district from being able to keep the pool in operating condition. Staff, participants and parents often did not know if the pool would be available on a day-to-day basis, so, to lessen the disruption and uncertainty for all involved, and to ensure these important programs continued, all programs were relocated to the GHS pool.
In March, 2012 a joint meeting was held with the City of Gilroy and the Gilroy Unified  School District at which time the district identified the magnitude of problems with the SVMS pool and probable cost for repair.  Based on printing deadlines final proofing for the Summer Activity Guide was well underway and completed before the City Council was able to address the pool issue on April 16.     
With these operating limitations in mind, and no firm decision yet made on the availability of the pool, recreational swim schedules for the SVMS pool were not published in the Summer 2012 Activity Guide because it was not known if the SVMS would, in fact, be available for the summer swim season. It would have been irresponsible to promote a false impression that the pool would be available, when that was not known. It was well known the pool issue had been discussed at public meetings and the viability of the SVMS pool an open question.  There is no basis for the false comment that staff predetermined to close the pool as it tried to prepare an accurate and timely Activity Guide that addresses many programs beyond aquatics.  Pool operation was a matter to be considered by each governing board – the Dispatch even reported such.
For many years public outreach for the city’s subsidized swim lessons, is undertaken through very specific brochures and flyers targeting low-income youth residing in the Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area annually, not the Activity Guide.   
Even in a tough economy the recreation department has been developing and implementing new programming and working with new partners to extend the reach of valuable, character-building activities for youth. We will continue to make every effort to meet the recreational needs of the entire community.
 
Joe Kline, city of Gilroy public information officer