While the Alliance for Academic Excellence struggles to convince
Gilroy Unified School District to adopt a more challenging reading
list, they might also expend some energy on GUSD’s number one
goal:
”
to hire and retain the best teachers.
”
While the Alliance for Academic Excellence struggles to convince Gilroy Unified School District to adopt a more challenging reading list, they might also expend some energy on GUSD’s number one goal: “to hire and retain the best teachers.”
Kimberly Lemos is such a teacher. She taught at Gilroy High School for the past two years on an emergency credential, while completing her studies, passing the test, and acquiring her credential.
She taught juniors and sophomores. These classes were not honors English classes; Kim’s students ranged in ability from third and fourth grade reading level to 10th.
A little background: In 2001, when the exit exam was first administered, 60 percent of the Gilroy students who took it passed the English portion. The next year, the ones who had failed had another three chances, and 46 percent passed.
Thus, for the class of 2004, 67 percent passed the English portion of the exit exam as sophomores in 2002, and 87 percent had passed by their junior year. In Kim’s 2003 sophomore classes, 92 percent passed.
How did Kim accomplish this miracle?
She threw her heart and soul into it. At home, she designed a spreadsheet to track each student’s progress. She spent hours devising lessons to address weaknesses. In class, she engaged and inspired her students. She assessed each student with a computer administered test called MAP. She set individual goals with them. She taught them to read correctly, fluently, and critically; to write essays and summaries; to speak effectively.
Kim encouraged her students to volunteer: the first year, in a canned food drive. In her second year, her classes collected eyeglasses for the Lions Club’s “Share your Vision” drive. Kim’s five classes collected more eyeglasses than any other entire high school in America. The Lions Club gave her an award. Gilroy High did not acknowledge their achievement.
Kim ran the After School Tutoring program. She served as Dance Club advisor. The students voted her Grand Marshall of the homecoming parade. She was selected as greeter at graduation. Her colleagues voted her most spirited teacher. She received glowing commendations in every observation.
How do you reward a teacher like that? One who inspires, encourages, and teaches her students? GUSD laid her off.
Kim received her pink slip on March 7, 2003, while still on her emergency credential. She was told that as soon as she received her credential, she would be fine. Some other teachers on emergency credentials were laid off; others were not.
Kim received her credential on April 29. There were open positions at GHS, and Kim repeatedly asked to be interviewed. Meanwhile, GHS began interviewing outside candidates, some of whom had no credentials. She finally received her interview the last week of May, only she says to be told by Principal Bob Bravo that she was “not a good fit” with the English department.
She recites her conversation:
“Are you talking about my teaching, what I do in the classroom?” Kim asked.
“No.”
“My after school tutoring? Dance Club? Homecoming Grand Marshall? Garlic Festival?”
“No, no…. It’s what you do outside of the classroom.”
To this day, Kim cannot imagine what that meant.
For one thing, the California Handbook states clearly that a teacher cannot be fired for anything she does outside of the classroom, unless it affects her teaching. For another, Kim was spending so much time on Gilroy High that all she did outside of school was be a wife and mother of three.
She asked for a further explanation, and received a letter from Linda Piceno in Human Resources stating that she had not sufficiently met the standard of professional development: an absurd contention; Kim has documentation to prove she did more toward professional development than many a member of the English department, with or without a credential.
Kim appealed to the GUSD school board. Her complaint was that GHS was hiring and retaining non-credentialed teachers when a credentialed – and exemplary – teacher was available. Linda Piceno re-wrote the complaint to say “Principal Bob Bravo acted inappropriately in deciding not to offer Kim Lemos a teaching position.”
In a five-hour closed session for Kim’s appeal hearing before the Gilroy School Board, Linda Piceno coached Bob Bravo intermittently and, I’ve concluded, railroaded the school board into considering Linda’s narrow question rather than the question of whether Kim should be rehired. Linda won. The students of Gilroy High lost.
Kim received an offer from Leland High the day after she interviewed, and an offer from Live Oak, which she accepted, within six hours of her interview. Gilroy’s loss, Morgan Hill’s gain.
Next week: The Agenda that Dare Not Speak Its Name.
