Gilroy schools chief blasts parent fraud, warns of action

Gilroy—Calling it “shameful” behavior and threatening criminal investigations and civil action, Gilroy’s school chief has warned parents of incoming 9^th graders not to lie about home addresses to gain entry to the district’s showcase, $158 million Christopher High School and avoid the much older Gilroy High School.
In a strongly worded letter sent out Thursday, Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Flores outlined a new policy designed to help prevent attendance fraud, including by parents of children who live outside the district.
Under the policy, staring immediately, “all incoming ninth graders regardless of how long they have been enrolled in the (district) will have to submit ‘Proof of Residency’ with their registration packet,” the letter states.
Deadline for the packets is 4 p.m., April 1, 2015.
Flores warned in her letter of referrals to the Santa Clara County District Attorney and, or lawsuits against guilty parents to recover damages.
“The use of fraudulent addresses must stop and we will take all necessary steps to ensure that it does stop,” Flores wrote to parents.
Flores told the Dispatch that since the district first tightened residency verification procedures three years ago, most of the 20 to 30 parents investigated each year were found to have submitted “falsified” documents.
“CHS has been open six years, and during the first years, the school reported to me that there were many students attending CHS who did not live in the attendance area,” Flores told the Dispatch Friday.
The district hired a retired law enforcement officer to investigate cases of possible fraud and has been tipped off by “concerned citizens or information shared by teachers and staff,” Flores told parents in her letter.
“Our best estimate of the impact since the school opened is that likely around 150 parents have falsified information in order to enroll their child at CHS,” she said in a written response to the Dispatch.
The result, according to school officials, is that CHS enrollment has swelled to 1,900 students, 100 more than the school was built to handle and a number not expected till the 2016-17 school year, she said.
“The impact on students, teachers, staff members and resources is significant as some classrooms are approaching 40 students,” the Flores letter notes.
“There are no empty classrooms and all the school’s resources are impacted,” she told the Dispatch.
Students whose information was found to be falsified have been transferred to Gilroy High School or taken from CHS and referred to the appropriate school district, according to Flores.
For nearly two years before CHS opened, a boundary committee explored the demarcation line to be used when for the first time the district would be home to two four-year high schools.
The primary goal of the adopted boundary was to avoid overcrowding at either school, according to Flores.
Flores announced the letter during a school board meeting Thursday.
“I can’t understand why people go to these extremes,” she said.