GILROY
– The school district is looking at a board policy update
service to help with the time-consuming process of examining
hundreds of outdated policies.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – The school district is looking at a board policy update service to help with the time-consuming process of examining hundreds of outdated policies. Some of the policies were last reviewed decades ago and others, as trustees have discovered in the past several weeks, do not reflect the district’s needs or parents’ concerns.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz said he is waiting for more details on exactly how the updating would work, but that he is leaning toward using the service.
“It would cut down the time tremendously,” he said. “It’s one thing just to update the policies, but it’s another thing to understand the policy and discuss it.”
A decision will likely be made next week.
The revisions would be made by a representative of the California School Board Association, which provides standard policies to districts across the state. Since Gilroy Unified School District already pays $1,800 for services provided by the CSBA, the additional board policy support would cost about $1,400, Diaz said.
Trustees supported the suggestion. Tom Bundros called it a “no-brainer.”
“Frankly, in a year, with all the things that come down from the state, you can find yourself out of compliance pretty quickly,” Trustee Bob Kraemer said.
Trustees began revising board policies three years ago, and though it has been slow-going, they have made it through the majority of the policies, mostly those in the administrative and human resources departments.
There are 271 policies that are still up for review in the department of educational services, said Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs.
Trustees spent four hours reviewing nine board policies last month. Several more policies were scheduled to be looked at but were put on hold pending the decision to use an updating service.
During a study session last week, trustees reviewed several policies dealing with supplementary instructional materials, controversial issues and curriculum because they saw a pressing need to update them now.
“We wanted to make sure the policies were updated before the board has to take action on a core reading list and instructional materials,” Diaz said.
The board will approve the Gilroy High School reading list, and could adopt a textbook for one or more high school grade levels, later this spring.
Although revising board policies is tedious work, current policies are useful to trustees, Diaz said.
“They are very important because, from a board perspective, it gives them the right questions to ask … and make sure the things presented to them are what they’re looking for,” he said.
Members of the Alliance for Academic Excellence, a grassroots group of parents, teachers and community members dedicated to improving academics at Gilroy High School, again attended the study session to suggest revisions to several policies.
Bundros provided examples of Palo Alto Unified School District’s policies, pointing out language he said would benefit the policy on curriculum development and evaluation.
“In the end, this should reflect our philosophy in the district,” he said. For example, Palo Alto’s policies say their curriculum is chosen based on the “best available research.”
The challenge with writing philosophical statements or extra detail into board policy, some district officials and trustees say, is deciding how to put that philosophy into practice and see that it is maintained.
“You need to monitor whether or not the policies are being implemented,” Diaz said, “and that would be a major, major shift in what you’re focusing on a yearly basis.”
The Alliance for Academic Excellence has been pushing for the development of a clear district philosophy.
“We have that, I just don’t think it’s a living document, nor is it a user-friendly document,” Diaz said.
Diaz said a new district philosophy, or “mission statement,” will likely be generated as the board updates its three-year plan.
Meanwhile, other recommendations from the Academic Alliance, outlined in a position paper presented to trustees, will be discussed by a group of board members, district staff and Alliance members.
“We will …. go over the recommendations that were made in the position paper so that we can incorporate what we can in this, and come to how we can use these guidelines,” Board President Jaime Rosso said.
Alliance members at last week’s study session made it clear they want to see some of their suggestions, mostly referring to the GHS English program, implemented.
“We’re asking for board directives, because we’ve been at this for a really long time,” parent Jackie Stevens said. “You can say that you want that, but then it comes to the point where you have to do what you need, to get it.”
The group will meet this Saturday to go through each of the nine issues discussed in the report.
“I think that two-thirds of them probably are being done as part of the policies review and implementation,” Trustee Jim Rogers said, noting that some portions of the report – such as the minority report from the reading list advisory group – will likely not be fulfilled. “I think that I was impressed that community people not working with staff presented some pretty valuable info.”
Kraemer asked the Alliance members to work with the board to agree on which items to address, but not to “tell us how to do it.”
“We need (Diaz) to come to us and (Diaz) to go to staff and come back to us with recommendations to determine how that happens,” Kraemer said.
“We’re not experts in these areas, we’re community members like you,” Rosso said. “We depend on the expertise of staff to provide us with their judgment, and we rely on the community (input).”
