Gilroy
– The community is divided along cultural lines regarding what
the direction and expenditures should be for the school district,
two meetings last week revealed.
Gilroy – The community is divided along cultural lines regarding what the direction and expenditures should be for the school district, two meetings last week revealed.
English-speaking parents at a community forum last Wednesday expressed a need for more funds to be spent on the highest-achieving students. In contrast, parents at a community forum for Spanish speakers the night before said they wanted more attention paid to struggling students.
These concerns surfaced during a three-day spree of leadership profile development meetings hosted by Hazard, Attea and Young, the consulting firm hired by the district to find candidates for the next superintendent.
The Latino parent group wanted a superintendent “who saw the need to close the achievement gap,” said Barbara Ramsey, the bilingual consultant who facilitated the Spanish forum.
The achievement gap is a name given to the pattern of disparity in student performance commonly seen among different ethnic and socioeconomic groups. In national and state tests, white non-Hispanic students and students of Asian descent tend to score markedly higher than Hispanic and black students.
In line with the request to close this gap, some of the more than 40 people who attended the meeting for Spanish speakers said they wanted a superintendent who was familiar with the migrant education program or with the struggles of students for whom English is not their first language.
At the community forum conducted in English, which drew nearly 20 people, the plight of English learners was acknowledged, but funding for advanced classes and accelerated programs was touted as a top priority.
The students in advanced classes, “need more attention than some of your struggling kids because they’re moving fast through things,” said parent Margie Hemeon.
Other parents were stronger in advocating more funds for gifted students and less for students struggling to get up to grade level.
“I don’t want to see 80 percent of the money spent on 20 percent of the kids who aren’t going to make it,” said parent Sue Costa.
While Trustee Jaime Rosso called these figures “an exaggeration,” he acknowledged the needs of both groups and the need for the next superintendent to consider these needs.
Yet, some of the programs for high-achieving students, such as the Gifted and Talented Education program, and for low-achieving programs, such as the migrant education program, are paid for from categorical funds. These monies are federally distributed and dependent on the number of children who participate in the program, not on decisions by the district Board of Trustees.
The board, as keepers of the scant resources in the district purse, has become perceived as arbiters of this disagreement of fund allocation, but does not have a clear strategy to deal with the complaints of the parents.
The board does agree, however, that the budget is tight.
Which programs will get funds will come down to how the board prioritizes the district’s needs, Dominguez said. In anticipation of this, the board has set a working session to address budget issues for March 29 at 5:30 p.m.
However, parents should not expect any definitive answers soon, Rosso said.
“(Budget allocations) will part of an ongoing discussion,” he said. “It’s not going to be settled in any one meeting.”
