Approximately 11,500 students and 590 certificated staff members flooded campuses all over the Garlic Capital as the Gilroy Unified School District kicked off the 2013-14 school year Thursday.
Despite financial issues GUSD faced from February to May, when Fiscal Advisor Nimrat Johal of the Santa Clara County Office of Education stepped in to get the district’s fiscal house in order, Flores said issues with GUSD’s business office have been addressed and remedied. GUSD’s financial problems previously came to a crux in December when the SCCOE swooped in and took control because of problems with fiscal oversight, administrative errors, missed payments and a remarkably high staff turnover coming from the district’s business office.
Since then, Flores said all cash flow issues have been resolved, loans have been paid back and the district has even managed to maintain a $6 to $7 million reserve.
“On a day-to-day basis, there is no longer involvement with the County,” she confirmed. “During the next Board of Education meeting on Sept. 5, we will present our revised budget and are hoping to officially be released from the County.”
The biggest change GUSD is dealing with this year, along with thousands of other districts across the country, is the implementation of the new Common Core Standards, or a set of academic guidelines that more or less shape all curriculums and how students are educated and tested. Created by select teachers, parents and community leaders across the country, the standards “provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them,” as explained on the initiative’s website.
Flores said all teachers attended an in-service Monday to learn how to incorporate the new standards into their curriculums.
“Common Core Standards are being implemented all across the nation, not just the district,” Flores said. “This is one of the biggest reforms I’ve seen in my 35 years of involvement with public education.”
This year, GUSD hired 40 new teachers – including seven for South Valley Middle School alone – across the 15-school district. One major personnel change took place at Christopher High School, where Patricia Jolly took over the top spot now that John Perales, who has been principal of CHS since the school’s 2009 opening, became Director of Human Resources for certificated staff at the district office. Jolly was previously CHS’s Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction since the summer of 2009.
Multiple construction projects are also planned for or are taking place at various sites across the district. Flores said the facilities department this summer completed phase I of several Measure P-funded projects, with phase II is currently underway. Measure P is the $150 million school facilities bond locals approved in November 2008.
A few of the major projects completed this summer include the entrance canopy at Gilroy High School; the front parking lot at South Valley Middle School; and the library at Rod Kelley Elementary. The multi-purpose room at Rucker Elementary is “65 percent done,” according to Flores and anticipated to be completed by December.
“A tremendous amount of work has been done by the facilities department this summer,” she said, crediting staff.
A new parking lot isn’t the only area South Valley expanded in. Enrollment increased by an estimated 80 to 100 students this year to accommodate the Dual Immersion program at the middle school, which is the only junior high in the district to offer the forward-thinking learning format that fosters bilingualism and biliteracy by teaching 50/50 in English and Spanish. SVMS Principal Anisha Munshi said the school added on two additional sixth-grade Dual Immersion sections.
Munshi, who has been principal for three years, said $1.5 million of Measure P funds went towards several summer projects at the school, including a fence around campus for security, the construction of two classrooms, new floors, interior painting in buildings and more.
Exciting new developments are also in the works at Christopher High School.
Thanks to a generous $2 million donation by Don and Karen Christopher to kick-start construction on the proposed CHS Sports Complex, Phase I is expected to be finished by Aug. 2014 and includes the design and construction of a new track, football field, lights, temporary home/visitor bleachers and a scoreboard. Currently CHS has a “pasture of dirt and natural grass in terrible shape,” as previously described by CHS Athletic Director Darren Yafai.
The project is still in the early stages of project design and Division of State Architects (DSA) approvals, according to Flores.
The effort to fund and build the new stadium complex was spearheaded by a dedicated steering committee of six local parents: Larry Sanford, Gerold Zimmerman, Randy Moen, Russ Pacheco, George Sammut and Jim Rhodes III.
Also new this year, several campuses will have soon have wireless Internet, starting with GHS, CHS and Mount Madonna Continuation High School, according to Flores. The district still has to identify funding that can be used to expand wireless Internet to the middle schools, followed by the elementary schools.
