Parents of future Brownell students hope new principal will
generate more communication
Gilroy – When Monica Chipman sent her son to Brownell Middle School she’d expected an environment similar to his grammar school.
At Luigi Aprea Elementary School parents were involved and both teachers and administrators responded to inquiries promptly. But the transition to the westside middle school was “culture shock,” and the nightmare continued from sixth to eighth grade.
Now that her third-grader is staring at a similar future, the mother of two is putting her foot down.
“We’re looking into private school,” she said. “I had one go through Brownell and it was horrific. … I can’t do this again.”
On numerous occasions Chipman, a secretary for the Luigi Aprea Parent Board, attempted unsuccessfully to contact teachers to discuss her child’s academics. At open houses educators would detail the expectations, but nothing would ever pan out.
And the communication at the top, including that of former Principal Suzanne Damm, wasn’t any better. Staff disciplinary measures consisted of screaming at students and Damm didn’t have the people skills necessary to deal with adolescents or their parents, Chipman said.
“Consequently her staff didn’t respect her and the children didn’t either,” she said.
Chipman is far from alone.
Many Luigi Aprea parents have heard the stories or experienced them firsthand and are apprehensive or completely against, the idea of sending their children to the middle school.
“Not one parent I’ve talked to wants to send their kid to Brownell,” said one local parent. “(They) want to send their kid to private school or get in Solorsano.”
The parent, who asked to remain anonymous, detailed a situation that almost completely mirrored the one described by Chipman. The father said his wife continually attempted to contact teachers to discuss their daughter’s grades and never heard back.
District Superintendent Edwin Diaz understands that lack of communication is a serious issue at Brownell.
The issue was further cemented by a recent survey revealing that 65 percent of respondents don’t receive timely responses from the school and only 79 percent think it’s easy to contact teachers.
But the major red flag materialized in the number of respondents. Only 5 percent of Brownell parents, compared to 55 percent of South Valley and 27 percent of Ascencion Solorsano middle schools, returned a survey.
Diaz is hopeful that the new Brownell principal will mend some of the issues.
“We’re very fortunate to get a principal of Joe Di Salvo’s experience and quality,” he said. “I’m pretty confident that Joe will improve the relationship with parents.”
And Di Salvo, who most recently served as principal at Palo Alto’s Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School, is looking forward to making those changes. The 54-year-old was concerned with the results of the survey, particularly the tiny number of respondents.
“That is not OK,” he said. “We should be up to 50 percent or more at each grade level.”
The new principal, who said he’s quite aware of the communication issue, already has some plans for improvement. First he’s going to redesign the school’s monthly newsletter and communicate that the best mode of contact is not voice mail.
“I’m gonna encourage that teachers and parents use an e-mail protocol for communication,” Di Salvo said. “I keep a written record.”
The new principal said phone messages often get lost in the busy shuffle of a school day and sometimes teachers never receive messages.
Another of Di Salvo’s goals is to ensure that parents hear back within 24 hours after contacting teachers or a principal. Also, he plans to have a Web site up and running by September. Brownell is the only school in the Gilroy Unified School District, besides the continuation high school, without a Web site.
Although Karin van Herk was completely content with her two children’s experience at Brownell and said teachers and the principal responded promptly, she is looking forward to working with the new principal. A member of the middle school parent club and Solorsano attendance secretary, van Herk is excited about the upcoming school year.
“Already I think this is gonna be a good thing for Brownell,” she said. “He puts the students and the parents first. As a board we already talked to him and I’m very impressed.”
