Fall is here, and it’s a busy time of year for staff at Gilroy
Unified School District in wake of two homecomings, multiple
back-to-school nights and ongoing facilities updates at various
campus sites. Among the items on Thursday’s school board meeting
agenda at 7810 Arroyo Circle: Sinking bleachers, a stance against
habitual bus yard vandalism, the approval of the TUCCI coaching
contract for the 2011-2012 school year and a lively debate about
pepper spray. The removal/suspension of three students, the
dismissal of a public employee and
”
anticipated litigation
”
were also discussed in closed session.
Fall is here, and it’s a busy time of year for staff at Gilroy Unified School District in wake of two homecomings, multiple back-to-school nights and ongoing facilities updates at various campus sites. Among the items on Thursday’s school board meeting agenda at 7810 Arroyo Circle: Sinking bleachers, a stance against habitual bus terminal vandalism, the approval of the TUCCI coaching contract for the 2011-2012 school year and a lively debate about pepper spray. The removal/suspension of three students, the dismissal of a public employee and “anticipated litigation” were also discussed in closed session.
AWSOMENESS
The Exchange Club of Gilroy donated $1,500 worth of wish-list supplies to Eliot Elementary School. Who says Christmas can’t happen in September? Also, the district’s donation report shows $125 worth of instruments from a Karin Sterkman, and $500 worth of instruments from a Jon Ebert to Brownell Middle School. Kudos, for answering GUSD Band Instructor Tom Brozene’s call for instrument donations. Middle school band enrollment has doubled from 150 to 300 in the last two years, and so has the need for instruments.
DEAR VANDALS: YOU’RE LAME
Thanks to unknown miscreants, who yanked the surveillance system from GUSD’s Transportation Facility at 8067 Swantson Lane, the district gets to shell out $9,870 for brand a new security system. The area has suffered both vandalism and theft as of late; the most recent scenario involving four buses that got tagged on both sides. On Thursday, board members approved – with flying colors – a contract with Superior Alarm Company to install a closed circuit surveillance system in the bus terminal.
“Are the cameras gonna be high enough, so they, themselves, won’t be vandalized?” asked trustee Mark Good.
Yes indeed, according to Jim Bombacci, director of Facilities for GUSD who said the new eyes in the sky will be secured 30 to 40-feet-high on light poles, with others positioned on apexes of the transportation facility’s office buildings. Not only will the cameras be a deterrent, Bombacci said, they will also snap pictures to help police “apprehend the kids that are doing the damages.”
“We can zero in on the faces of the people, and the places where transients have a tendency to come over and through the fence,” he said.
The $9,870 chunk of change will come from Measure P, the $150 million school facilities bond Gilroy voters passed in November 2008.
PEPPER PROTECTION
Following a spirited discussion fueled by lively banter between trustees Mark Good and Dom Payne, the board opted to revise policy 4158 (for those of you who haven’t memorized GUSD’s board policies yet, BP 4158 revolves around employee security). The board decided to go with a revised version of Option 2, which originally stated “employees may not carry or possess pepper spray on school property or at school activities” except on a case-by-case basis where the superintendent grants the employee permission to possess pepper spray “when justified by unusual dangerous circumstances.”
Judging by his expression, Good thought the latter provision in Option 2 was dumb, because “if some crazy person with a weapon comes in school, (the teacher) is not gonna have the opportunity to go through the bureaucratic process of asking the superintendent for permission. I have no understanding for why you wouldn’t want to allow your employees to protect themselves,” he rationed.
Good was in favor of Option 1, which would have allowed for “employees to possess pepper spray and the district would not know they have it.”
Payne saw things differently. He expressed concern that using pepper spray on campus could cause more harm than good, due to pepper spray’s risk of being lethal by asphyxiation, he said.
“You have some experience using pepper spray, do you?” remarked Good.
“I have some experience, yes,” replied Payne.
“I’ve used it; I’ve had it used on me, and it’s not lethal,” said Good, a former police officer.
In the end, per trustee Fred Tovar’s suggesting of negating a compromise, the board went with option two, minus the part that said, “when justified by unusual dangerous circumstances.”
Come to think of it, said trustee Tom Bundros, who added an afterthought, “are students allowed to bring pepper spray on campus? I have four daughters who went through GUSD, and I don’t remember the discussion ever being had.”
No on actually knew the answer to his question, but GUSD Superintendent looked into it Friday and confirmed: That’s a big “no.”
Bottom line: Teachers can carry pepper spray on campus, but first they need to apply for permission through a designated superior.
GRADUATED!
No, not high school students. Rebecca G. Wright, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services for GUSD, and trustee Dom Payne, recently graduated from Leadership Gilroy, a nine-month program that primes participants for leadership roles within the community. Both Wright and Payne were part of the group that helped jumpstart the beginning of a brand new Farmers’ Market in Gilroy, which celebrated its opening festival in June and will continue every Sunday, year-round.
THE DONATION DILEMMA
While trustees are wholeheartedly grateful and appreciative for set of bleachers that were given as a gift to Christopher High School (placed alongside the tennis courts so spectators have a place to sit), there’s one small problem: It’s now costing them.
GUSD will have to pay thousands of dollars for a concrete foundation, because the bleachers are slowly sinking into the grass, which gets muddy and slushy when it rains.
Trustee Fred Tovar was the first one to highlight this irony. His sentiments were echoed by trustee Mark Good, who said “having to pay $4,000 for concrete as a result of a donated bleacher…that’s a problem.”
POOL PROBLEMS: ON THE MEND
Gilroy High School’s two pools are in bad shape with serious tile breakage, which poses an injury threat to swimmers who step on the broken pieces during practice. The board approved an authorization to solicit bids for pool resurfacing at GHS, with a bid due date of Oct. 26. The possible cost of repairs has not yet been reported.
THE INCOGNITO TICKET BOX
This topic isn’t likely a forerunner on people’s minds, but Christopher High School has a black box for selling tickets to its sporting/theater events.
The path that was supposed to lead up to the black box, however, “was landscaped on accident,” according to GUSD Facilities Director James Bombacci. The ticket box is located near the high school’s entrance, but currently, it just looks like a window. A concrete walkway leading up to the black box will soon be underway.
APPROVED: TUCCI
The extension in the contract with TUCCI for one year for the amount of $171,000, which will to continue the transition of behavior services to district personnel. This news was met happily by a group of parents and paras (para-educators, who are behavior training specialists, or “BSAs”) who sat in the audience front and center wearing nametags that read, “Proud Para.” The approval is part of the board’s plan to move forward with training paras in behavior strategies, which will allow them to take over the work that had previously been handled by a non-public agency called TUCCI Learning Solutions, Inc. – a program that provides supervision, coaching and coordinating services to parents and educators catering to children with a variety of behavioral challenges. The training has so far proved successful with many district para, who are now replacing non-public agency staff.
APPROVED: NEW STAFF
The board approved a request to hire two full-time occupational therapists and two full time speech and language pathologists.
PUBLIC HEARING: CERTIFICATION OF SUFFICIENCY OF TEXTBOOKS
The board approved a resolution that certifies students have sufficient textbooks or instructional materials in each subject area for kindergarten through 12th grades, including laboratory science equipment for science laboratory classes in grades 9-12. This took up less than a minute of meeting time, but it’s kind of a big deal: In order to be eligible to receive instructional materials funds, “the governing board of each district and county office of education is required to hold an annual public hearing and adopt a resolution stating whether each pupil in the district has sufficient textbooks or instructional materials in specified subjects.”
QUOTABLE
GUSD BOARD PRESIDENT RHODA BRESS: “When I think of the first back-to-school night there, it seemed empty in comparison. It’s a really full, functioning campus now, and that’s nice to see.” On the growth of Christopher High School, which will celebrate the graduation of its first senior class this year.
TRUSTEE MARK GOOD: “Not that criminals can read, but we should put that in the newspaper.” On the new surveillance system to be installed at GUSD’s transportation facility, which is experiencing habitual tagging and theft.
TRUSTEE MARK GOOD: “I would like to give teachers the opportunity to carry pepper spray.”
