GILROY
– As part of a new three-year Strategic Plan, the school board
will approve vision and mission statements that describe the
district’s broad, long-term goals.
GILROY – As part of a new three-year Strategic Plan, the school board will approve vision and mission statements that describe the district’s broad, long-term goals.
The statements articulate the district’s role as an educational system both in Gilroy and the greater community.
The goals described in both the vision and mission statements already are incorporated into board policy but now will be prominently featured as the district moves forward.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz “wanted to have something up-to-date and more with the current board’s approval and stamp on it,” Trustee Jim Rogers said. “The one we were operating on was old – 10 years or so … and I think it’s appropriate.”
Some parents of Gilroy High School students, associated with the Alliance for Academic Excellence, asked the board to clarify its mission earlier this spring when a number of board policies were updated.
The board was set to discuss and vote on Strategic Plan suggestions last Thursday but postponed action when the meeting continued past 10 p.m. The item will be placed on a future agenda.
During a board study session earlier this month, Trustee Tom Bundros offered a couple examples of other districts’ mission statements, lobbying for more of a focus on excellence. As a result, Palo Alto’s “purpose” to “foster powerful student learning” was incorporated into Gilroy’s mission statement.
“Excellence is what should be asked for from all students so they are all performing to the very best of their ability,” Bundros said.
The district also has drafted three student performance goals, trying to improve upon its current goals of having 90 percent of students at grade level with a difference of no more than 5 percent between subgroups:
• All students will continuously improve their academic achievement;
• All students will be proficient in reading, writing and math; and
• The achievement gap between different student groups will be eliminated
There will likely be specific benchmarks in the meantime, such as having a certain amount of students passing standardized tests by a given date.
The current “90-90-5” goals guided the district in its marked growth over the past three years, but Diaz faulted them recently when results showed some of the highest performers weren’t improving as rapidly.
Any lingering questions as to district philosophy may be answered by 12 value statements drafted by both Gilroy Unified School District staff and board members. The declarations offer more detail as to the district’s mission, indicating GUSD believes, among other things, that “achieving both equity and excellence is essential to the future of the community” and “boldly staying the course with persistence and passion will result in achieving our goals.”
