Let’s stay focused on the priority for our students and
community: a good education
Fifty teachers and parents attended the Gilroy Unified School District board meeting June 1 to express their anger and outrage over the middle school schedule change. Their outrage stemmed from the district’s decision, now approved by the school board, to add an eighth period to the middle school day.
The extra time will be used for math instruction because, in GUSD, only about 50 percent of elementary students, 30 percent of middle school students and 10 percent of high school students manage to score proficient or above on standardized math tests.
It is predictable that the teachers’ union would be outraged about having the day extended. Would the same degree of outrage about lack of communication would have been evident had the work day been shortened instead of lengthened? And it seems a shame that the same parents and teachers never showed up to express outrage over the poor math performance of Gilroy students.
Granted, Assistant Superintendents Linda Piceno and Jackie Horejs could have formalized the process to allow for more input from teachers. The district erred; there was not enough communication.
The district should have followed an open procedure, with all parties solicited for ideas and all plans on the table for discussion, for two reasons. First, those in the trenches may have been able to come up with an even better plan for fostering student achievement. Secondly, perfect transparency would assist in making the board’s eventual decision unassailable by the teachers’ union.
Dale Morejon, ex-Gilroy High School biology teacher turned union organizer, delivered the following accusation in a letter to the editor: “The Dispatch’s Editorial Board believes that this process is less important than student achievement.”
Guilty as charged. The Editorial Board believes that the purpose of a school is to educate, and that all other goals are secondary, even
tertiary.
The district deserves to have its collective wrist slapped for lack of communication and collaboration. But the union fails to garner our respect or our sympathy: the continual bickering by the teachers’ union over pay and hours creates the unfortunate impression that teachers do not care about achievement. Many teachers, of course, do care and prove that on a day-in and day-out basis.
The children of Gilroy deserve a good education. This means that the adults charged with providing that education need to put aside control-freak tendencies, secrecy and the factory worker mentality. Let’s concentrate on one thing: academic achievement.
