Schools

The San Benito High School District has accepted the resignation of former Superintendent John Perales, was charged with brandishing a gun at a person in a car parked outside his Greystone Court house last Oct. 22.

Gavilan College is a gem for Gilroy and the surrounding counties and after hearing a report from new President Kathleen Rose we are encouraged with the way the school is growing in new courses, new buildings and a strong spirit of social justice.

Gilroy’s first combined co-working space and digital media studio is getting ready to open later this month as CMAP (Community Media Access Partnership) puts the finishing touches on its new downtown location.

They will not be adopted until February, but officials this week offered an early peek at Gilroy’s ambitious education goals for 2017, many made possible by one of last year’s big successes: Measure E.

Claudia Salewske, who was found beaten to death in her home Christmas morning, was a beloved teacher at Gilroy High School and San Jose State University--and she wrote the definitive book on Gilroy’s history.

Eat, Drink Well, Raise Funds

A mountain lion was spotted on the Gavilan College campus Tuesday and officials sent out an alert for students to be careful.

A popular youth basketball program akin to Little League has been evicted from a Gilroy middle school after a dozen years and will be replaced by Mexican mariachi and folkloric programs and workshops for Spanish-speaking parents.School officials say South Valley Middle School’s programs must get priority and that the nonprofit National Junior Basketball Gilroy-Morgan Hill chapter was alerted to the change but collected fees from parents anyway.Chapter co-founder Shirley Lampkin disputed that they were alerted and said the group’s years of good relations with SVMS went sour only when a new principal refused to continue to rent to them so she could use the gym for the programs she wants for the Latino community.Lampkin said the principal, Patricia Mondragon, “is trying to make a name for herself by saying [she is] going to create all these programs for [her] community, for [her] people.”SVMS is 87 percent Latino and located on Gilroy’s predominantly Latino east side.Lampkin said an equal percentage of the chapter’s nearly 350 players is Latino and comes from “the whole community,” not just the east side. Her husband, Joe, also a chapter co-founder, serves on its volunteer board.While NJB continues to rent gym time at other schools, churches and community centers, the loss of its largest venue at SVMS, with four basketball courts, will mean a hike in fees to parents who already pay about $300 per season.The league has 25,000 players in six states with programs for first-graders through high school and helps families financially.Lampkin said most of its players are from Gilroy and that costs to parents will go up because the school gyms rent for $17 per hour plus custodial fees, while city facilities cost twice that and more.Facility rental now costs the league $1,000 a week, she said, to accommodate all practices and games.Lampkin and KC Adams, NJB Gilroy-Morgan Hill chapter co-founder and president, said they were told another reason for being ousted was friction between the custodial staff and NJB parents.Gilroy Unified School District assistant superintendent Alvaro Meza confirmed there had been such an issue but declined to go into details.Adams said it was about kids milling around waiting to be picked up by parents after hour-long practices, and a parent knocking on a door to find a custodian.Similar issues at Brownell Middle School led to the district forbidding kids from using outdoor courts while waiting for parents, and the district installed video cameras to monitor the players.The league instructed kids and parents not to use outdoor courts and the situation has turned out well, Adams said.He credited Brownell leadership with being more open to working with the league to resolve issues.As for Mondragon, Adams questioned her agenda after she initially rented to the group as its 13th season began, then refused to allow more use. He said the gym has gone unused for weeks and suspects she has not started new programs, at least not yet.Meza said GUSD officials met with the NJB reps, but SVMS programs get first priority.“They have been growing, so they require more basketball courts this year,” he said of the league.“They made one [rental] request that was granted and that was it. They had already collected fees for the entire season without securing the facilities; we are trying to help them [find alternative sites],” he added.Lampkin said the league was never informed in writing of a change to an arrangement they enjoyed for a dozen years and that has benefited so many Gilroy kids who for one reason or another are not allowed to play for school teams.Mondragon said, “We haven’t kicked anybody out.”The NJB, she said, “requested to rent the facilities but unfortunately the facilities are not available. There are different reasons but one of the major reasons is we have our own activities that take precedence.”She said she has added “new initiatives” designed to increase community involvement at the school and they include mariachi teams, a folkloric club and workshops for Spanish-speaking parents.While she said, “I make the decision to bring in more clubs and more parent involvement,” she also said the decision was made “at the district level.”Cheryl Galloway, who schedules the use of all district facilities, said NJB has grown tremendously in recent years and that the district can no longer meet all its demands for practice and game courts. 

The man who dropped out of the Gilroy school board election actually won in more than half of the precincts where ballots were cast. But he is losing in the final count to a pair of incumbents and a newcomer who once headed a school employees union, according to unofficial, semifinal results from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

More than 50 students, parents and members of the community marched nearly two miles through Gilroy to City Hall Thursday at noon to celebrate unity and diversity, things they said were absent in the campaign rhetoric of President-elect Donald J. Trump.The march, organized by the Student Democratic Club at Gavilan College and including local middle and high school students, started at the old CVS store on First Street and continued along Hanna to City Hall, where the peaceful gathering concluded with speakers and a sharing circle on the complex lawn. As they marched they chanted “Unity through diversity,” “The people united will never be divided” “Hey Ho Racism has got to go.” Noshava Afzao, a Gilroy educational consultant who trains teachers, and wore a hijab said she was there with a flag to accent that liberty and justice “was for everyone.” She worried about how the election would affect that. “There’s a lot of disappointment,” she said.  “The election is a wake up call. I thought we lived in a country that had made progress and this just shows how much progress we need to make.”As word spread that students at Gavilan College were planning a citywide walkout, school administrators scrambled to inform high school parents.“Gilroy is a lovely little bubble of people who are not always proactive. We want to acknowledge voices and create a coalition,” said Sarah Najar, Vice President of the Gavilan Democratic Club.An email to Christopher High School parents from Principal Paul Winslow said: “FYI High School Parents: Someone is encouraging students to cut school” and “while we definitely support free speech, the right to assemble peacefully, and the right to express opinion” students who missed school to participate would be penalized and not be able to make up work.Lisa Ruiz, a parent of Gilroy students with special needs, said she received a call from the GUSD the night before alerting her that any absence would be considered unexcused, but felt she needed to come anyways.“I got to be here in solidarity with the minorities in the community and to see what we can do to help to unify everyone not be divided and hopefully we can get together in love.”As people gathered in the parking lot, members of the Gilroy Police Department kept an eye on proceedings. Sgt. Wes Stanford had a team of motorcycle officers  charged with making sure the demonstrators were safe walking the mile and a half between First Street and City Hall. The department was notified of the march, but organizers didn’t know they would need a permit. “We want to make sure that it’s peaceful, that they are allowed to voice their opinion and whatever views they have and they get to City Hall in a safe fashion.” Stanford said the city has had sporadic marches over the years with the last one he remembers an Occupy Gilroy march of eight people.The well-behaved crowd began their march up First Street - along the sidewalks and stopping at all intersections, using the crosswalks - the sound of honking cars mingling with chants calling for unity.Iris Cueto, 23, a Gavilan biology major, said “The election is making me feel sad, but it’s also making me feel happy to have youth standing up for their rights. It’s nice to see them out here protesting in a peaceful way.” Holding up a coat hanger poster that read, “Never Again,” Summer Diaz, 18, said: “I believe everyone should have their rights. I believe that women should make their own choice and politicians should stay out of women’s rights. “ When the marchers got to City Hall they were offered bottled water by the student organizers who then thanked the crowd for obeying all the traffic laws and the police for “keeping us safe.” Addressing the group, Dr. Enrique Luna, who teaches history at Gavilan, said “we don’t want to be here, but there is a need.” Thanking the march organizers for putting on the event, he said at times he was both laughing and shedding a few tears during the march to city hall. It’s hard to build a community, it’s easy to destroy a community. And we are here to do the hard work.”