The Gilroy Unified School District is asking for parental and
community input regarding Strategic Planning through 2007. We have
some, and going through the cumbersome survey process laden with
educational jargon at www.gusd.k12.ca.us is not necessary.
The Gilroy Unified School District is asking for parental and community input regarding Strategic Planning through 2007. We have some, and going through the cumbersome survey process laden with educational jargon at www.gusd.k12.ca.us is not necessary. In order to retain the best teachers and create an atmosphere of trust, innovation and progress, the school district should make revamping the teacher evaluation process a top priority.
The lessons surrounding the recent dismissal of Gilroy High School teacher Kristen Porter should be very clear – and the top lesson shouldn’t be that it was a serious public relations problem as one school trustee suggested recently. While it has rightfully become a public relations albatross, the truth is that the district needs to set across-the-board standards for teacher evaluations that are fair, consistent and clearly spelled out.
For a teacher who has toiled in the classroom with passion and dedication to be summarily fired and told “You’re not a good fit,” just doesn’t cut it.
We, as a community, must do better. The process must be insulated from bullying, devoid of wholesale subjectivity and applied fairly and openly. To do less denigrates the teachers in this district and the entire teaching profession.
Who will lead this charge to overhaul the evaluation process?
Superintendent Edwin Diaz? Trustee Tom Bundros, who voted against Ms. Porter’s dismissal and became frustrated because, try as he might, he could not get a copy of Porter’s evaluation? Union representatives like teacher Michelle Nelson who wrote an eloquent letter to the editor regarding the abysmal current evaluation process? Teachers who are concerned and frustrated with the process?
In the best case scenario, all those people – each of whom has worked hard to make this a better district – would agree to come to the table.
Perhaps the ugly firing incident in which the outspoken Porter – who just the night before criticized the district publicly at a Board meeting – was surprised at work on the Gilroy High campus and escorted out will be the impetus for positive change. Perhaps the district will become more tolerant and thick-skinned when it comes to dissent and criticism, especially when the heartfelt words come from within the teaching ranks. Perhaps the district will begin to truly understand why the words “they just don’t listen” are oft-repeated in Gilroy.
Near the top of the Strategic Plan agenda should be “Overhaul the Teacher Evaluation Process.” It’s time not for words but for deeds – deeds that will restore community trust, deeds that will give teachers faith in a fair, open and defined evaluation process and deeds that will ultimately result in a better education for all Gilroy students. That, after all, is the paramount mission.
