Gilroy
– Nearly two years after the district set about examining the
class schedule at the high school, trustees and high school
administrators still have no clear solution as to how to reduce the
instructional time missed by student athletes.
Gilroy – Nearly two years after the district set about examining the class schedule at the high school, trustees and high school administrators still have no clear solution as to how to reduce the instructional time missed by student athletes.
In response to a report that some Gilroy High School athletes miss more than 2,400 minutes of class time in one season, the Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees directed interim superintendent Darrel Taylor to write a letter to other school districts in its athletic conference. The letter will alert fellow districts that Gilroy’s athletes are missing too much class time and will start a dialogue aimed at reducing the loss.
“It can’t hurt for the superintendent to write to the other superintendents,” said trustee Denise Apuzzo. “It’s imperative on us to at least bring up the issue.”
Sports a Privilege, Not a Right
The high school – led by principal James Maxwell and athletic director Jack Daley – has entertained various proposals to reduce the conflict between athletics and academics during the past year that the current bell schedule has been in place.
An additional, optional period before the normal start of the day – otherwise known as an “A” or “zero” period – would not work because students will not attend early classes and because the school cannot afford to offer the variety of classes and the teacher salaries the addition would require, Maxwell said.
The high school cannot push back the start times of athletic contests – and thus allow students to be dismissed later in the day – because teams cannot play in the dark and not all schools have facilities with lights, said Daley. Thanks to his meeting with athletic directors at fellow schools in the Central Coast Section, the schools already agreed this year to push back the starting time of events when facilities allow, he added.
While trustees have suggested the school allow athletes to take electives or physical education during the fifth and sixth periods – which alternate as the last period throughout the week – the school cannot guarantee placement in classes because space is limited and the school cannot give preference to athletes, said Maxwell.
“There’s no way I can justify favoring athletes for their schedule in a school day over others,” he said. “I could never justify that to the other parents.”
The school’s plight is largely the result of its geographical location, said Daley. The majority of the schools with which Gilroy competes are more than a 45-minute drive away. While sending varsity teams – whose competitions have later start times – on separate busses would reduce the lost instructional time, the athletic department cannot afford to pay for more transportation. Three years ago, it began covering the entire $24,000 annual expense of bussing athletes to games.
In the end, there will always be a conflict between athletics and academics and this will put pressure on academic performance – a burden that the students must shoulder, Maxwell said.
“Life is full of choices and playing sports is not one of our requirements to graduate from high school,” he said. “This is a choice, and sometimes for all of us, choices come with consequences.”
Scoring a Hazy Goal
The direction from the board indicates that the issue has risen to another level, said Tom Bundros, president of the board.
“My personal opinion is that perhaps Mr. Maxwell has tweaked as many of the knobs that he can tweak and that’s why we want to take it to the next level,” said Bundros.
However, trustees do not agree on what the outcome of the board’s tweaking will be.
Bundros – a three-sport high school athlete – believes the board can devise a scenario where no instructional time is lost because of athletic events, though he does not have a specific solution yet, he said. Apuzzo would be satisfied with an arrangement that at least stopped athletes from missing important classes, such as Advanced Placement Physics, she said.
Yet the district might not get anything out of the process at all, said trustee Jaime Rosso.
Directing Taylor to write the letter could be a waste of district time because he will be replaced with a permanent superintendent in the next month, Rosso said.
The board is “asking a temporary person to take an initiative on something its clear he’s not going to be here to follow through on,” he said.
With an ongoing superintendent search, an assistant superintendent position vacant and another assistant superintendent position opening up in June, the district will be in transition for at least two months, said Rosso. Therefore, the board must prioritize its requests from staff so that the district is not overloaded with work.
Compared to the need to craft a healthy budget, lift five schools out of program improvement and reshape the special education program, the bell schedule is not high on the list of issues to tackle, he said.
“In my mind, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
