GILROY
– Superintendent Edwin Diaz presented educators with a
”
state of the schools
”
speech Thursday, praising the district’s progress during the
recent year, while predicting the outlook may not always be so
bright.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Superintendent Edwin Diaz presented educators with a “state of the schools” speech Thursday, praising the district’s progress during the recent year, while predicting the outlook may not always be so bright.
“It has been our mission for the last three years that all students have access to high quality instruction and a high quality learning environment,” Diaz said in an interview Friday. “When we look at the data – regardless of what data we look at – we see we are starting to meet that goal.”
School board members, teachers, staff and administrators from all areas of Gilroy Unified School District kicked off the 2003-04 school year Thursday afternoon with a district update and an ice cream party at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School. Students returned to classes today.
“It was a terrific way to start the year,” said Dr. Paul DeAyora, principal of South Valley Middle School. “It gave us a picture of how things are in the district.”
Diaz presented his schools report in the new middle school’s gymnasium to give educators the opportunity to tour the $26.5 million school. It also served as an example of the district’s progress on the 25-year, $154 million facilities master plan.
“We are implementing that plan to fulfill our goal of providing a quality learning environment for students,” he said.
The summer was full of construction, modernization and repairs throughout Gilroy schools. Approximately $7.95 million was spent on summer construction projects, including roof repairs to the Gilroy High School gymnasium and a new roof on some Rucker Elementary School buildings.
“It was a great accomplishment to get all the work done that we did over the summer,” said school board Trustee Jaime Rosso. “(Thursday) was about thanking the staff that worked so hard over the summer with all the transitions going on.”
While maintaining an optimistic outlook for GUSD, Diaz cautioned educators not to lose sight of district goals – one being to have 90 percent of students at or above grade level on standardized tests by June 2004. That goal may be revised to be more attainable.
“These are tough times for education in California, although we are a little better off here in Gilroy,” Diaz said. “We made cuts last year, and we can probably expect to see more next year.”
Some educators said that, even with more budget cuts, students would likely be protected from the crunch.
“I think we’re pretty well set, so we’re going to be able to do just fine with all the resources we have,” said Tammy Gabel, new principal of Antonio Del Buono Elementary School. “The district has been good about keeping the cuts away from kids as much as possible.”
Based on the 2003 Standards Testing and Reporting (STAR) scores, Gilroy students improved across the board in the English-language arts and math sections of the tests. For the last three school years, the number of students performing at grade level or higher increased steadily.
Educators, who have spent many hours in staff development programs studying California standards, were encouraged by the district’s improved scores. This is the second year that GUSD has focused on standards-based instruction.
“We spend many, many hours making sure what we’re teaching is meeting standards,” said Megan Thoma, a first-grade teacher at Rod Kelley Elementary School. “We like to make sure everything is fun … but we also make sure everything is matching our grade levels.”
District officials gave teachers and staff much of the credit for the improved academic standing.
“(Our growth) comes from the teachers,” Rosso said. “We expect to continue to build momentum and to continue to see academic progress in the schools.”
Looking ahead to 2003-04, GUSD will challenge educators to continue to focus on improving instruction and teaching to state standards.
DeAyora sees South Valley Middle School’s biggest challenge as improving students’ reading abilities. More than half of the school’s students are in literacy intervention classes.
“That’s just way too many,” he said.
The school implemented a new intervention program in literacy last year and this year has a new math intervention program. DeAyora already saw improvement in last year’s literacy students over those in the 2001-02 program. He expects to see the trend continue.
“The last thing we want to do is send them to high school still in remedial classes,” he said. “Our job is to try and get them caught up as quickly as possible.”
Teachers are beginning the new school year without having a valid contract for 2002-03, because last year’s budget cuts totaling $2.8 million are still affecting their contract negotiations. Gilroy Teachers Association representatives and district officials have been in talks for more than a year to negotiate a salary increase, with GUSD citing budget cuts as constricting the salary increase to 2 percent.
The two sides will meet with a state mediator Sept. 23 and will also begin negotiations for the 2003-04 contract.
Thoma said the contract negotiations would not affect teachers’ morale.
“We’re here because of the kids,” she said. “(Contract negotiations are) not going to change how we perceive our jobs, and our goal is to see the kids succeed.”
