”
The Stupski Foundation and our partners believe fundamentally
that all students can succeed and that no student can be allowed to
fail. Administrators, board members, teachers and parents control
the conditions for student success, and they must be accountable
and held to high standards.
“The Stupski Foundation and our partners believe fundamentally that all students can succeed and that no student can be allowed to fail. Administrators, board members, teachers and parents control the conditions for student success, and they must be accountable and held to high standards.
Working together with district leadership, we help build district capacity to address root causes of failure and low performance, such as low expectations for students and adults, skepticism about failed reform efforts, and institutionalized racism.”
The quote above is pulled directly from the website of the Stupski Foundation, a generous benefactor of public schools and a partner working with Gilroy Unified School District. As a supporter of public schools, let me give a little advice to the nice folks shelling out money over at the Stupski Foundation. You have it backwards in your description, please change the second sentence to read: “Parents, teachers, board members and administrators control the conditions for student success.” Success starts in the home, it doesn’t end up there because of a highly effective administrator.
As to institutionalized racism, there is plenty in Gilroy. It doesn’t fit neatly into the Stupski world view, because it tends to be skewed toward the idea that white people are the root cause of whatever ails our public school system. This theory is slightly comforting; at least it is an acknowledgement that there are a number of non-Latino students in our public schools.
Almost 10 percent of our school population identify themselves as African American, Native American, Filipino, Asian or Pacific Islander, but for the purposes of updated our Strategic Plan, GUSD will pretend they don’t exist. There are eight students who matter, let’s call them the Gilroy eight.
Let me introduce you to the eight fictional students whom the Strategic Plan Update Committee will use as the representatives of our GUSD population. There are three white students. The first is Joe, a third grader with average abilities in math, and difficulties in reading. He is receiving resource help at his school, which is a good thing. Joe has a terrible home life. His father calls him stupid and hits him. White student number two is Marcus. He is a seventh grade student who is struggling with both math and reading. He lives in a group home, because he was removed from his bad parents by the courts when he was 8. He has been shuffled around in the foster care system for years. Marcus is disaffected and doesn’t think he will graduate from high school.
The third white student is a ninth grader called Christie. She has gone to private school for eight years, and is now at Gilroy High. She is involved in many activities, insults kids who bring lunch to school, and finds GHS to be as hard as private school. She worries about keeping up her grades, as her parents have threatened to put her back in private school if she can’t keep up. To sum it all up: white parents are bad.
There are five Hispanic students in the GUSD eight. The first is Isabel; an 11th grader who is advanced is all her coursework. She overcame many obstacles, her father died after a long battle with cancer, and her mother is proud and supportive. She is kind, noble and thrilled to be invited to eat at a restaurant that usually only serves the rich white people.
The second is Nestor, a middle schooler who made it across the border with his father and brother on their second attempt. He speaks no English and sometimes skips school because other kids make fun of the way he dresses.He misses his mom in Mexico and doesn’t want to be here. His father gets mad that he cuts school, but he doesn’t abuse him. The third is called Catalina. She is a second grader who is an average math student and below grade level in reading. She has a supportive and involved family. They don’t speak English. She couldn’t do her homework because her mom couldn’t read it. Now she is enrolled in tutoring after school and things are looking up.
Josephina, an eighth grader, is the fourth Hispanic student. Her dad lost his job down at the plant, so they are homeless now. They are temporarily staying at the Ochoa Camp. Josephina is an average student. Her reading is improving and she is starting to use the same textbook as the smart kids. She doesn’t think she will ever be popular, because those middle school kids make fun of the clothes she wears. The final student is a GATE identified fifth grader named Mireya. She has a large family, and is a native English speaker. She’s a whiz kid who does her homework, excels academically and is bored in class. Her teacher never calls on her. She plans on dropping out of high school so she can buy new clothes and a computer of her own.
Are you feeling ill yet? My head is still reeling from reading this garbage. None of these students are real; they are carefully composed fictional characters. Half of the eight students are non-native English speakers, which is odd considering that only 29 percent of our actual school population is composed of English language learners. All three white students are portrayed as coming from dysfunctional homes, while everyone is supportive in the Hispanic households. The GATE student is a joke. My daughter is a fifth grade GATE student; half the girls in her class are Hispanic. Not one of them would consider dropping out of college let alone high school.
I come back now to the Stupski foundation. The Gilroy eight is a shining example of the institutionalized racism that is my reality as a parent in GUSD. Skepticism about past failed reform efforts? I’m skeptical about the work in progress. First order of business for the strategic update: the Gilroy eight must go. This is truly a pathetic moment for our school district.
