DEAR EDITOR:
I read with amazement about the firing of Kristen Porter by the
Gilroy Unified School District administrative team, but it does not
surprise me.
DEAR EDITOR:
I read with amazement about the firing of Kristen Porter by the Gilroy Unified School District administrative team, but it does not surprise me.
My daughter graduated second in her class in 2000, yet was frustrated on an almost daily basis about how she was receiving her education and the lack of a positive student-teacher-administration atmosphere at Gilroy High School. My younger son picked up on this and told me one day after picking him up from South Valley Junior High that he did not want to go to Gilroy High School, despite the fact this is where all of his friends were going (minus a half-dozen who elected to go to a private high school).
He ended up at Monte Vista Christian High in Watsonville and his experience was amazing. Maybe that is because they do not have a school board trying to run every classroom. I often wondered why we have a school board in the first place. Why are people who are not involved in the day-to-day teaching and administration of our schools seemingly making all the decisions? Are the principals and multitudes of vice-principals incapable of running their schools? And why is it necessary to have a high school principal and a half-dozen vice-principals and then have to have a liaison person to get the two groups to communicate? Where are the teachers in all of this? You know, the people who are in the “trenches” doing the actual teaching?
Unfortunately, I do not think that GUSD is an isolated example. The process of teaching our kids has become based more in administration rather than the profession of teaching. Surprisingly enough, my daughter graduates from UC San Diego this year and has been accepted into the prestigious Teachers College at Columbia University. Yes, she wants to be a teacher; just not at Gilroy High School.
Jeff Watterson, Gilroy
Submitted Monday, March 22 to ed****@****ic.com
