Gilbert Public Schools is going to *repurpose* a junior high school to give Gilbert Classical Academy a new home. You would think that this upcoming decision would be *data-driven,* since Superintendent Christina Kishimoto defines herself as all about technology and data for what she calls “A district of choice.” You would be wrong. Christina Kishimoto is going balls-to-the-wall and Her Three Votes on the Governing Board will do whatever she already told them to do. You would think that these clowns would have some fancy data and technology as window-dressing for what will be one of the stupidest unnecessary decisions in the history of Gilbert Public Schools, negatively affecting 14,259 students and their families. Again, you would be wrong.
Closing a junior high school in GPS is a knee-jerk reaction to an imaginary problem. Why? Because the numbers show the situation is the exact opposite of what the superintendent and the governing board have been saying in public. A demographic study commissioned by Christina Kishimoto and paid for with your taxpayer dollars* shows, “Enrollment at the elementary level is expected to continue to decline, while gains are likely at the middle school and high school levels.”
According to this forecast, enrollment numbers for Gilbert Junior High are not down; they are projecting 41% growth. This is in direct conflict with what the community has been told: that either Gilbert Junior High or Mesquite Junior High must be sacrificed to GCA because of declining enrollment. It’s simply not true. Most GPS taxpayers think it would be foolish at this time to repurpose anything, especially seeing as how students in new communities on the far eastern boundaries are choosing to attend Queen Creek School District schools and bright shiny new charter schools.
Birdies chirp that that federal funds for busing allow GPS to make money transporting kids needlessly across ancient boundaries that have created school population imbalances. If that is true, according to the junior high school boundary map, it makes sense why a kid who lives on Lindsay and Baseline would be bused 12 miles to Highland Junior High School (round trip) every day. And a kid who lives 3/4 of a mile from Highland Junior High is bused 7 miles (round trip) to Greenfield Junior High School. Plus, there’s the repugnant situation that GPS has allowed: labeling Gilbert Junior High School *The Ghetto School* because of its large population of Hispanic students.
For the record, there is massive growth in the Desert Ridge area, around 800 new homes being built. Desert Ridge Junior High numbers are down because almost all kids in the neighborhood across the street from Highland Junior High go there instead of following the district junior high school boundary map, which would have those students bused 4 miles east to Desert Ridge Junior High.
What we are witnessing is GPS pitting neighborhood against neighborhood, parents against parents in a lose-lose situation that will negatively affect every junior high school in the district. Supposedly, there will be some kind of a *forum* to allow the GPS Governing Board to listen to the community before they make the decision Christina Kishimoto has already told them they will make. That *forum* must be the window-dressing strategy the GPS superintendency came up with for this *repurposing* gimmick. An hour in a high school gym should be sufficient, right? <sarcasm with a splash of ridicule> Everyone knows that school districts in Arizona don’t *close* schools, they *repurpose* them.
The remaining GPS junior high schools will be filled to the brim and bulging at the seams, while the 1% of GPS students at GCA enjoy all kinds of fancy new benefits the original *vision* for the school did not include. Have you noticed that GPS has conveniently *forgotten* to tell affected GPS employees that they will not lose their jobs over this *repurposing* decision? It’s obvious that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto wants to bind hapless employees to contracts with meager benefits but iron-clad handcuffs before they are told any answers to serious questions about their continued employment.
The die will be cast in a vote scheduled for the end of March 2016, while in the meantime, the GPS superintendency and governing board act like aristocratic Romans at the Coliseum, watching gladiators fight to the death for their amusement. Unlike those Romans of old, they won’t be saluting “You who are about to die.” They’re in a rush to line the pockets of their favorite vendors and campaign contributors as they chow down on lavishly catered meals … all financed by taxpayer dollars. And they wonder why GPS is bleeding students!
That self-same demographic report states, “Over 11,300 students attend charter schools inside the District, increasing by 3,900 students over last five years.” Bleeding is perhaps not the best word: hemorrhaging is more appropriate in this case, because GPS also lost 2,000 students that are not counted in that 2015 demographic report. Apparently, the GPS superintendency and governing board have not noticed that Chandler School District and Queen Creek School District increased by the same number, 2,000 students, while GPS declined. Plus, GPS stands to lose $3,320,393 in state funds because of declining enrollment, according to a new state funding model under consideration.
Here’s the most recent report on the costs of options for giving Gilbert Classical Academy a new home. Repurposing Gilbert Junior High School will cost TWICE AS MUCH ($1-2 Million) as repurposing Mesquite Junior High School ($500K-$1 Million). The School Within a School model is much more expensive at $4-6 Million. They’re planning to complete all three of the options for the 2017-2018 school year, but they’re falling all over themselves to make their decision and get those construction contracts issued! And you thought that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s power grab for unfettered contracting authority was just an academic exercise in standardizing GPS policies…sure it’s all for the kids <the bucket of slimy sarcasm is overflowing!>.
The drip, drip, drip about Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* inappropriate relationship with her former Executive Director of Technology, Charles Stevin Smith infects this ridiculous recommendation to close a GPS junior high school. Steve Smith, a former GCA parent, was assigned to the committee charged with finding a new campus for GCA. There was not a single parent from Gilbert Junior High School or Mesquite Junior High School on the committee. It was all about giving Christina Kishimoto the predetermined outcome she wanted … and Steve Smith appears to have delivered again for his *alleged* girlfriend before he bugged out of GPS in disgrace.
We’ll post next week about how a very important teacher at Gilbert Classical Academy demands wants a new campus without strings attached — GCA does NOT want to grow, GCA wants to stay small and enjoy the rarefied world enjoyed at the expense of the 99% of GPS students. You know you can hardly wait! #SAVEGJHS
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Big Fat Asterisk: A snip of a Green Bar Report showing GPS paid $15,405.00 to Applied Economics for the demographic report that shows Christina Kishimioto and Her Three Votes on the GPS Governing Board are making sh*t up as they go along. It’s The Gilbert Way.
