Noting the short notice given to the community about a vote to close Gilbert Junior High School, the district governing board decided Tuesday that the school will close for the 2014-2015 school and a transition team will come up with a recommendation about what happens next school year.
The 3-1 vote came at nearly 11:30 p.m. after more than an hour of discussion and an hour of public comment. When the meeting began four hours earlier, nearly 400 people filled the cafeteria at Mesquite High School, where it took place.
District administration had recommended closing Gilbert Junior High School next school year. Gilbert Superintendent Dave Alison sent a letter home to Gilbert Junior High families two weeks ago about the recommendation to close the school and move Gilbert Classical Academy to its campus.
Board member Blake Sacha proposed a different idea – give the community more time to come up with a transition plan for next year. His proposal creates a committee of parents from both Gilbert Junior High School and Gilbert Classical Academy, as well as leaders from both schools. That committee is charged with coming up with a plan no later than the first governing board meeting in January, but still closes Gilbert Junior High School with the 2014-2015 school year.
Sacha noted that it is possible the committee will recommend full closure of Gilbert Junior High earlier, but this way, there’s more time and community input on the recommendation.
Sacha and board members EJ Anderson and Helen Hollands approved the measure. Board member Staci Burk voted against it, saying she did not believe there was enough information available to make a decision on closing Gilbert Junior High.
Board member Lily Tram was out-of-state for work and was not in attendance.
The decision came after parents from both schools voiced their opinions – with Gilbert Classical Academy families and teachers ready to embrace a bigger campus that can hold more students and Gilbert Junior High School families imploring the district to take more time with a decision. Many noted that the recommendation from the Gilbert school leaders pitted one school against the other.
“The Gilbert administration has made a recommendation without the input of the community or knowing the cost,” Karen Udall, a Gilbert resident and former Gilbert school board member, said.
Michele Frasier, president of the PTO at Gilbert Classical Academy, asked the board to vote in favor of the district plan to give more students an opportunity to learn under the academy’s rigorous curriculum and high expectations.
“In the limited space we’re in, we can’t give that opportunity to students. Also take into considerations the sacrifices GCA students are taking. We would like to offer AP chemistry, but we don’t have the lab facilities to do that,” she said. She added that because of the shortage of athletic space at the current campus, there is no “home court” for Gilbert Classical Academy teams.
Bill Isaacson, a member of the Gilbert Junior High School community, said he felt “railroaded” and “blindsided” by the proposal and decision to bring the matter to the board.
“Other solutions could have been explored a lot better,” he told the board.
Sacha at one point in the evening reiterated that idea.
“I think all the board members agree, we could have done this better,” he said.
Prior to the public comments and governing board discussion, Allison reviewed the district enrollment and its strategic plan.
The plan, approved this summer, asked the district to explore ways to expand Gilbert Classical Academy, a popular seventh- through 12th grade program in its sixth year. The academy now has close to 400 students, with about 100 on a waiting list.
There is no application process for the school, but the district holds a lottery each year because of the limited number of spaces available. All students take honors or AP classes. Students must take more classes than students at Gilbert’s comprehensive high schools in order to receive a diploma.
Allison said the district looked at using an elementary school site to expand the academy, but because of the age of the students, that would not work. And with all the district high schools close to full, the decision was made to look at a junior high school, he said.
The district chose Gilbert Junior High School, a school with declining enrollment because it is an aging community. It had more than 1,000 kids in 2003. There are less than 700 now.
The academy is now located in about half the buildings on the old Greenfield Elementary School site at Greenfield and Elliot roads.
The district proposed boundary changes that will send most students now in Gilbert Junior High School boundaries to Greenfield and Mesquite junior high school, and shift the boundaries for five of the six junior highs schools altogether. That decision will come at another time.
Contact writer: mreese@evtrib.com or (480) 898-6549
Spamola5 posted at 7:19 am on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
This is so wrong' and you want more taxes to bus are students, that live within a block, we bought homes so are students could attend Gilbert schools used to be rated highly, well not anymore'
aznikki posted at 12:11 pm on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
The Gilbert Public School Board should be ashamed of itself for the blatant disregard for the views of the parents and students affected in this decision. Not only have they provided minimal (and often contradictory) information regarding the justification for the closure, they strategically delayed the vote until well after 11pm. They were well aware that the vast majority of the attendees last night were present specifically for this debate/vote. Most parents left due to the late hour and/or frustration over the empty excuses used to justify the dismantling of the highest performing junior high school in the district.
Unfortunately, the 7th grade students of GJHS will face the repercussions of this decision. Apparently, there is zero regard for good performance. These students will be FORCED to attend 4 SCHOOLS in 4 YEARS during arguably the most formative years of their lives. But, hey, an alternative school needs their space...
I would question which "denominator" the Gilbert School Board is striving toward, but it is already evident it is not the "highest".
Brnidgrl0912 posted at 12:13 pm on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
Let it be known how you feel about a school board that does not believe that community input is important by voting them out. Elections are one month away. Let's put new people in office that will listen: Colvin, Smith and Johnson are all disturbed by the way this was handled and believe in community involvement and fiscal responsibility.
Jmcguire posted at 1:40 pm on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
I'm not impacted by this, but someone should look into whether the Board properly complied with A.R.S. 15-341(A)(33) with respect to the noticing procedures for school closures. Often, boards fail to comply when closing schools.
WesternConnections posted at 4:02 pm on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
Looks like you're right, Jmcquire! The administration sent notice to Gilbert Jr High parents, but not to parents at the other junior high schools that will be affected by an influx of students from the closed school. "All students affected" is perfectly clear; if the law wanted to require informing only students at the school to be closed, the legislators would have said precisely that. Did they tell parents of students on the GCA waitlist? Did they tell parents of students at the feeder elementary schools? Wasn't the meeting location changed less than 10 days before the meeting? The meeting agenda was amended before the meeting; didn't that automatically violate the notice requirement?
Here's the text of the law: "33. Provide written notice to the parents or guardians of all students affected in the school district at least ten days prior to a public meeting to discuss closing a school within the school district. The notice shall include the reasons for the proposed closure and the time and place of the meeting. The governing board shall fix a time for a public meeting on the proposed closure no less than ten days before voting in a public meeting to close the school. The school district governing board shall give notice of the time and place of the meeting. At the time and place designated in the notice, the school district governing board shall hear reasons for or against closing the school..."
latinotoo posted at 5:23 pm on Wed, Oct 3, 2012.
It may not be the seventh grade students that would lose the opportunity to attend Gilbert Jr. High School. They could allow for the school to remain open for 8th grade students only during 2013/2014 year to let the students complete their education if the parent committee decides to do that per Mr. Sacha. The students that would lose their identity to attend GJHS would be the feeder school 6 graders who would be bused in the fall of 2013 to the other junior high schools. What occurred last night was a sad example of politics gone awry... as the board unintentionally pitted two factions of parents PRO closing the school (GCA) parents and PRO keeping the school open (GJHS) parents during the discussions. As a matter of disclosure, members of the board should have noted their positions prior to the discussion. It would have saved the GJHS parents from wasting their time in performing their civic duty. As noted in the article, some did leave the meeting because of its late hours, but others also left, not because of the time, but their realization of the outcome. Incidentally the most to gain were the GCA parents and students as they would now be able to move into the facility from an already crowded campus, as well as those students on the waiting list. What is incorrect is the title of the motion or school business agenda 6.02 Approval to close the school. A careful observer would note that the school is not closing its doors. The school is losing its identity, its name, its history, its curriculum, its teachers and administrators, and the local residents are losing the benefit of having their children attend a school in their neighborhoods. Sadly , Mr. Sacha professionally admonished the superintendent during the public forum about counseling members of the school board to carefully think about attending the parent meeting held on September 25th.
It was unfortunate that the 3 of the Board Members (Anderson, Sacha and Hollands gave indications throughout the discussions through their mannerisms and communications that they had made up their minds before the discussions. Ms. Burks attempt to ask the board for more time to study the issue fell on deaf ears. Twice the board let her motions die waitng for her motions for a "seconds." The fact that the strategic plan was designed in the summer by a committee of businessmen, members of the community, and district administrators based on declining enrollment at the junior high school made the outcome of its closing a done deal for students and parents of GJHS. What's not clear is who were members of the committee?
In respect to A.R.S. 15-341(33), its unclear who was invited to the meeting last night. and what information was provided to parents and if 10 days notice were provided for "ALL" parents affected by the decision to close the school to attend the meeting. Had I not received a notice from concerned parents in the neighborhood on my front door, I probably would not have been there either. However, the superintendent did provide a diagram outlining the new school boundaries with numbers of students who would be affect and the impacts to various other middle schools populations and numbers, including the feeder schools affected by the Board's decision last night, it is quite apparent to an ordinary person, by looking at the numbers and , school boundaries which parents and students in the district would be affected by the closure of the school and should have been invited. Now, were all those parents notified... that is a question for the parents of GJHS to ask and the school board members to answer???