The athletic facilities at Mesquite Junior High School are so nice, Gilbert Classical Academy is determined to take them away … for the 1% of Gilbert Public Schools students whose parents have taught them to be snowflakes, unique and ephemeral. Those minority kids whose economic status makes them *lesser* deserve to give up their school to indulge the 1% of GPS students who are snowflakes. So, poor brown kids, you better just get over it. For the rest of you students, you should have associated yourself with the 1%. This is how a school district under the *leadership* of Superintendent Christina Kishimoto operates.
In our last post, we showed that GCA principal Dan Hood has been choreographing the GCA demands for Mesquite Junior High School, which has a nice swimming pool in addition to those lovely athletic fields. GCA students lust for those amenities. The GCA snowflakes don’t do so well in sports, except maybe in golf. Mark Westie’s words … GCA will demand their own golf course within a year of destroying a neighborhood school. Because they can, as long as Christina Kishimoto is superintendent.
How many GPS parents know that the hefty fees they pay for their own children to participate in extracurricular sports are siphoned off by GPS to pay for GCA students to participate in GCA sports? Those parents who are reeling from the huge increases in athletic fees are not supposed to know that GCA has a special deal … as long as Christina Kishimoto is superintendent. The snowflakes are allowed to take more than their share, no matter what resources are involved, because they are unique and ephemeral and, as they have told you, they deserve it. They’re the 1%.
The news that GPS parents who pay athletic user fees are supporting the athletic program at GCA comes from an infamous report: Gilbert Classical Academy Permanent Facility Options. On page 6, it’s written in black and white: “Other high schools fund their athletic programs through facility rental fees and athletic user fees. A portion of those fees is used to fund the athletic program at GCA.”
So, when GCA takes over Mesquite Junior High School and gets all those beautiful athletic fields and a swimming pool of their very own, who will pay for their upkeep? If GCA can’t pay for their own athletic program now, how will they pay for the facilities they will take over? The snowflakes can’t field full teams as it is; their opponents sometimes have to *lend* players to GCA so a game can be played. Sheeeesh. Snowflakes … as long as Christina Kishimoto is superintendent.
Remember how the GCA committee and the GPS surplus space committee were appointed by the board back when Dave Allison’s sleazy attempt to close Gilbert Junior High School failed? This time, Christina Kishimoto created a *superintendent’s committee* so the meetings would not have to meet requirements of Arizona’s Open Meeting Laws. This *snowflake committee* met TEN TIMES and held a *community information forum* back in November 2015. Predictably, only GCA acolytes knew about these meetings and the so-called forum.
As you can well imagine, parents of students at Mesquite Junior High School and Gilbert Junior High School (the other GCA takeover target, but it’s the *lesser* campus that GCA doesn’t really want) are hopping mad. Here’s some of what they have to say that’s safe to print in this *scholarly* blog:
Athletic fees went up so much a couple years ago and GPS justified the costs by saying it was a “choice” to participate.
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So, yet again GCA gets special treatment. No one gets cut from any team, all students participate in the sport. In the meantime, if Mesquite and Gilbert Junior Highs have to merge, the kids trying out for team sports will have an even harder time of making the team, because the amount of kids trying out is larger, and there will be fewer openings on the roster.
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How many Gilbert Junior High School kids don’t play sports because they cannot afford the fees? Or because they were not exposed to sports in the younger grades because they could not play National Youth Sports or Little League? That is why you see good teams at Greenfield Junior High and Highland Junior High. Those kids have been playing seriously since they were young. Most probably play club sports, too, which are very, very expensive.
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I pay for my kid to play a sport at comprehensive high school, then GPS takes a portion of that to help GCA. That just seems so wrong.
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One thing that was completely absent from the forum was about the effect on the sports of the high schools that would be affected if you combine the students from Gilbert Jr High and Mesquite Jr High into one school. GCA might have great academics, and those students may have a bright future with scholarships and furthering their education in that way. Lots of other students excel in sports. If you combine the two junior highs and have 1200 students in the new combined school, it will be very difficult to make the team in junior high, and only half as many kids will make it (as would if there were still TWO schools). Then they will have to split again into two high schools and play on rival teams. Half the kids will have lost out on training in their sport for the two years of junior high – critical years for development in sports, and very cost efficient for kids to learn in a public school. In other words, the less-privileged athletes who cannot afford to play on club teams during these junior high years, may never get a chance to train properly during junior high. The athletes need a fair chance too!
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I don’t subscribe to any argument that GCA loses kids to comprehensive high schools due to sports offerings. GCA doesn’t get enough kids to even field teams in junior high. Kids don’t decide in high school to play sports if they haven’t been playing already. I don’t subscribe that they lose kids for lack of an auditorium either. Nothing is being added to their program … except that their target size will be 750. GCA has already said they don’t want to grow to 750. So they’ll take over a school, then say “never mind” about growing, because they never intended to grow in the first place.
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Let’s finish this post with words from a GPS teacher:
My eyes are open to many realities. However, what has had me questioning EVERYTHING is the absolute lack of support and consideration from the school board. I walked out of the last GPS community forum thinking that I’ve made a terrible mistake. I can spend the rest of my working years dedicating myself to my students and my community, but all of that will be completely inconsequential if I happen to be working for a school that is suddenly considered expendable. Myself and my coworkers could become collateral damage if we don’t fit in with pet projects or special interests. I’ve thought long and hard about being a teacher. There’s nothing else I could imagine being, but I’m realizing that I may be an absolute fool to not change directions immediately. It’s heartbreaking.
It’s not right to disrupt thousands of other students for 1% of the district’s enrollment. Listen to the kids of GPS, who are not the 1% snowflakes, try to explain the situation to the GPS board superintendency: