Grossmont Union HSD Hear The Wake-Up Call!

The current GUHSD Board Majority, which includes the up for re-election incumbent Dr. Gary Woods, has shot themselves in the foot with recent bad policy decisions. They claim declining enrollment, and loss of ADA funds as the justifying basis. Read this general commentary;

The GUHSD Bd has passed a resolution to not move ahead with the Prop H and U bonded and funded 12th HS, until CA State ADA funding returns to the higher 2007/08 levels. This has the Alpine Union School District, and the Alpine HS Citizens Committee, currently mounting an effort to pull out of the GUHSD.

The blame for the Grossmont Union High School District’s substantial loss of enrollment falls squarely on the shoulders of this school board’s irrational decision not to build a 12th high school in Alpine despite voters twice approving bond measures to fund it; Prop H $274M-2004 and Prop U - $417M - 2008. The district is losing students to nearby charter high schools because parents seek a higher quality education for their kids, as well as schools closer to home.

Of the 11 GUHSD high schools, 6 actually gained enrollment. The real enrollment decline is revealed in just the other 5 schools – El Cajon Valley, Mt. Miguel, Monte Vista, El Cap, and West Hills. The first 3 of these schools have large minority English-as-second language populations and most have low-test scores. Together these 3 account for a decline of 1,223 students out of 10,068 here – a whopping 12.1% decrease. Mt. Miguel HS alone lost 452 students or 23.3%, which means this one school accounted for 42% of the entire enrollment decline from 2007/08. This is a socio-economic shift, not a demographic decline.

What all of this highlights is the colossal stupidity of not going forward with the one bond project that would actually attract new students and add ADA revenues to GUHSD – the Alpine high school. As the Boundary Committee report pointed out, the new state-of-the-art school would easily add about 500 students (including Steele transfers and new students), literally wiping out nearly half of the GUHSD enrollment decline. Instead, the Grossmont majority and GUHSD Supt. Ralf Swenson are reaping what they have sown – a high school district that is in decline.

Now the District is on the verge of driving away another 1200 students, since fed-up Alpine parents are seeking to break away from the GUHSD entirely by unifying the Alpine School District (currently K-8) to include a high school of their own.

When the Alpine K-8 unification ultimately succeeds to make a K-12 (or K-14) secondary offering, then you might see the day when the entire GUHSD implodes and comes to an end. An Alpine peel off could start a groundswell of independent minded like actions, The GUHSD Gov. Board had better hear the wake-up call! This is to be a missed GUHSD opportunity. Building costs are at all time lows.

A new state-of-the-art high school could be a mega-hub for distance learning with new technology infrastructure that could provide a GUHSD education to far away students wanting online education. ADA could be increased at mind boggling rates. Hmmm, the possibilities are continue losing students, or do something to reverse that demograhic shift, and attract students back in droves.

Will it be; move over Hi-Tech-High, while we upscale and make way for a visionary secondary, and post-secondary (perhap 9-14 grades?) education in the East County, or not, and continue to spiral downward as now trending?