There’s nothing new under the sun in GPS, not with the new crop of Good Old Boys, who run things pretty much the same as the GOBs did under Dave Allison. The difference today is the scalawags and carpetbaggers in what’s called “The GPS Cabinet.” Westie predicts more investigations for wrongdoing, past and present. For taxpayers, that will be the least of your worries as Christina 3-2 Kishimoto goes on a spending spree the likes of which you’ve never seen in Gilbert, Arizona … with more 3-2 votes, of course.

Looking back to the end of 2014, we saw what was coming down the pike with this group of eduspeak spewing pretenders; it’s the same stuff we see now. Take a look at our end-of-2014 headlines, which are equally apropos today:

Gilbert Police Department Investigation Report: Theft – Embezzlement – Felony
Another Contracting Fiasco in the Making for Gilbert Public Schools?
Anonymous Gilbert Public Schools Teacher Warns of Further Turmoil

Good Time Charlie Santa Cruz recently asked if it was safe to say that GPS was no longer under investigation by the Attorney General. Udall Shumway lawyer Denise Lowell-Britt claimed the answer was “Yes,” but she also said she wasn’t the board’s lawyer for the Attorney General investigations in the first place. Hold your noses: the stench from Open Meeting Law violations looks to continue until (1) there’s a bigger price to pay than a slap on the hand or (2) Lily Tram isn’t president of the governing board any more.

We have high hopes for Gilbert’s own Warren Petersen and his proposals for legislation that will prevent errant, no-good bums  public  officers from cashing in on bonuses, severance pay, annuities, pensions and other benefits. Westie applauds this:

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is considering a criminal investigation of Valley Metro’s handling of tax dollars after three Phoenix City Council members requested a formal inquiry… Board members have said they were unaware of Banta’s questionable expenses, which were uncovered by The Republic after obtaining his Valley Metro expense accounts through a public records request.

“While this has received a lot of attention, this is certainly not the first case of this happening in the state of Arizona,” Petersen said. “Clearly there is neither sufficient deterrent nor oversight in place to prevent such malfeasance.” He said the measure would do more than empower public agencies to deny pensions and other payouts. It also would permit any taxpayer to ask a court to intercede.

Comparing GPS management to recent revelations about the Phoenix Valley public transportation system, we find lots of similarities that will become more apparent in 2016. Look at the annual budget of the agency compared to GPS: the same. Annual audits by Heinfeld Meech since 2011 say, “Nothing to see here, move along:” the same. Tales of lavish meals, compared to all those GPS catered meals scarfed down by six-figure earning GPS Top Dogs who can well afford to buy their own: the same. Taking $300 MILLION annually and spending it with little to no oversight by the boards put in place to monitor them: the same.

We we are left to wonder… where oh where is the oversight? We have two boards that are supposed to be overseeing this agency, which spends $300 million operating the Valley’s public transportation system and billions more expanding light rail. We have annual audits that cost us tens of thousands of dollars and always give the joint a clean bill of financial health…board members again called for a full audit of the agency. Which presumably will look different from all the other audits of the agency – the ones that assured us there was nothing to see here. Except, of course, for the inconvenient and highly embarrassing fact that there is.

How was all this wrongdoing uncovered? Public records requests. No wonder GPS slow-walks Westie’s requests for public records! That’s when GPS actually deigns to turn over requested public records; Westie has often been denied and shunted aside. When Westie does receive public records, it’s usually after waiting a long, long time, and then there are lots of redactions, and it’s not just student names. It’s the entire text of emails, for example. Sigh. Mike McClellan is treated much, much better by GPS, but we digress.

Public records reveal some surprising facts: do you have any idea of how much GPS pays former employees after they leave GPS? For example, GPS just couldn’t quit Good Old Jim Rice and Crystal Korpan after they bid GPS sayonara. We expect to have more news for you in 2016 about the gravy train that’s still chugging along for GOBs and acolytes. We’ve seen that there has been virtually no oversight by the one person whose job it is to comb through GPS expenses: Silly Jilly Humpherys. We don’t think Silly Jilly has ever questioned anything Christina 3-2 Kishimoto has done. Sigh.

Then there’s Gilbert Classical Academy, where GPS is plowing the lower forty again. There are big boo-hoos for the GCA  students who suddenly claim they don’t have sufficient athletic fields or performance venues, so they’re going to take over a junior high school to get them, unless GCA gets a brand new campus. The original school design for GCA was, “We’re the nerd school; we focus on academics. We don’t need no stinking athletic fields (but we would like a swimming pool)!” The 2016 GPS press release ought to read:

Due to the economic downturn, construction companies like CORE and its subcontractors have suffered.  GPS wants to help them because we get rebates from them and they are the largest investors in passing education funding ballot measures across the Valley and State. In exchange for their ongoing support, and no thanks to the previous tightwad majority, it’s long overdue that GPS sends work to our favorite donors, the construction companies (we’re taking care of you separately, San Tan Ford). Therefore, we really don’t care much how we have to spend or where GCA goes, as long as it generates as much money as possible for our override supporters. We have to get them more work now the bond and the override passed. Thanks for your understanding.

No one is forgetting that GCA’s cost per student in 2009 was $1,459 higher than at comprehensive schools in the district.  The cost of $1,459 DID NOT INCLUDE LAPTOP COMPUTERS or the tech support for the laptops issued to all GCA students. Christina 3-2 Kishimoto hopes you believe that the whole 2015 Chromebook initiative will make the disparity in per student costs go away. It won’t. Here’s another biggie: there are few Special Education students at GCA – just 0.5% of the population. Gilbert Junior High School, on the other hand, has 18% Special Ed students. But don’t worry, gifted parents, we hear there are plans in the works to give your high schoolers their own gifted high school! After GCA gets a new campus, of course. SpEd parents: GPS would prefer that you move outside GPS boundaries and take your future Taco Bell employees with you. Don’t get Westie started on the mess that is GPS boundaries!

The decision to shower virtually unlimited funds on GCA will be made in January 2016 — notice that GCA will see that taxpayer treasure trove long, long before GPS employees see any extra pennies in their paychecks. From the viewpoint of an average citizen or GPS employee, there has been a tremendous increase in district administrative positions across the board, which is exactly what Christina Kishimoto did in Hartford. The increases in pay for support staff in the White Castle are staggering (making more than most teachers), while other long-term employees were railroaded to other jobs not in the White Castle.

Another new year. More of the same old stuff … from people who think they’re above laws and common sense while spending your tax dollars. Say it all together: “It’s for the kids.” Sure it is.

Let’s connect some dots about Gilbert Public Schools in 2015 so that we can move on to what’s coming up in the new year of 2016. “What’s past is prologue” already seems to be the 2016 theme for Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her merry band of scalawags and carpetbaggers.  As George Santayana* famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

The current crop of Good Old Boys don’t know much about history … GPS history. If they did, they might have tried to cover their tracks a little better. Instead, they’re repeating history through silly antics they think no one can see (if this were a Big Bang Theory TV episode, it would be titled: The Ostrich Ostensity).

“What’s past is prologue” is a quotation by William Shakespeare from his play The Tempest… In contemporary use, the phrase stands for the idea that history sets the context for the present. The quotation is engraved on the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. and is commonly used by the military when discussing the similarities between war throughout history.

There are so many similarities between GPS under the Old GOBs and this new crew assembled by Christina Kishimoto, none of whom seem to have ties to “the community” that the new Queen GOB touts at any opportunity. We predicted plenty of prologue would be on display in the *new GPS* back in 2014 when we saw how (and who) was held accountable (or not) for ostentatious abuses of public funds.

We saw more of the same old stuff from the New GOBs, giving out raises and promotions on a whim, in 2015:

Here’s how the newest GPS scam works, as we discovered in the agenda for the May 26, 2015 board meeting: some support staffers were given raises based on … well, anything that the top dogs wanted. If this brings back memories of the Good Old Boys under former Superintendent Dave Allison, you’re on the right track. When questioned about why some support staffers were receiving raises for whatever reason, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto showed everyone why her last district voted 7-0 to send her packing. Kishimoto first confronted the offending board member for having the audacity to ask such a question in the first place. Then Kishimoto demanded to know names, right then.

The second part of the quote from above shows that retaliation is still alive and kicking in Gilbert Public Schools under Christina 3-2 Kishimoto. You would think that she would have learned back in the summer of 2015 that board member Julie Smith cannot be intimidated. Sigh, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here’s Julie Smith giving Superintendent Kishimoto a lesson as she informs GPS employees how they can respond to threats, intimidation and retaliation from their supervisors:

There is a district policy that addresses what an employee may do when there has been an abuse of authority by someone in a supervisory position. Therefore, it is possible that supervisors who asked teachers, staff members and a student to come to a governing board meeting to promote an issue the superintendent favors could have been subjected to a form of harassment. If this applies to you as a GPS employee, Julie Smith concludes, according to this policy, you can file a complaint with the board.

Here’s Christina Kishimoto responding to Julie Smith and anyone else who might even THINK about not falling into line with what the superintendent has already decided will happen in the Gilbert School District:

Dr. Christina Kishimoto, Superintendent, Gilbert Public Schools, AZ, responds to criticism that she abused her authority by staging repetitious public comments in favor of her Chromebooks initiative when speakers were requested to attend by their GPS supervisors. Kishimoto denies that those comments were coordinated. Kishimoto’s emotional outburst included that she felt badgered and attacked. Kishimoto urged board members to get behind her as superintendent, “Unless you want the chaos to continue. We have to walk to a common beat in terms of what you want to see happening…I don’t want to sit here and feel like I am being badgered as the leader of this district.”

It’s nothing short of amazing that Christina Kishimoto decided to double down on denying that the public comments in favor of Chromebooks at the October 26, 2015 school board meeting were coordinated to boost the GPS administration. You would think that Christina 3-2 Kishimoto would know by now that public records tend to trip up all kinds of schemes perpetrated by public officials and their acolytes. Do you believe for a minute that there is no document trail of GPS top dogs and their boot lickers rallying selected troops to take one for the team and speak out in public in favor of the disastrous Chromebook initiative? More to the point: what do you think are the chances of the public getting hold of those public records? Slim to none? Yeah, we think that’s about right. Hold your bets for a while: as we’ve said before, public records are powerful!

The whole GPS Chromebook project could have been wildly successful had someone learned from the failures of other districts in pushing too much technology too fast. Wait, we take that back — learning from LA schools failures would require technology expertise and a strong hand on the rudder of the GPS contracting process.  We can wish, though: If only GPS had given more thought to the rollout itself… If only GPS had prepared a better introduction for students before setting them loose with Chromebook filters that could be so easily circumvented… If only someone had spoken up about the crazy decisions apparently made by the seat of someone’s pants to fight, argue and retaliate against people who tried to tell the emperor her clothes were not what she believed them to be, including parents whose children were adversely affected by those crazy decisions… Oh wait, Julie Smith did that, and look where it got her: to the Christina Kishimoto rant archived on YouTube, shown above.

Keyboard: Making decisions *by the seat of their pants* is an improvement over the last GOB administration that focused more attention on their loose zippers than educating students.
Westie: We predict loose zippers are coming back into focus in GPS. That’s all we’ll say about that at this point.

Many members of the community have been appalled at the *official* GPS response to reports of pornography popping up on Chromebooks issued to their children. They’ve been equally disgusted at the tone of some of the educators who spoke disparagingly about parents who dared complain about the inadequacies apparent in the hastily-organized GPS Chromebook rollout. Julie Smith schooled Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and Gilbert Public Schools employees who pooh-pooh whatever parents say if it doesn’t toe the administration line:

Julie Smith calls out administration and their supporters who call out concerns brought forward by anyone who doesn’t fall into line behind what the administration wants as political: “These are parents who care about our community and they care about our kids and they care about how our tax dollars are being spent…We’re creating more problems by not addressing this as it comes up.”

Not surprisingly, it appears that some GPS employees again have taken to anonymous social media comments online. Are they so arrogant that they truly believe this stuff will stay anonymous? [Rhetorical question.] Secure in the knowledge that *their* superintendent has their back (following her announcement during her December 15, 2015 tirade), these GPS folks continue expressing their distaste for anyone who dares object to the predetermined GPS party line: “Now we have to parent these kids so the parents don’t have to?” Public servants, my asterisk! Sheeeesh.

******************
*Big Fat Asterisk: Do not confuse George Santayana with the great Carlos Santana. BTW, several women who reside in the White Castle could use some style tips from him. These Carlos Santana lyrics will appear prescient in future posts:

I got a black magic woman
Got me so blind I can’t see
That she’s a black magic woman
She’s tryin’ to make a devil out of me.

Something happened after Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board Member Julie Smith stated on December 15, 2015 that GPS employees have a right under GPS Policy GBP to file a complaint with the Governing Board. Someone did just that! 

Here’s the text of the most recent anonymous letter sent to the GPS Governing Board: 

 Here’s Julie Smith talking directly to GPS employees:

Westie has posted many, many times about the Old Good Old Boy regime under Dave Allison, and how the Loose Zipper Brigade operated in Gilbert Public Schools. Most of the GPS employees involved are no longer GPS employees. The good people of Gilbert, Arizona hoped for a fresh new beginning in their school district, one that would focus on educating students rather than Top Dogs examining the looseness of their zippers while feeding at the public trough. Ewwww, the mental image!

For a short time, there were few stories about *inappropriate behavior* involving GPS and the GOBs. But, alas, the New Gang of GOBs that were recruited by GPS Queen Superintendent Christina Kishimoto seem to have been totally in the dark about the goings-on in GPS that led to their own employment.  We’ve all learned what happens in the dark in GPS … or in locked closets.

Westie: Note to scalawags and carpetbaggers: follow links here and in the linked posts; they will explain much about the circumstances that brought you here.
Keyboard: It ought to scare the pants off you! Ooops, inappropriate image. I’ll go get the brain bleach.

The New Gang of GOBs didn’t take very long to start establishing their own empire in Gilbert Public Schools. They seemed blissfully unaware that anonymous letters about abuse of authority led to an implosion of the GPS superintendency. The fact that those anonymous letters identified inappropriate behavior between a principal and his assistant principal at a GPS junior high school was serendipity for the press, which received copies of the eleven anonymous letters at the same time the GPS Governing Board received them. Those anonymous letters, of course, were public records, which included things like this:

The teachers’ reports cited numerous instances regarding Brian Yee and the Dean of Students, who were caught several times, by many different people having sex in his office, in closets at the school and on the football field during and after school. The students at Highland even knew this was going on… The only thing that came from the meeting at the school between the staff and the teachers was the Dean of Students being moved to another school.

Trying to close the sordid mess, GPS announced: “Superintendent Allison told Highland Junior High staff and teachers that Yee was exonerated and that disgruntled employees would be involuntarily transferred.” Of course, Brian Yee was NOT exonerated, but GPS tried to put the kibosh on those public records the GOBs didn’t want the public to see. The kibosh didn’t work out very well, but it sure let GPS employees know that retaliation is the “Gilbert Way” in response to anything GOBs didn’t want to hear. So of course this new anonymous letter writer is worried about retaliation!

The saga of Brian Yee was a story that wouldn’t go away for GPS … it just got bigger and bigger as new revelations surfaced over time. Good Old Dave Allison tried to keep it all under wraps, hiring one of his pet attorneys to *investigate* and make it all go away. Good old Matthew W. Wright tried to do that for his pal Bishop Allison, writing TWO reports: one for public consumption and one that was supposed to remain private. The *private* report was vastly different from the public report and we all know how that part of the story ended … the private report became public. Even so, Lily Tram went on a tirade about how wonderful Brian Yee was in spite of the evidence against him. For some unknown reason, Brian Yee is still employed as a GPS principal at Greenfield Junior High School, with a pretty young woman assigned as his Assistant Principal, according to the school website. Is the past prologue in this case? Only time will tell. But we digress.

Surely someone will FOIA the public records from GPS that will confirm this anonymous teacher’s revelations. As Westie knows from past experience, anyone else will receive public records from GPS a lot faster than Westie will. What would you like to bet that the Brian Yee report was among the public records that Dave Allison thought he destroyed? We’re digressing again. However, many facts exposed in the anonymous letter can be confirmed by public records already available.

First, Christina Kishimoto did indeed file for and receive a divorce from her former husband Michael Kishimoto. According to the Kishimoto Divorce Case History, the GPS Queen kicked her mentally disabled husband to the curb over the summer of 2015. We know Christina Kishimoto’s husband was mentally disabled because she testified to that fact in court in January 2015.  Listen to the audio transcript here. Christina Kishimoto describes her husband as mentally disabled at the 3:15 mark. This recording is evidence of Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s perjury and false statements in court in January 2015. For simplicity, we’ll accept that Christina Kishimoto was telling the truth about her husband even though she blithely told lies that day about countless other details, which even Lily Tram could have warned her against. But Christina Kishimoto thought we (and the public) would never know. Kind of like now.

Second, Director of Technology Steve Smith was indeed hired as described and promoted by Queen Christina Kishimoto to be Executive Director of Technology in 2015. The promotion appears to have occurred after her divorce was finalized in July or August of 2015, with a property settlement signed by the Kishimotos in May 2015. For those wondering just how inappropriate their relationship might be, Steve Smith is divorced.

There are good reasons for public policies that forbid inappropriate relations between a supervisor and her subordinate. The imbalance of power makes it impossible for such a relationship to be considered consensual.

If the romance is between a supervisor and subordinate, those emotions and potential hostilities can manifest themselves in claims of retaliation or sexual harassment.  Worse yet, the supervisor may feel regret about the relationship and its impact on his or her working relationship with the subordinate. In such a case, the supervisor can feel trapped in the relationship, knowing that exposure or termination of the relationship could have a serious impact on his or her career and reputation.

A coworker who perceives favoritism between the romantic pair can claim to a court, “Well, it was obvious to me that the only way to succeed at the company was to sleep with your boss, and I’m not going to do that, so I’m suing.” Even if that is incorrect, try proving a negative in a court of law. Further, imagine the other applicants for the subordinate’s position – they might later learn of the relationship and sue the company claiming that the manager only hired the subordinate because of an intended romantic relationship. On the other hand, the stark reality is that most romantic relationships end. And many end poorly. If the supervisor dumps the subordinate, that person will be both a jilted lover and a disgruntled employee, ready to spin any story for his or her own financial gain. That person could claim that they were forced into the relationship against their will, that they were either expressly or implicitly told that they needed to engage in sex in order to keep their job or advance in the company.

As with most situations involving clandestine relationships between a public official and an underling, opportunities to abuse public trust abound, usually connected to the public purse. It won’t be difficult to connect more dots in this saga, and it doesn’t bode well for the New GPS Loose Zipper Brigade^BS and their enablers. It doesn’t look good for Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *national reputation* thingy, either.

We’ve already figured out that a national reputation is what this superintendent craves, and by golly, she doesn’t care how she gets it. Each 3-2 vote, which occurred with the 2014 school board as well as the 2015 school board, is a black eye for Christina 3-2 Kishimoto’s reputation. We can’t wait to see what Christina 3-2 Kishimoto has in mind after the election in November 2015, whether she succeeds in getting more taxes for the district or not.

Everyone has a right to privacy in their personal lives, and Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is no exception. That said, she is a public officer, and with that position and its rich rewards come responsibility. In this case, it appears that a line may have been crossed. Unfortunately for the Superintendent and her alleged boyfriend, the allegation is that the inappropriate behavior occurred in public.

Okay, Beloved Birdies, send in your photos! Westie will know what to do with them.

BREAKING NEWS: Westie had this post ready to publish when word came down that Charles Stevin Smith, aka Steve Smith, the Superintendent’s *Alleged* Boyfriend, has resigned from his position in Gilbert Public Schools as the Executive Director of Technology. 

He’s also known as Sleazy Steve, but we didn’t know the half of it, as things turned out. Never fear, birdies, we’ll share what we’ve found about the whole sordid affair at the White Castle. Westie’s going to be posting like crazy in the next few weeks. You know you can hardly wait.

Back to our regularly scheduled Westie post: Finally – Gilbert Public Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is going to reveal her *process* for giving GPS employees salary increases with all the new money that’s available from the recent tax override.  The unveiling is scheduled to occur on January 12, 2016 during the GPS Governing Board’s work study session.  

Let’s connect some dots to remind loyal GPS employees that you can expect another BOHICA situation, not real change that you can believe in and take to the bank. Heaven help you if you thought GPS would actually give you dollars to take to the bank, but we digress.

First, you loyal GPS employees should know that neighboring school districts gave their employees pay raises as soon as their overrides passed. It says much about Christina Kishimoto and her Three Musketeers Lily Tram, Jill Humpherys and Charlies Santa Cruz that GPS was totally unprepared to do anything like that. It’s not that they didn’t believe the override would pass, because everyone knew it was already bought and paid for in terms of political action committees and their massive donations from the companies and people who stood to benefit from Christina Kishimoto’s largess and unprecedented spending on technology and construction projects should taxpayers give her that power and purse.

Second, GPS isn’t even going to try to give raises out until the 2016-2017 school year. Nada, nil, zilch. 

Third, you loyal GPS employees already know that the Top Dogs in the GPS administration will get the biggest piece of the pie, don’t you? Yeah, they always get considered first and screw the rest of you who work on the front lines of education every day. It’s really bass ackwards from how the military works: commanders take care of the troops first so the mission will be accomplished. Yes, yes, we know that the Top Dogs in the military also get cushy benefits and living quarters and first class travel that the troops don’t get, but on a wartime footing, troops come first. If they don’t, the Top Dogs keep things quiet, as opposed to GPS, where employee pay has been frozen for years but the Superintendent’s alleged boyfriend got himself promoted with a big raise, done on the sly, of course.

Another group that’s made out like bandits: the folks on the SmartSchoolsPlus bandwagon. GPS is just so gosh-darn enamored with Sandee McClelland  that they issued SmartSchoolsPlus a second contract in 2015, adding a few years because they’re just so hap-hap-happy with Sandee Baby. Did you loyal employees know that folks who are on SmartSchools are paid more than you? Like the new hires are paid more than you, but even more insulting.

Here’s the deal for SmartSchools pit vipers  contract employees: apparently they’re being paid “on the grid” that has been denied to loyal GPS employees for so long. Yeppers, we saw that not only do some of the folks receive “Range H stipend” (one monthly amount was $1,276.92), a psychologist receives a “Range H stipend” PLUS a “NCSP stipend” in addition to SmartSchoolsPlus contract pay and benefits PLUS ASRS retirement benefits and pay. Pretty good deal for a chosen few, but NOT for you loyal GPS employees who toughed it out for seven years or more of frozen pay along with increasingly expensive benefits GPS levied on you.

There’s more, of course (with GPS there is always more bad news): support staffers receive unspecified stipends  in addition to SmartSchoolsPlus contract pay and benefits PLUS ASRS retirement benefits and pay. You can check it out for yourself here. Do a *Control F* search for SmartSchools, and you’ll hit the data jackpot. That’s the only jackpot loyal GPS employees will be hitting any time soon.

Let’s connect some dots and make our bets as to how the GPS Governing Board Work Study session will go down. First clue: Christina Kishimoto’s end of the year letter to employees reveals priorities for the new year:

Even with the additional budget capacity resulting from approval of the override and bond election, our District will continue to face some challenges in developing the 2016-2017 budget. You will hear me talk to the Governing Board about a variety of long-term planning strategies related to student enrollment, legislative action, and long-term budget forecasting, over the next few months. Despite these challenges, the District’s leadership is committed to the following guiding principles in the 2016-2017 budget planning process:

Developing a budget in which a significant portion of the additional budget capacity will be used for increasing staff compensation.

You GPS folks know even better than Westie does that those are weasel words, limiting salary increases to what’s left over in the “additional budget capacity” from the 2015 tax override approved by voters. We saw GPS do similar hocus-pocus by moving salaries for Tech Services employees OUT of the tech override funds and into the M&O budget, competing with teachers and support staff for a share of the pie. Christina Kishimoto also banged her drum loudly for across-the-board raises in 2015 that would benefit the new hires who make more money than their colleagues in the same positions. Scalawags and Carpetbaggers in her cabinet did just fine with THEIR raises, coming roughly a year after their original hire dates, didn’t they?

On top of everything else, GPS screwed up the payroll system so that things have really gone to hell in a handbasket. Direct deposit? Only if you’re lucky and in the first segment of the alphabet. Auto-pay deductions? Who knows.  GPS made it the employee’s responsibility to determine if their payroll records for the first of the year are correct … AFTER wiping out all the historical data for individual employee accounts. A huge amount of lovely tax credit money has been screwed up, too … swept up into indistinguishable district accounts (although we hear some folks got their funds restored). Sure, nothing is going to go missing; it’s GPS, where there are stringent controls on financial matters. <snark>

On top of all this chaos, which the dots connect to the department controlled by the Superintendent’s alleged boyfriend, is the chaos associated with the absurd Chromebook rollout, which is also connected to the Superintendent’s alleged boyfriend, who runs the Technology Services Department. You know, the guy who got himself a $10,000 pay raise while the rest of you loyal GPS employees were sucking eggs. BTW, GPS hired *consultants* to help the new Carpetbagger CFO dude (one of the six-figure salary new hires). He had a fancy PowerPoint presentation to show how great things were going with the new finance system (click here to see it). Sheeeeeesh. GPS spent $1.3 MILLION dollars on that software without going out for bids, or even advice on what GPS really needed. In all fairness, the six-figure CFO dude was not the incompetent idiot person who recommended buying this expensive software that’s not working right.

Don’t worry, Chromebook parents, the munchkin fellow what’s in charge (MFWIC) of elementary education told Tech Services to disable access to Google Images for all elementary schools. If you thought the GPS staff was nasty toward you parents before this, just wait. How can kids do any of that critical thinking for their group projects, studying Neptune for example, without images? Teachers will know who to blame. You get the picture:

Under the category of we couldn’t possibly make up anything more ridiculous than what actually happens in Gilbert Public Schools: Add new financial problems to the 2016 List of Disasters. If we thought the Clown Car driven by Good Old Dave Allison was filled with incompetents and nincompoops, we ain’t seen nothing yet. Is it really just the second week of January? Sheeesh.

GPS employees are not getting paid on time, and they’re not getting paid the full sums that they are owed. Why? Because the new $1.3 Million Dollar Software Superintendent Christina Kishimoto bought back in November 2014 failed. Who knows the answer to “Where have we seen this before?”

Keyboard to Westie: Oooh, ooh pick me! I know the answer! GPS bought software costing $1.7 Million Dollars a few years ago and botched the installation so bad, they tried to blame the software company and sued them! GPS Top Dogs ended up with a lot of egg on their faces over that fiasco because they squandered so much time and taxpayer money and then had to start all over again, buy another software program and lose about $500,000 in settling the lawsuit. Do I get an A?

The GPS purchase of Infinite Visions software was a real mess from the beginning. One of our birdies wondered why, in November 2014, it suddenly was essential for the GPS Governing Board to approve a new $1.3 Million contract for new finance and human resources software. It was especially concerning that just the month before, in October 2014, the GPS Chief Financial Officer confessed that GPS had overspent by $15.3 Million and kept it a secret.

It took two board meetings to ram this new software project through. Board President Staci Burk asked CFO Jeff Gadd to provide the board copies of the underlying contract that GPS used through Mohave Educational Services (MES) Cooperative, Inc. (an entity through which school districts make big purchases without the regular bidding process).  President Burk kept asking for documentation of the RFP process – which ought to be on file.  CFO Gadd did everything he could to sidestep; he promised he had done his due diligence, etc.

Wrong! Due diligence is the board’s responsibility, and it’s a red flag of fraud that Jeff Gadd didn’t provide the simple documentation the board president repeatedly requested. No sireee, he gave the board something else: the generic contract presented to the board was the financing document from Kansas State Bank of Manhattan. There is so much here that doesn’t pass the smell test.

Gilbert Public Schools and Superintendent Christina Kishimoto could have recovered from their initial missteps with Infinite Visions software, but they did not. No way that would happen after golden haired boys GPS top level C-suite folks made presentations to the governing board about how gosh-darned HARD they were working on installing and implementing this software, including as recently as December 15, 2015. GPS went out and recruited new employees to work in the White Castle and get this project going. Dollars to donuts, those new support staffers were paid top dollar while loyal GPS employees waited patiently for Christina Kishimoto and her pet board members to DO SOMETHING for the long-suffering folks whose pay inequities should be the top priority for GPS, but we digress.

It’s not like GPS is the first employer ever to switch payroll software – why couldn’t they have worked out glitches BEFORE employees didn’t get their checks direct deposited? Do you think maybe it had something to do with the Superintendent’s *alleged* dalliances with her Executive Director of Technology, whose hardware system came into play for installing new Infinite Visions software? [No, Keyboard, we don’t know what games they were playing.]

OMG, watch your credit scores carefully! Sleazy Steve’s department is responsible for designing a “new process and systems for identity management” for the screwed up payroll system. You folks who posit that Sleazy Steve may have decided to take one for the team and resign because this HUGE technology project failed need to reevaluate. [This said with great derision because Sleazy Steve’s resignation came immediately after the anonymous letter alleging his inappropriate relations with Christina Kishimoto was made public.] Sheeesh, we’re digressing again!

GPS put the burden on employees to figure out if the paychecks they receive are correct … but GPS wiped out historical data about what each employee used to be paid before they told employees to check their checks. The two Business Office honchos of the Infinite Visions payroll fiasco put out an email saying, “We have encountered a glitch…Unfortunately we do not have the resources to personally respond to each email about this matter.” Seriously, that was what they said when they could not pay GPS employees on time! In other words, “Pound sand, suckers!” Maybe they were trying to make things better by saying they would “research the issues” if employees fill out certain forms … as if they didn’t already know who should be paid what amount. Maybe they truly didn’t know, which is unforgivable for a government enterprise that employs thousands and has a budget of a Third of a Billion Dollars each year.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for any semblance of accountability. We have seen what passes for accountability for this payroll fiasco in GPS and it is a slap in the face to you loyal PROFESSIONALS who are on the front lines of education every day. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto said she’ll make everything all right, because, gosh darn it, “…our payroll staff in the Finance Department have done an AMAZING job of working through the glitches…” We know you won’t believe it til you see it, so here it is.

Showing just how much Superintendent Christina Kishimoto cares about you loyal GPS employees, she helpfully wrote a letter that you can take to your bank in case those big old meanies in charge of the nation’s mega-banks do something really awful and charge you for overdrafts resulting from your payroll check not being deposited. Don’t you feel better now? The biggest employer in the Town of Gilbert (including employees from surrounding cities and towns) fails to make their payroll, and they think the banks will be sweet and understanding and wipe out the outrageous fees that banks charge when your checks bounce.

It speaks volumes that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her sidekick CFO Tom Wohlleber think GPS employees might get one little-bitty overdraft charge as a result of GPS incompetence in failing to pay thousands of people properly. One overdraft charge! And they’ll get around to figuring out a bureaucratic process for reimbursing employees long, long after the charge has totally screwed up bank accounts, mortgages, student loan repayments, credit card auto-pays and credit scores. There, there, GPS will give you back the “service fee resulting from the payroll transition” as if the banks will make one *unfair* charge and leave it at that. Maybe that’s a way of life for Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, who hob nobs with community leaders like bankers, who would NEVER, EVER mess up the bank account of someone pulling down a cool Quarter of a Million Dollars a year.

You all know that overdraft charges cascade and multiply, because one missed deposit causes many screwed up transactions. The writing is on the wall: GPS will probably, someday, get around to reimbursing you employees who insist on being reimbursed for nefarious deductions from your bank accounts because GPS screwed up their first payroll of the year in such a spectacular way. Just show them Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s letter when they come to evict you from your house.

Wait ’til we start hearing about how their taxes are screwed up because GPS couldn’t figure out how to pay their employees on the first pay period of the first month of a new year, most likely because GPS Top Dogs wanted a two week vacation right before payroll was due. Anyone want to wager that maybe the superintendent’s *alleged* boyfriend, the dude who got a $10,000 raise while other GPS employees had their salaries frozen (according to the anonymous letter writer) managed to be paid on time? Same bet for those other Top Dogs and Fat Cats in the GPS White Castle. Sheeeeesh.

Chaos continues in Gilbert Public Schools: employees have not been paid, have been paid the wrong amount, or were given the wrong paycheck. Computer systems continue to malfunction, crash or otherwise misbehave. The Tops Dogs in the administration of Gilbert Public Schools continue to applaud the loser  incompetent  parties responsible for the Great Payday Melee, telling unpaid long-suffering employees how *amazing* those incompetent staffers are and how hard they worked to get things so screwed up. 

This mess is totally owned by GPS Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. We acknowledge, however, that her minions made invaluable contributions. The question that remains unanswered: why did Charles Stevin Smith, Executive Director of Technology, resign suddenly? Was it because of the anonymous letter that revealed Steve Smith’s *inappropriate relations* with Superintendent Christina Kishimoto? Was it because the letter revealed his *special* promotion and $10,000.00 raise that the Governing Board approved? Or was it because Steve Smith pinky promised his *alleged* girlfriend that his technology would succeed and cement her National Reputation and the district’s big marketing push?  Oooh, that big GPS Technology Expo will be *timely,* won’t it?

Here is GPS Executive Director of Technology, Charles Stevin Smith,  explaining how he has made it impossible for the system to fail, so what is happening as the payroll system crumbles under the weight of an incompetent implementation of expensive new software can never happen. Charles Stevin Smith, aka Sleazy Steve, the dude who allegedly has been involved in an *inappropriate relationship* with Gilbert Public Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, was promoted after he urged the GPS Governing Board to buy the Infinite Visions software that the Top Dogs wanted. He said, “Trust me.” Oh yeah, Steve Smith was worth trusting, wasn’t he, GPS Governing Board? How does it feel, CFO Tom Wohlleber, to have this train wreck happen on your watch? How are Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s hand-selected, specially recruited new finance department incompetents employees working out for you? Rhetorical question. We know you also had *consultants* helping make this mess.

One of the biggest problems for Gilbert Public Schools in this Great Payday Melee is that pretty much everyone took a two week vacation the week before they tried to run payroll on the new technology system anchored by Infinite Visions software. Brilliant, guys. Who made the decision to turn off the AS/400 redundancy that Steve Smith said would prevent any possible problems? Oh yeah, you must have gotten rid of the wrong techies in the past couple of years. Tsk, tsk. Now, hard working, long suffering GPS employees are paying the price for your arrogance and incompetence.

Westie is quite aware that there are folks who deny any fact that Westie reports, so as usual, here’s the evidence you wish you wouldn’t have to acknowledge, an email to all GPS employees on January 14, 2015:

To All Employees,

The Finance/Payroll Staff want to again thank you for how gracious people have been through this process.  This week we are focusing on ways to let people quickly know where their issue is in the queue. We will then send emails to each site administrator that shows outstanding issues for each employee.  This way you will know if you need to send in a payroll exception form.

The following are issues that are being corrected this week.

Base Pay & Stipends (Academic, Speech Path, Psychologist) Corrections – We have already identified most of the issues.  There is no need to send in a Payroll Exception Form unless your name does not show up on the list that will be provided to your site administrator/admin assistant by tomorrow morning.

Overtime, Holiday Pay, Leave Pay (Medical, Vacation) – The most important thing is to verify that your hours are properly reflected in Time Clock Plus.  The pay corrections will be made from data in Time Clock Plus.  There is no need to send Payroll Exception Forms for this issue.

Deduction differences – We are creating a file just for the Benefits and Payroll departments that should be available this week.  We will let you know when the file is complete.  They will then be able to confirm that your deduction corrections are in the queue. We will then also have an expected resolution date.  Until then, there is no need to send Payroll Exception forms regarding this issue.

We are sorry that we are not able to respond to each email at this time. But we hope this process can mitigate the frustration of not knowing the status of your corrections.  Thanks again for your patience and understanding.  We will let you know how things progress.

Thanks,
Teddy Dumlao
Finance Director

Lindie Evans
Payroll Supervisor

Notice that these occupants of the GPS White Castle, while too important busy to respond to employees whose lives are in disarray because of the incompetent implementation of the Infinite Visions software, are sending highly personal data about individual employees to site administrators, their secretaries and anyone else this *onerous task* can be palmed off on. The occupants of the White Castle don’t want mere peons contacting them about how they screwed up the finances and lives of GPS employees who live from payday to payday, which is just about everyone in GPS who has not been selected for handsome remuneration, such as Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* boyfriend who was promoted and given a $10,000.00 pay raise, according to the anonymous letter writer.

No, the highly paid minions in the GPS White Castle, some of whom pull down six-figure incomes, don’t want to talk to mere GPS employees they have screwed. That echoes the boss’s policy, since she doesn’t seem to talk to anyone below the level of principal and especially, she doesn’t talk to parents, especially not about technology processes overseen by her *alleged* boyfriend. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto gave a Superintendent Award to a teacher in December 2015; she didn’t grasp the sense of irony that the recipient was holding down three jobs to support his family.

But thank you for being gracious while the losers try to figure out “where the employee’s issue is in the queue” and then try to figure out how to get out of this mess of their own creation. Sheeeeeesh. Aren’t all these folks just gosh-golly AMAZING?  Maybe they’ll soon be able to tell you how long it will take to get your money reimbursed. Hopefully, it will happen before you are evicted or have your name put on Governor Ducey’s Loser List.

**********************
Hey, Superintendent Kishimoto: maybe you should tell your minions to quit echoing your words “Leap Frogging” in reference to the new salary schedule you propose. TMI. We already told Keyboard we don’t know what games you were playing, if any, with the Executive Director of Technology. But come on, everybody knows the game the Greek dudes were playing that was immortalized on the china in The Birdcage:

Louise Keeley: Oh, what interesting china. Why, it looks like young men playing leap frog.  Is it Greek?

The meeting of the Governing Board of Gilbert Public Schools scheduled for January 26, 2016 is going to be where Superintendent Christina Kishimoto will hustle board approval of her pet projects and unprecedented spending of taxpayer money. She wants those financial handcuffs taken off so she can officially do whatever she wants! What little oversight the board exercises will be a thing of the past, and that’s exactly the  point, it seems.

You know it will work – Christina Kishimoto now gets anything and everything she wants. It’s like second grade, where the playground bullies yell, “Nanny nanny boo boo – we got three votes, so you lose.” Yes, the losers include taxpayers, teachers and staffers who don’t inhabit the district offices in the White Castle.

In the meantime, some Gilbert Public Schools’ employees have not been paid. The Great Payday Melee continues. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto thinks her letter that employees can take to the bank will do the job when they get overdraft charges. Watch your credit rating carefully, GPS employees. But don’t hold out too much hope that GPS actually will reimburse you for all the expenses you have as a result of their incompetence. No, they already have limited that to simple bank charges for BANK FEES that result from their failure to pay employees on time. Westie knows that’s an artificial limit, and it will gob-smack you in the face when you realize how many OTHER expenses cascade from the failure of the implementation of the GPS software system known as Infinite Visions. This will be an uglier story as time goes by.

The Superintendent’s *alleged* boyfriend’s resignation should be effective at the end of this week. In other words, when the going got tough and the Infinite Visions software implementation imploded, Executive Director of Technology Charles Stevin Smith, aka Steve Smith, bailed out of Gilbert Public Schools. Or maybe he bailed because of the anonymous letter about his *inappropriate relationship* with his boss, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. Did he pay the $2,500.00 required by the hostage clause that other GPS employees are required to pay if they quit before their contracts are finished? Yeah, we don’t think so, either. There are lots of *fringe benefits* associated with being Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* boyfriend. Getting a $10,000.00 raise appears to be one of them. Notice in this fiasco that even Her Three Votes apparently approved of the Superintendent’s dalliances. Too bad the whole “GPS is the Technology District” now is a total failure. Other school districts must be ROFLAO. Muchly.

One of the *recommendations* Her Three Votes will approve at the aforesaid Governing Board Meeting is $100,000 as the new purchasing limit that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto wanted for herself and her minions. We all know it’s so gosh-awful HARD to keep up with the Superintendent’s new spending spree of expected tax override dollars and new bond money. Christina Kishimoto wrote a memo that said surrounding districts have the $100,000 purchasing limit she now absolutely needs for herself.

Let’s tune in to hear Superintendent Christina Kishimoto talk about the new contracting limits she wants.

Governing Board Clerk Jill Humpherys doesn’t have any problem giving out these higher limits. It’s not like $100,000 is a whole lot of money, she says. Principals can spend it in a flash in Walmart!

Trying to be a voice of reason, Governing Board Member Daryl Colvin says this is not wise; it’s using a machete instead of a scalpel:

There’s a cute little provision in Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s recommended changes to GPS procurement policies: she can contract for up to ONE MILLION DOLLARS in construction contracts without jumping through procurement hoops. Now we’re really getting to what’s important in her recommendations, don’t you think? Here’s Daryl Colvin’s view on why this is totally stupid. But we all know Her Three Votes will approve:

We’ll talk about teacher contracts in our next post. Another doozie coming up!

The meeting of the Governing Board of Gilbert Public Schools scheduled for January 26, 2016 looks to be a Katrina of a disaster for Gilbert Public Schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. Or not: she has Her Three Votes for anything and everything she wants, so all that any member of the public can do is tune in to watch the coming disasters. They will come. Let’s preview how GPS teacher contracts will be handled this year.

First, let’s pause in memory of how GPS employees used to take payday for granted … the checks, small as they were, arrived on schedule until January 2016. That’s when the new GPS Infinite Visions software took over from the old, antiquated system that made the checks appear on time. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto made it a BFD, going on and on about how important it was to hand out raises to the incompetents folks who would be doing the *implementation* of the new $1.3 Million software, which was the subject of numerous reports from Those on High, the Occupants of the White Castle. Our moment of reflection is now over. Back to Westie’s regular post.

The new Stepless Salary Schedule and the 7% Salary Increases that supposedly will go to long-suffering, loyal teachers who stayed with GPS through The Great Recession will be on the agenda. New contracts will be rammed through on January 26, 2016 (by a 3-2 vote, most likely) so that teachers will have to commit the next eighteen months of their lives to GPS. Do you really believe their promises THIS TIME? Like they have come through with any crumbs from the Great Table in the White Castle for you deserving folks [dripping sarcasm]. Keep in mind, Diane Drazinski President of the Gilbert Education Association [it’s not a union] agreed to every word that’s in your new contracts, teachers. Now, aren’t you happy to hand over to Diane Drazinski so much money out of your own pockets in the form of hundreds of dollars of dues that you pay each year?

Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and Her Three Votes are shocked, just shocked they say, that enrollment in Gilbert Public Schools is decreasing. They’re planning for doomsday scenarios for losses of 1,350 students and/or 2,000 students for next year. That doesn’t include the massive losses that are happening right under their noses, like the first day of school in January 2016, a new semester, where there were lines out the doors of local charter schools as parents and students voted with their feet by leaving GPS. Christina Kishimoto and the Governing Board have this new thingy called a *dashboard* that should be able to show them, day-by-day if necessary, exactly how many students GPS has lost on Christina Kishimoto’s watch. You can’t blame it on any *former* anything now, guys. You own this.

What this loss of students has to do with new salary schedules, the stepless salary schedule and teacher contracts is that THE LOSS OF STUDENTS could well be a *trigger* that GPS can use to reduce your pay. Sure, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and Her Three Votes are trying to wait until the State Department of Education releases data about how many students GPS has; we all know that the Top Dogs already know how many students GPS has, and how many students GPS has lost recently. But they want to be able to claim they were surprised, so they can reduce the salaries they promised in January 2016 if the state comes through with less money, in let’s say about March 2016, than the big bucks Superintendent Christina Kishimoto demanded from the legislature wanted the legislature to give her since she’s so deserving and all. See how easy it will be to screw you loyal teachers? And of course, it won’t be Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s fault, we’re sure [somebody get a bucket and mop for all the dripping sarcasm!].

Another trip down Memory Lane: remember how GPS gave out contracts with a teensie-tiny salary increase and then increased employee costs for health insurance? How many times have the Top Dogs in Gilbert Public Schools pulled that trick? Expect it again. Once you teachers have committed to your contracts, golly gee, the superintendency will be just so gosh-darn SORRY that you won’t be able to keep the full 7% (for the lucky few who will be promised that much). But the smart money is on Superintendent Christina Kishimoto keeping the amount of the health insurance increase secret until about March 2016, probably as soon as her deadline for returning 2016-2017 teaching contracts is over. BTW – since the Kishimoto Carpetbagger and Scalawag Administration is in the dark about any history of GPS, they probably don’t know this has been done before. Perhaps they’ll throw their shoulders out of joint while patting their own backs.

Next, expect another hostage clause. Good Time Charlie Santa Cruz told the superintendency he wanted to see that go away in future contracts, but that doesn’t mean it won’t reappear. They might try to put some lipstick on that pig, but the $2,500.00 *liqidated damages* clause will be there to prevent defections. When loyal teachers see how little of their salary increases actually remain in their bank account, they’ll stick around again rather than pay the hostage clause. You own this one, Dr. Charles Santa Cruz:

The hostage situation is this: any employee who leaves GPS after signing a contract for 2015-2016 will pay $2,500 as liquidated damages…unless they quit before they sign a new contract with minimal time to consider said draconian contract. The other alternative is if the Governing Board waives the liquidated damages.  Don’t hold your breath for that; even though Good Old Charlie Santa Cruz said he wasn’t thrilled with the hostage clause, he sat down and shut up and voted for it anyway.

We all want to know if Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* boyfriend paid the $2,500.00 hostage clause when he bailed out of GPS a couple of days after the anonymous letter about his *inappropriate relationship* with his top boss surfaced. After all, he still has his $10,000.00 raise, so $2,500.00 in hostage fees are not a big deal, right? Maybe life looked different back then, before the superintendent’s *alleged* boyfriend decided to cut and run in the middle of his contract. Maybe he’s just a quitter like Sarah Palin, perhaps? Check out the similarities, including *frivilous* ethics complaints and public records requests decried by The Quitter:

According to the Anchorage Daily News, “Early estimates put the cost of Sarah Palin’s midterm resignation as Alaska governor at a minimum of $40,000, not including a special legislative session partly linked to her departure. … The final price tag will be a mere fraction of the roughly $2 million Palin has said it cost the state dealing with “frivolous” ethics complaints against her.” Information on the cost of the resignation was obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

Look for Weasel Words, they’ll be in the teacher contracts, Westie promises. There probably will be words to the effect that if we want to change the salary schedule because we didn’t get as much money as we wanted, teachers just have to suck it. Also, look to see *extras* carved out of your contract – things like 301 money and other extra funds from the state may become just too appetizing for the Top Dogs to spend on you loyal employees. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto has done this to you before, with the blessing of Her Three Votes she keeps in her nether regions  pocket.

Here’s the history: in December 2014, Gilbert Public Schools received an extra $700,000 in Student Success Funds from then-Governor Brewer, as Christina Kishimoto said, “To ‘reward’ districts for student performance.” Showing how depraved is her soul  how little use she has for the teachers and staff in the classrooms every day, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto kept that little secret slush fund in the background for “our budget planning mitigation strategy.” Her Three Votes on the Governing Board approved, as always. Other school districts did not screw their teachers over play such stupid games with their unexpected windfalls. In fact, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto was never going to give you teachers raises before she absolutely had to:

You loyal GPS employees should know that neighboring school districts gave their employees pay raises as soon as their overrides passed. It says much about Christina Kishimoto and her Three Musketeers Lily Tram, Jill Humpherys and Charlies Santa Cruz that GPS was totally unprepared to do anything like that.

Be prepared, GPS teachers! Signing your new contract will tie you up for the next 18 months. Maybe you want to call the HR people in the school districts you favor and let them know about this window. If they want you, they’ll negotiate to get you signed before your GPS contract is due.

Let’s talk about something Her Three Votes will grant to Superintendent Christina Kishimoto: closing a junior high school to *repurpose* it for Gilbert Classical Academy. We hear that the superintendency hasn’t even tried to keep it secret … they’ve been sending their minions around to schools and talking about Mesquite Junior High School closing as if it’s already a done deal. We’ll be watching the board meeting so see how it all works out. If something happens between now and the vote to close Mesquite Junior High School, Westie will update this post.

The Number One Goal of the GPS Governing Board is to give Gilbert Classical Academy a new campus. They’re funneling resources (that’s TAX MONEY) into a school that benefits 1% of the total student population of the district. What does this tell parents of the 99% of students about GPS priorities? What about the elementary classrooms that have far too many students? What about students at GPS high schools who are crammed so tightly into classrooms that at least one student is assigned to sit at the teacher’s desk because no more student desks will fit into the classroom? What about all of the resources for regular kids, gifted kids and [especially] special ed kids that have been cut? The GPS reply to taxpayers: “Nanny nanny boo boo – we got three votes, so you lose.”

This time, Gilbert Classical Academy is just sick and tired of waiting for a new campus, so it looks like they’re just going to throw out some *lesser* students and take over a campus for their own. Westie has many, many blog posts about how GCA unsuccessfully tried to take over Gilbert Junior High School a few years ago. This time, GCA advocates appear to have been smarter … they appealed to Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s insatiable thirst for a *national reputation* and voila! This time, GCA wins all the marbles. Now if only GCA could figure out how to KEEP students in GCA until graduation, perhaps those students wouldn’t be so expensive compared to the other students in Gilbert Public Schools. Sheeeeesh.

Westie recently gave GPS Governing Board Clerk Jill Humpherys a chance to write a blog post about how gosh-darn HARD it is to figure out which campus should be given to GCA:

First, Silly Jilly Humpherys talks about the huge number of students who drop out as GCA Spartans each year: There are many parents who choose GCA as a junior high option and then move their child to a comprehensive high school. I don’t know why they choose to do this; I have talked with quite a few parents who do. It may be that they want the rigor of a classical education during the junior high years, but then they want the options that a comprehensive high school offers. Also, it is much more challenging to take all AP and Honors courses as a junior and senior than it is as a freshman and sophomore. I do not begrudge a student the opportunity to try a more rigorous schedule and then maybe find that they would do better with only a few AP or Honors classes.

Isn’t it a good thing that GPS has spent thousands of dollars buying new software to help the superintendency decide where the new boundaries will go? Once you start changing the junior high school boundaries to give the entitled personages at Gilbert Classical Academy a new campus, who knows where it will end? We all know that the remaining junior high schools will be overcrowded, of course. Maybe Superintendent Christina Kishimoto will decide to even out the overloads. Highland Junior High School already has a waiting list for out of boundary students. Maybe some of the newly reboundaried students will have to go elsewhere, like to Gilbert Junior High School. We can imagine the grumbling, along the lines of insults that parents and students from other schools hurl at GJHS students at athletic events: *ghetto school.* You would think Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her minions are aware of that situation, since Westie has been hearing about it for years. Sheeesh, it’s not like the Town of Gilbert is urban, for heaven’s sake.

You can bet that promises have already been made for the construction and related contracts that will go out to loyal override supporting companies; elections have consequences. One consequence we can predict with great accuracy is that the *repurposing* will cost more than what the committee reported to the board way back when they were pretending the decision hadn’t been made yet. We expect the rounding errors to occur in increments of $100,000 each time there’s not enough money for something bright and shiny new for Gilbert Classical Academy and the handful of students who actually stick around until graduation.

To that end, inquiring minds want to know if Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her daughter actually bought and paid for their tickets to the Cardinals game (scroll down to January 16th to see the photo). Same question for whoever took their photo — what are the odds it probably was Steve Smith, the Superintendent’s *alleged* boyfriend? No one would ask such questions if Christina Kishimoto had not squandered the trust of the Town of Gilbert, employees of Gilbert Public Schools and their friends and relatives in neighboring towns and cities.  Now they want to know if voting for the whole override and bond was something truly done *for the kids* or if it was to benefit the folks and companies that contributed to the Political Action Committees for the override. Now they want to know if those contributors have become Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s BFFs who want to make her happy and keep her entertained on their dimes. Those dimes and dollars will be derived, of course, from the massive contracting authority that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is demanding. You know Her Three Votes will give it to her.

On another note, it is becoming quite the distraction for GPS employees to learn that Charles Stevin Smith, also known as Steve Smith, GPS Executive Director of Technology, apparently advanced his short GPS career to *Cabinet Status* through his errr…. *talents* in something other than technology. No one would be considering their options now that EVERYONE knows the way to get ahead in GPS is to bang the boss  boink the boss  have an *inappropriate relationship* with the boss. The words sex discrimination, hostile work environment and a few other ominous phrases are on quite a few tongues these days.

Let’s get through one more note about Christina Kishimoto’s minions in the White Castle: we’re looking at you, Chief Financial Officer Tom Wohlleber. Yes, Julie Smith is cute, personable and incredibly smart, especially about your realm of finances, but you’re being incredibly rude to address her as “Julie” during board meetings. This is especially true because you are so – ugh – obsequious with regard to DOCTOR Kishimoto and DOCTOR Santa Cruz. Westie had to explain manners to other GPS administrators for calling some board members by their first names. Those old farts folks are no longer employed by GPS, perhaps due in part to their open and obvious disdain for their bosses. CFO Tom Wohlleber, your bosses are ALL the members of the Governing Board, and Christina Kishimoto is just their vessel vassal  employee. We’ll give you this one pass in the hope that you didn’t intend the insult you delivered to Governing Board member Julie Smith, which is now enshrined in GPS video archives.

Finale: note to Christina Kishimoto. You’re embarrassing  everyone, chica, with your illiteracy. Try to remember, because we’ve seen this stupid mistake too many times: you do not form the plural of a word by adding *apostrophe + s.* Sheeeeeesh.

       (Click to view larger image)

People in The Town of Gilbert Arizona are asking a lot of questions about Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* improper relationship with her subordinate, the Executive Director of Technology, Charles Stevin “Steve” Smith. When the Gilbert Public Schools Governing Board meeting on January 26, 2016 was opened to comments from the public, the public spoke out loud and clear on many subjects, including this scandalous subject.

GPS has breached the public trust in ways large and small. This is really brilliant of the GPS Superintendent and Governing Board, especially coming on the heels of new taxes that citizens narrowly approved for their school district <dripping sarcasm>. The money isn’t reaching the kids. In fact, you seldom hear anything much about the kids these days in the hallowed halls of the White Castle, where the district offices are located. That’s also the epicenter of The Great Payday Melee that continues to deprive hardworking GPS employees of their lawfully earned pay.

Background from a previous Westie post: When the going got tough and the Infinite Visions software implementation imploded, Executive Director of Technology Charles Stevin Smith, aka Steve Smith, bailed out of Gilbert Public Schools. Or maybe he bailed because of the anonymous letter about his *inappropriate relationship* with his boss, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto. There are lots of *fringe benefits* associated with being Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* boyfriend. Getting a $10,000.00 raise appears to be one of them. Notice in this fiasco that even Her Three Votes apparently approved of the Superintendent’s dalliances. Too bad the whole “GPS is the Technology District” now is a total failure. Other school districts must be ROFLAO. Muchly.

Here’s a citizen of The Town of Gilbert explaining why Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* inappropriate relationship violates not just the public trust, but also GPS policies. Not that Her Three Votes on the GPS Governing Board will do anything about it, as we all know:

In response, Clerk of the Governing Board Jill Humpherys (photo at the top of this post) expressed her disappointment that The Town Of Gilbert is a small town. Dressed like that, Jill criticized someone in the audience! What chutzpah! That hat!!! This fashion disaster eclipses anything Westie has seen in GPS. Please give that jacket back to whoever it is that’s so much smaller than you are, Jill, and close your legs, at least a bit.

Silly Jillie also said the Governing Board ain’t gonna do nuthin ’til someone signs their name … presumably so they can be fired, as in the Infamous Case of Brian Yee’s Infamy. Just so you know, folks, the Governing Board ain’t gonna do nuthin even then, as Board President Lily Tram stated when there was indeed a signed complaint about Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s catastrophic careen through Gilbert Municipal Court in an attempt to unlawfully silence someone while lying through her teeth in a court of law. Board President Lily Tram said the board would do nothing unless presented with a Notice of Claim, as in “So, sue me!” Oooooh, such bravado!

The audience for this GPS Governing Board meeting was packed … with principals who had been summoned by *email from on high* to attend. That probably happened after the superintendency found out the media would be attending. The principals and the media were treated to some plain speaking that reveals much about why GPS is losing students at an unprecedented pace. Kishimoto’s high-fiving and end zone dancing after votes was an image that was worth a thousand words … not in a good way, Chica.

Before posting the transcript, you should know that the reference to GPS Board President Lily Tram interrupting the speaker is based on past behavior form the dais. Lily Tram does not like to hear negative words that might shine a negative light on the *national reputation* that seems to be Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s top priority. From the minutes of the December 2015 board meeting: “Mrs. Tram mentioned to refrain from voicing personnel or personal individuals with the district because it could cause due process rights.” Now Westie is ROFLAO: “Cause due process rights!” ROFLAO.

Later in this meeting, Board Member Daryl Colvin asked Christina Kishimoto point blank if Steve Smith paid the $2,500.00 *hostage clause* fee. Superintendent Kishimoto stated the full $2,500 was paid. Of course, this exchange highlighted the fact that all GPS contracts reserve to the board the power to approve employee resignations before the end of the contract and also to approve any waiver of the *hostage clause* fee. Christina Kishimoto did not like hearing that there are any limits to her powers in Gilbert Public Schools. There’s a question about whether she will rewrite the 2016-2017 GPS employee contracts to grant those powers to herself. You know Her Three Votes will do whatever Christina Kishimoto wants.

Transcript of the video clip above:

I am speaking tonight about a matter that is on the agenda. Mrs. Tram, do not interrupt me, because you and I both know from the recent OML training that “You may not control the content of speech so long as the speech relates to something within the authority of the board.”

You know, as many people in the Town of Gilbert know, that the board received an anonymous letter from a teacher about the superintendent’s inappropriate relationship with the former Executive Director of Technology. That administrator resigned a few days after the accusation became public, which gave great credibility to what the anonymous letter writer reported to you.

An anonymous teacher reported to you conduct that is absolutely intolerable in the workplace: an *inappropriate relationship* between the superintendent and one of her top administrators. Employees, especially teachers, tell you they are afraid of retaliation, something they have been saying for years.

You as a board have allowed situations to exist in which citizens and employees have no reasonable way to report misconduct, especially when it involves the superintendent.

The board’s disciplinary policies are laughable when it comes to doing anything when the superintendent behaves outside the bounds of decency and violates district policy. Even where you have a policy, and you do have policies that address this situation, the board has refused to address wrongdoing that was reported through channels when it involved the superintendent.

What are you, as a board, going to do about the public trust that has been squandered by a superintendent who violated a GPS policy that describes misconduct as “Inappropriate personal or sexual relationships with students, employees, or others”? This is intentional discrimination, which has created a hostile working environment for others who have not been promoted or have not received pay increases.

How do you expect this superintendent to enforce against any other employee the GPS policy that defines misconduct as “Immoral conduct that directly affects the employee’s ability to perform their responsibilities and/or to enforce the District’s policies and regulations”?

How do you expect GPS employees to respect this superintendent now? How do you expect the public to respect this superintendent and you, the people who enable her despicable and unlawful behavior that is disrupting the workplace?

Do you expect this to go away if you hide your heads like ostriches and don’t address the breach of trust that results from misconduct of such a magnitude in the operations of the biggest employer in the Town of Gilbert?

Here you go, beloved audience! We saw on our website statistics that you have been searching for *details about the Michael and Christina Kishimoto Divorce.* We’ll fill in some blanks for you about how the Superintendent of Gilbert Public Schools kicked her mentally disabled husband to the curb less than a year after she moved her family from Connecticut to Arizona to reign over GPS. It has indeed been a *reign* but more filled with terror than benevolence, unfortunately for the citizens and taxpayers who fund Christina Kishimoto’s lavishness with other people’s money.

Quick background: a letter from an anonymous teacher blew open the scandalous *inappropriate relationship* between Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her *alleged* boyfriend, the Executive Director of Technology. The letter shows that GPS employees are still intimidated by retaliation, which has been the story for the past many years.  Charles Stevin Smith was hired at the recommendation of Christina Kishimoto even before she came to Arizona to take over the school district. While other employees were subjected to years of pay freezes, this dude made out pretty well: the letter states he was given a promotion and a $10,000.00 raise during his approximately 18 months of *serving the Superintendent.* We have not seen or heard the Superintendent deny anything in the anonymous letter. Steve Smith resigned from his cushy job two days after the anonymous letter was made public, which lends more credibility to the allegations in the letter than anything else could have done.

Nevertheless, a question remains unanswered: why did Charles Stevin Smith, Executive Director of Technology, resign suddenly? Was it because of the anonymous letter that revealed Steve Smith’s *inappropriate relations* with Superintendent Christina Kishimoto? Was it because Steve Smith pinky promised his *alleged* girlfriend that his technology would succeed and cement her National Reputation and the district’s big marketing push? Or was it because pretty much everything he touched turned to dirt? Steve Smith’s resignation occurred just as The Great Payday Melee began, leaving other employees holding the bag. His sudden departure just as the new payroll software implementation imploded left countless employees unpaid, underpaid and/or subject to bank overdraft charges.  That mess still isn’t fixed.

Details in the anonymous letter checked out: the marriage of Michael and Christina Kishimoto indeed was ended quietly in court in Scottsdale, with a construction lawyer handling the case for Christina Kishimoto. Since this is all a matter of public record, we’ll share. The Kishimotos have one daughter, according to the court files … she must be so proud to have her mother’s indiscretions being discussed across The Entire Town of Gilbert. Michael did not have a lawyer. Michael may have paid a big price for doing what Christina may have told him to do. That’s probably the way it is when you have a mental disability, which we know about only because Christina Kishimoto brought it up in a different court in January 2015.

First: here is the case summary from the Maricopa Court where Christina Kishimoto divorced her mentally disabled husband. This man must have trusted her implicitly for close to twenty years, but he suddenly became superfluous. As the anonymous letter said, “Dr. Kishimoto quietly secured a divorce over the summer.” Note the date that Christina Kishimoto filed her petition for divorce: May 5, 2015.  Also note: no divorce lawyers for this chica, she had a *special* construction/real estate lawyer! No courthouse anywhere near Gilbert, AZ for this chica, she went to Scottsdale to do the dirty deed!

Could this emotional divorce situation have anything to do with Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s emotional meltdown during the December 15, 2015 Governing Board meeting? Probably not, but it’s strange that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto also thanked the community for welcoming *her family* to the Town of Gilbert, AZ. This is one temperamental gal, which is unfortunate, because this very large school district needs a real professional at the helm. <Sigh, you could have had Westie as superintendent.>

Second: the lawyer behind Christina Kishimoto’s quiet divorce is Richard W. Hundley of a Scottsdale law firm, which is curious in this situation of a divorce involving a child and a lot of money and property: 

Berens, Kozub, Kloberdanz & Blonstein, PLC is a “boutique” law firm that provides exceptional legal services to real estate and business clients. Richard W. Hundley’s practice includes civil and commercial litigation, construction law, bankruptcy law, real property litigation and transactions.

Wouldn’t you think that an important lawyer would want to make sure that the divorce he secured for his client did not take advantage of Christina Kishimoto’s mentally disabled husband? Yeah, we’re shocked, too. The court record shows Michael Kishimoto did not have a lawyer, he just signed papers. Maybe he thought that lawyer Richard W. Hundley was representing BOTH of them in this divorce.

We can’t for the life of us figure out why the judge in this case didn’t appoint an attorney to represent the mentally disabled husband in court, since his wealthy wife apparently wouldn’t pay for a lawyer for him. Christina Kishimoto sure didn’t want to pay spousal support for her mentally disabled husband, either (see paragraph 12). But really, someone who is entrusted with a school district budget of a third of a BILLION dollars a year would be mindful of her ethical and moral obligations in every aspect of her life, wouldn’t you think? [dripping sarcasm]

Third: notice that the Consent Decree ending the marriage of Michael and Christina Kishimoto was filed on July 30, 2015. On or about July 31, 2015, Steve Smith started using the title Executive Director of Technology. He had been just plain old Director of Technology before, even after the reorganization of the GPS Technology Services department occurred in January of 2015.  That reorganization was one of the few aspects of the Great Reorganization of GPS that the Governing Board actually approved.

Sure it was just a coincidence that the day after Christina Kishimoto’s Consent Decree was filed, Charles Stevin Smith suddenly was conferred a new title, and presumably a big raise in pay to match [firehose flow of sarcasm]. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s nothing in the GPS board minutes approving that new title of his? It’s especially interesting since other GPS employees promoted into or hired as Executive Directors were presented to the board and their promotion or hire was formally approved in official board minutes.

Steve Smith must have been very good at what he did: his Linkedin resume claims he was originally hired in 2014 as Executive Director, a Cabinet Position. Revisionist history? Or was this entire situation set in motion the day that Christina Kishimoto recommended that Steve Smith be hired back in June 2014?

This must be why people are searching the Internet for details about the divorce of Michael and Christina Kishimoto. Something doesn’t smell right. We’ll continue researching, and we thank our viewers for sending us the search strings that told Westie what you really want to know.

*****************
Big Fat Asterisk: Superintendent Christina Kishimoto surely is aware of the caveat about privacy on Richard W. Hundley’s website. It’s scary and it makes you wonder if Richard W. Hundley’s *vision* of privacy is as unusual as were his actions to protect a vulnerable adult during the Kishimoto divorce:

There are other instances in which Berens, Kozub, Kloberdanz & Blonstein, PLC may divulge your personal information. Berens, Kozub, Kloberdanz & Blonstein, PLC may provide your personal information if necessary, in Berens, Kozub, Kloberdanz & Blonstein, PLC’s good faith judgment, to comply with laws or regulations of a governmental or regulatory body or in response to a valid subpoena, warrant, or in order to protect the rights of Berens, Kozub & Kloberdanz, PLC and, or its affiliates.

Gilbert Public Schools will give teachers another piddly raise – up to 7% for a select few – and will continue to lavish money on those oh-so-amazing inhabitants of the White Castle, where the district offices are located. No one is quite sure about the details of these raises, but Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her Top Dogs made sure the audience was filled with *friendly* (to her) principals who applauded on cue after the GPS Governing Board approved meager raises, contracts with handcuffs, a half-finished handbook and countless other tools that Christina Kishimoto needs to finish driving GPS into the ground  achieve her vision for her national reputation.

The Chief Talent Officer, who has earned her moniker *Slimebucket Suzanne Zentner* has proven time and again that she doesn’t understand her workforce.  She wonders why there’s been such an exodus from GPS. How big an exodus on her watch (which also happens to be Christina Kishimoto’s watch)? Really big, according to a memo that the Superintendent wrote to the Governing Board:

The majority of the resignations are in the one to five year range. The most critical capacity to retain is in the six to ten year range, and the good news is that right now we are stable there. Yet, there is a significant cost to losing teachers in years one to five in our early investments in mentoring and training. As we look at retention strategies, we will want to look at the pay scale for years six to ten teachers to remain competitive with peer districts.

1-5 years: 137 resignations in 2014-2015; 56.85%
6-10 years: 57 resignations in 2014-2015; 23.65%
More than 10 years: 47 resignations in 2014-2015; 19.50%

Birdies chirped that Slimebucket Suzanne Zentner herself called a meeting with those mid-range teachers not too long ago. Her schtick was basically this: “We haven’t figured out a lot of stuff about new contracts, salaries and employee handbooks, but we really want you to be going out and recruiting new teachers for GPS. Hey, that’s going to be the new critieria for being named a Master Teacher and getting more money in your paycheck! What a great idea I just had!” You heard it here first, teachers: recruit some naive teachers to GPS and maybe you can make more money! You sure are not going to be rewarded for your professional accomplishments … the inhabitants of the White Castle can’t hold a candle to you.

That about sums up Slimebucket Suzanne Zentner’s talent management, doesn’t it? We heard that the meeting devolved into quite the b*tch session when teachers told Slimebucket what they REALLY thought. Birdies now chirp that Slimebucket is calling a meeting of the Millennial teachers (that’s the young ones, in the 1-5 year range) to find out what it will take to get them to stay with GPS.

Here’s an idea, Slimebucket: your *voluntary* meetings at the end of a long day spent on your feet in front of students are not very enticing to your target audience. Even if you serve refreshments, like GPS Top Dogs are now doing any time they call a meeting. Wait … this will be for young teachers, maybe they’re not *special* enough for the lavish catering that members of the superintendency, principals and board members now enjoy.* Anyway, you are aware that many of your Millennial teachers can’t afford to live anywhere near where they work, aren’t you? Housing is expensive in The Town of Gilbert, especially for recent college graduates who have crushing student loan debts. Spending an extra couple of hours in your exalted presence isn’t worth the time when you’re looking at a long commute after a long, hard day.

Up there in your White Castle, where you Top Dogs are always talking about how gosh-darn HARD you work, you have no idea what it’s really like on the front lines of education every day … in the classroom. Perhaps because you don’t know much about what goes on in a classroom. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto can’t get an Arizona Superintendent’s license because she has never taught in K-12 classrooms she now lords over superintends … she only talks the talk; she’s never walked the walk.

The following are real questions asked by a real teacher. What are the chances that she will receive *real* answers from the Superintendent or the Chief Talent Officer? What are the chances she’ll receive any answers? Nada, nil, none. Those exalted inhabitants of the White Castle are NOT going to talk about the sweetheart deals Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s *alleged* boyfriend received while loyal teachers struggled in their classrooms. Note to GOBs: this scandal is not going to fade away.

1)  If override money is not available until after July 1st, how is it that Mr. Charles Stevin Smith was able to receive his  $10,000 raise?

2)  Where did the funds come from to pay Mr. Smith the $10,000?

3)  Mr. Smith officially resigned on January 22nd, is his salary going to be placed back into the M.O.?

4)  The $2,500 received from Mr. Smith for breaking his contract, will it be placed back into the M.O. fund?

5)  On the agenda (1-26-16), there was a new teacher hire by the name of Kristin McCord.  Ms. McCord will be making $60,000.00/year  with a Master’s +60.  The position posted was “TBD.”  I have a Master’s +72 and make considerably less!  Why is she being paid so much more for a position that is TBD????

5a)  How is it that Ms. McCord’s salary has already been determined now?

6)  Will administrators who do not have their doctoral degrees (Example: Linda McKeever, Jason Martin) be required return to college and get their degrees in order to receive their future raises?  The positions they hold require they have doctoral degrees.

7)  Why did “some” employees receive promotions and raises now, while others have not?

8)  Why did “some” employees NOT have to wait until after July 1, 2016 to receive their promotions and raises, and teachers do?

9)  My understanding is the 7% raise was “our reward” for staying loyal and dedicated.  So, now you are telling me this 7% raise includes a salary increase for the 2016-2017 school year?  Please clarify and explain.

So, you teachers who have 10 or more years working for GPS and resign from the district at the rate of 19.50%, this is why Superintendent Christina Kishimoto isn’t that in to you. You just aren’t important to her. She can prop up those experience levels by hiring more retired teachers on SmartSchoolsPlus to offset the growing number of new, inexperienced teachers in GPS and still post decent experience statistics. We already showed you that SmartSchools Plus teachers have been receiving generous stipends for longevity and “H” (whatever that is, it’s for them but not for you loyal teachers).

A movie script has a special message for loyal GPS teachers who stayed the course during the Great Recession and received only disrespect in return:

Sometimes we’re so focused on finding our happy ending we don’t learn how to read the signs. How to tell the ones who want us from the ones who don’t, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. And maybe a happy ending is you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. Maybe the happy ending is just moving on.

Memo to Slimebuck Suzanne Zentner: One way to increase retention of new graduates is closer supervision of those male principals (especially the ones who haven’t been in the district very long) who can’t keep their hands away from their zippers  off pretty young teachers. We realize there could be some handsome young new graduates as well, but we’re not hearing that female principals are hitting on guys. Just sayin…

******************
*Big Fat Asterisk:  We know that GPS spent $988.68 at JOE’S REAL BBQ for “Non-Curricular Food for Staff Meeting at District Office, December 17th for all District Office Staff.”  We also know you added $68.91 for “Non-Curricular Food – Additional side order for District Office Staff Meeting , Dec 18, 2015.”  Plus, we know about “BPO-Miscellaneous Catering Services needed for Superintendency and Governing Board, $993.50” and  “Catering of food for Board Mtgs: Policy Committee Mtg. Meetings held once a month in 1st floor conference room 2015-2016, $360.00.” We’ll talk more about these expenditures later.

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

*****************
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.

GCA is going to be up in arms now that the Governing Board of Gilbert Public Schools has kicked the can down the road again! Yep, at the January 2016 board meeting, the one where the final decision was to be made about a new campus for GCA, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto got cold feet and asked the board to approve a new round of *finalists* instead of making the final decision, as had been scheduled for months. This means GPS unnecessarily will be consumed with outrage, conflict and contention for at least two more months. You should have ripped the bandage off and dealt with the fallout, you wimps who created this situation. 

There is no way that GCA will have a new campus for the 2016-2017 school year, simply because there has not been a final decision made that would allow massive construction contracting to be unleashed. Now even the superintendent’s favorite Political Action Committee contributors are going to be irritated, if not downright mad. This is not what they expected in return for getting more tax money … for the kids.

GCA parents have been in an uproar since their failed attempt to take over Gilbert Junior High School in 2012. Apparently, they’ve got pals on the GPS Governing Board who are fixated on getting revenge on that undeserving *ghetto* school that stood in the way of GCA back then. It appears that now, GPS has some scheming going on … who knows what they’re really going to do? Whatever it is, it will be spending more money on a privileged few GCA students while insulting 99% of all GPS students. #GPScantaffordGCA

Birdies chirp that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s plans have been in a tailspin about GCA since her *alleged* boyfriend, former Executive Director of Technology Steve Smith, who happens to be a former GCA parent to boot, resigned suddenly … two days after the anonymous letter about their *alleged* inappropriate relationship was made public. Now, the school district that was supposed to cement Christina Kishimoto’s national reputation while highlighting her technology savvy is going down the drain. Maybe it’s Karma for the barely-literate, unlicensed in Arizona school district superintendent who went around acting like she discovered the Internet … in 2014. Remember the days when Silly Jilly Humpherys and Lily Tram insisted that the new superintendent have an Arizona Superintendent License? Sigh, Christina Kishimoto cannot qualify for that license because she has never, ever taught in any classroom, according to her resume.

A Very Important Teacher at Gilbert Classical Academy recently instructed the Governing board and Superintendent Christina Kishimoto on what GCA needs from them … making it very easy for them to just do as she says. We’re going to be featuring parts of this public record letter to the board in several posts; it will take that long to get through the long list of homework the teacher assigned to her bosses. If they don’t do as she instructs them, it will be the end of the world as we know it.

I am writing this letter to express my serious concerns about the future of Gilbert Classical Academy. Based on the information regarding facility options as well as the commentary by Mr. Hood and other District representatives to the staff, parents and public in the recent weeks it has become very obvious that the decision makers are considering fundamental changes to the GCA educational model which will, in effect, end our school as the concept it was approved to be.

As a founding faculty member, nine year veteran teacher and department head, I have seen multiple changes in administration both at our school level and at District level. I and my colleagues have been called upon to mentor and educate new staff as to our mission, vision and what makes GCA the successful school that it has proven to be.

This teacher shakes her finger at the Governing Board and Superintendent because they have been making poor decisions. Morale is low at GCA. So what else is new that isn’t true across the entire school district? GPS is shedding students and teachers at unprecedented rates. But GCA is *special* and this teacher feels GCA is not getting enough respect. Question: are any employees who don’t work in the White Castle getting the respect they’re due? Rhetorical question; of course not. Otherwise low morale and plummeting retention rates across the district would not exist, whether for students or teachers.

I have been a committed part of this school long enough to see the impact of poor decisions and the erosion of morale. Despite the fact that we are nationally recognized and have successfully prepared five graduating classes for higher education seems to mean nothing. We are told “studies show this is the best number…” or “we’ve seen this work back East…” Why isn’t the simple, honest facts, our test scores and testimonials of graduates to our hard work and the dedication of our faculty, staff and families not getting the credit and due respect we have earned?

Shocking as it may be to this teacher, GPS Superintendent Christina Kishimoto really, really wants to open a gifted-only high school. Probably junior high, as well. It isn’t cheap to buy off donors  placate contributors   please the board members who staunchly defend the superintendent no matter what the circumstances. In this context, you also have to please the puppeteer  ghostwriter  supporter who scripts *spontaneous remarks* for board members to read. That’s an iffy proposition, as we’ve all seen that Silly Jilly Humpherys can’t always read on command. But she can babble on forever!

Based on a recent email survey for parents of ALP students, I was shocked to learn that GPS is planning to organize a gifted-only secondary school which would possibly be in direct competition with us. I’m baffled to understand what this and other decisions such as the recent changes in Special Education and regular education classrooms will mean for all students at Gilbert Public Schools.

This Very Important GCA teacher also is sick and tired of the “sub-standard facility” in which GCA lives, and has lived since it was opened.

GCA has endured a sub-standard facility for nearly five years as the district leaders have made financial and ideological decisions that have a direct impact on my classroom. I can understand and respect the financial crisis that the district has been weathering, but that reasoning only goes so far. We have been told to “adapt”, “cope” and continue to produce the truly remarkable academic successes that our community has come to expect out of our school without easing our burdens or even maintaining the status quo!

There’s a brand-new shiny magnificent facility opening in August 2016 very close to the two locations that have been nominated for closing  are being considered for repurposing as GCA. The problem for GPS now is that the new Legacy Traditional School K-8 campus will have at least a full year to attract families and students from GPS during the school closure period and turmoil about GCA. Looking at the offerings, GCA will lose the cream of the crop of top students, especially the 20% total of out of district students that GPS Top Dogs want you to believe are bringing in money for all the excessive costs of GCA. Pay attention, Christina Kishimoto, this is really bad news for your plans for GPS that now are mired in unrelenting turmoil:

The charter school network touts a rigorous, back-to-basics curriculum, with an emphasis on values such as patriotism and civic responsibility.  The planned schools will be two stories, with higher grades upstairs and lower grades below. Other features include a computer lab, library, gymnasium, kitchen and cafeteria and athletic fields for baseball, soccer and football, plus outdoor basketball courts and playgrounds separated by grade level. Both schools will provide the option of specialized tracks for students who want to focus on performing arts or fitness and athletics. The Chandler school will be at 1900 N. McQueen Road. [Note: photo from quoted article.]

Next time, we’ll let the Very Important GCA Teacher tell you how huge her classes are and how hard she works. #SAVEGJHS

Gilbert Classical Academy likes to toot its own horn, which has created an indignant backlash from other schools, students and parents in The Town of Gilbert. Horn tooting is an established practice in Gilbert Public Schools, and we see that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is already dreaming up awards for some of the vendors who participate in district planning efforts — they seem to have their hands in her pockets. That’s better than the former Executive Director of Technology, who had his … no, we’re not going there. Let’s leave it at “Steve Smith was a former GCA parent, the Superintendent appointed him to the committee to select a new home for GCA, presumably to bring the committee around to suggesting what the Superintendent wanted to hear.” Congratulations, Paul Holland, for getting an award from the superintendent for telling her what she wanted to hear  serving on her committee to give GCA the new home of her choice.

Let’s look at how a Very Important Teacher at Gilbert Classical Academy is messing with Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s fixation on making Gilbert Classical Academy’s successes part of the *national reputation* thingy that’s so near and dear to her heart (if she has a heart). First of all, the Carpetbagger Leadership of Christina Kishimoto and her hapless marketing maven Irene Mahoney-Baloney-Paige have really messed up advertising and marketing to an incomprehensible degree. Today’s focus is on the so-called marketing of GCA and its emphasis on the *Highly Qualified* teachers at this *special school.*

Every teacher in Gilbert Public Schools must be *highly qualified* in order to teach. This comes from the No Child Left Behind federal law.  “Teachers’ mastery of the academic content they teach is critical to engaging students and is a significant factor in raising levels of student achievement,” the Arizona Department of Education website states. Westie is really impressed that the ADE folks know how to use apostrophes to show plural and possessive at the same time, which turns out to be a rare skill that the Superintendent of Gilbert Public Schools has yet to master. <sigh>

The way that GPS, GCA, Paige and Kishimoto have been *marketing,* you would think that GCA is the ONLY school in GPS with highly qualified teachers. This is a face-smacking insult to all other GPS teachers. Perhaps no one has told Paige and Kishimoto they have egg on their faces. We can understand.  <snicker, snicker>

Look at the ad for GCA at the top of this post. It really grabs your attention and makes you want to attend GCA, doesn’t it? <sarcasm> We’ve posted before about GPS and Irene Paige’s  incompetent  anemic marketing. It’s insulting to other teachers, schools, parents, dogs and cats. Even the usual acolytes have noticed, and Irene has trotted around to silly Facebook groups to defend her inexplicably bad marketing campaigns. But that’s a story for another day.

Today, let’s examine the letter from the Very Important GCA Teacher about how gosh-darn UNFAIR it is that the Superintendent and Governing Board won’t do what she wants done for GCA:

Each successive year we have been forced to accept more students than can safely and effectively be taught using our educational model and in our facility. I was hired in 2007 with the expectation that I be willing to teach 6 periods per day no matter what subject matter or grade level I taught (for no additional compensation); the tradeoff being that my class sizes would be smaller than at a comprehensive school.

In addition, I would always have less classroom time (average 47 minutes versus the 55 minutes in a comprehensive school) due to the extra credits our 7-12 students must take. I was eager because I knew that with twenty to twenty-five students in a classroom, it allowed for Socratic-style learning with seminars and discussions and a higher degree of individual interactions with the students since we are all-honors/Advanced Placement classes.

I worked bell to bell and accomplished more on average because of the focus I was able to give directly to the students. I could comfortably integrate one-to-one technology and work directly with my students more often to take advantage of teachable moments.

Okay, GPS teachers, you really need to talk to this Very Important GCA Teacher about how to improve her teaching skills within the challenge of *large* classes that now exist in all GPS schools:

How can I be reasonably expected to do my job with thirty or more students crowded into a portable classroom, where simple movement is a challenge much less implementing rigorous standards-based lessons while maintaining appropriate classroom behavior and student engagement? I am responsible for 176-196 students in any given week. That means more assignments, more assessments and more data to evaluate on an ongoing basis for less compensation than my colleagues at the comprehensive schools. This begs the obvious questions, “Why do we force more students into our system than we can reasonably handle?” “Why are we expanding instead of providing the resources necessary to do it the right way at the more appropriate size?”

While you’re at it, perhaps this Socratic teacher needs some help with the concept of *non-sequitur,* but since this is just a rant, we’ll faithfully repeat exactly what she wrote:

Our teachers and parents are very vocal about what we see as the fundamentals of GCA and one of the most important is our overall size. We purposefully have our student body wear uniforms so that the distraction of clothes and competition can be minimized, but that also makes our kids stand out.

That is one of the reasons a “school within a school” is absolutely inconceivable. To put any other school or “program” with our students should not be a consideration under any circumstances. GCA students have often been referred to as “the nerd school” by other GPS students and by their parents. It is unpleasant to hear them minimized because their prowess does not lie on the athletic field. Forcing shared facilities would foster an “us and them” mentality and break up the community we strive to create.

Now we get to her real argument: GCA was never intended to have a lot of students, which meant GCA teachers would teach the small groups they prefer:

One of the biggest draws for our parents and one of the benefits I used to enjoy with a reasonable school population was the ability to get to know and interact with a large majority of the students throughout their GCA 7-12 career. The relationships that I could develop were greatly enhanced and it added positively to the overall commitment to the 10 Traits of virtue that previously were a hallmark of our student body.

We’ve laughed at the many times The Chosen Ones have referred reverently to *the GPS way* as a virtue. Now we discover GCA has a new and improved way, the GCA way! BTW, this Very Important Teacher says that concept is getting lost in the growing crowd.

Fewer and fewer of our students know and understand the “GCA Way” because they are starting to get lost in an ever growing crowd. Our students depend on the focused environment our small-school community was designed to be and trying to share facilities with any other “filler” or “ala carte” program would be a disservice to everyone.

The small school community is intentional providing a focused academic learning environment to students who want the challenge and the rigor. We are not the 1% or the elite of our district. Many of our students would not qualify for gifted or honors classes at any comprehensive junior or senior high school much less in all core academic subjects. We represent all socio-economic levels, races and bring in out of district students with our reputation. We also have first or second generation college students who see a future they never imagined for themselves before attending GCA.

I firmly disagree with the idea that our ideal size is 750 students. That would require a watering down of the relationships that are fundamental to creating our campus community and would greatly impact the graduating classes. We have a unique and very special graduation ceremony that could not be continued with such a high number of graduates. We also would have a much harder time facilitating the mandatory Senior Thesis Project which is run through our Service Learning classes. The staffing and work load would pose a tremendous difficulty.

The muck is getting thick, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll continue with the specific demands of this Very Important GCA Teacher in our next post. #SAVEGJHS

Gilbert Classical Academy DEMANDS that Mesquite Jr High campus be vacated and given to the 1% population of more deserving students. We’ve been hearing far too often that GCA has the BEST teachers in the entire district, and they need to have smaller classes, better facilities for arts and sports, and while you’re at it, more sincerity in your groveling before them. After all, GCA is Number One Three in the State of Arizona when you measure how many GCA students take Advanced Placement Tests, which is the criteria for ranking by U.S. News. “Give us MORE!” they roar.

Our posts about the letter to the Governing Board and Superinendent Christina Kishimo continue with the Very Important GCA Teacher’s assessment of why GCA is so important that a school for the 99% should be closed  repurposed and given to GCA … and it better be Mesquite Junior High School, by golly!

Our school was never intended to be a good fit for every student, or even a majority of students. As a school of choice, we are designed to create a defined pathway for students who want the best chance to be successful in a challenging higher educational setting. We offer a program that colleges and scholarship committees recognize and reward. There are no classes that are equivalent so an F cannot be made up and students are dismissed from the Academy.

If a kid flunks a course, they’re out of GCA! That keeps class sizes small, especially after those Interim Superintendents forced us to take more students than we wanted to take. What we do is get rid of the slackers so our class sizes go back to what we wanted in the first place:

Students also can’t choose an easier path in a few subjects, but must stay with the highest level of classes available. They become well-rounded scholars prepared to tackle the 21st century jobs and continue to be lifelong learners. Our 7th and 8th grade honors courses are purposefully designed to scaffold skills and get students ready to grow to their potential.

While as an educator and a parent of a GPS student myself, I want the finest education for all of our students in the district but I also know that not every student learns at the same pace or the same way. Differentiation is a hallmark of quality teaching and can only be achieved within reasonable classroom parameters.

Now the Very Important GCA Teacher says “In closing,” but we all know she’s not ready to STFU yet:

In closing, I want to reiterate my fundamental questions: Why isn’t the District simply giving us a facility that meets our needs at a more reasonable size rather than expanding us to outgrow our model or overstuffing us with students simply to make us conform to the other school classroom ratios? Why isn’t GCA, as it was designed to be, allowed to continue its proven success rather than making significant changes to our educational model now simply in response to a reasonable facility request?

Aha! FINALLY she tells the Superintendent and the Governing Board to do what she says they should do, which is give Mesquite Jr High to GCA, or else she’s taking her marbles and going home:

I don’t feel the district should spend millions of dollars on a new building or on revamping an elementary school. It is my opinion that GCA should be moved to the Mesquite Junior High facility which has all the necessary basic equipment, classroom space, PE space, auditorium and parking for a 7-12 Academy of around 450-500 students with minimal cost. We should not be forced to share this facility with another program as we have earned the right to be a school with adequate facilities.

Mesquite Jr. High students should be combined with the existing underpopulated Gilbert Junior High Campus which could accommodate them starting in 2016-2017. If the Board and Administration make the decision to significantly change how GCA does its work, I find I will be faced with the difficult decision of leaving the school I helped to build.

It may not seem like a big price for GPS to pay; losing one veteran teacher and one boundary exception student; I know I’m replaceable. But to me it would mean the last eight years of intense work, daily ups and downs, the professional growth, giving up lunches and free time mentoring students or working with staff and most of all the repeated success stories I have had the privilege to be a part of counts for very little in the grand scheme if what I’ve helped to craft is so easily disregarded.

Why would I stay at a school or a district that essentially says to my face “Thank you for doing such a wonderful job, going over and above and proving time and again that you really know what you’re doing, but we’re going to make you change the model just because it’s easier (or cheaper, or less politically divisive, or I’ve seen it done a different way, or we want to fix something else and don’t care what we break as a result).

Gilbert Classical Academy works because the many interlocking elements all come together to create something better than any one person or one idea would achieve. If too many of those components are altered, it may not work at all, or if it does it won’t be GCA anymore – and GCA is what parents, faculty and most of all the students choose to be a part of each day.

Thank you for your time and consideration on this issue.

Very Important Teacher
Gilbert Classical Academy
History Department Chair
12th Gr. Honors American Government, 10th Gr. AP World History and 7th Gr. Honors Social Studies
We the People Competition Region 5 Coach (State qualifier 2011-2015)
Academic Decathlon Coach
Socrates Teacher of the Year (2015, 2009)

Hey, all you highly qualified Language Arts teachers: aren’t you glad this lady isn’t teaching English? #SAVEGJHS

In advance of the *Community Forum* that Gilbert Public Schools will hold as a public meeting in a half-@$$ed attempt to comply with Arizona statutes that govern *repurposing* a school. Repurposing is a GPS euphemism for closing a junior high school so that Gilbert Classical Academy can have a brand new shiny campus for the elite 1% of GPS students. Below, we feature a heartfelt plea from the community… the same community that rallied in 2012 to Save Gilbert Junior High from closing.

As if the Governing Board will listen … sheeeeesh. We all know that Superintendent Christina Kishimoto has already made her plan and all this is just window dressing. Who needs to comply with inconvenient things like laws or district policies or common decency? Christina Kishimoto is a woman with a mission — to burnish her *national reputation* at the expense of GPS students, primarily Hispanic students who attend the two neighborhood junior high schools called *Ghetto Schools* by other GPS students and parents. This is all going to work out well for the President of the American Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, wouldn’t you think? <dripping ladle of sarcasm>

Dear Gilbert Public Schools

Please don’t close our school.

You know which one I mean. Don’t close Gilbert Junior High School. You know. The one you tried to close a few years ago. The one with the crummy track and the less-than-desirable locker rooms. The one that had its swimming pool bulldozed over Christmas break last year, to be replaced with a gravel lot.
The one that could use some flowers out front, a coat of paint and a new sign.

You know the school. It’s the one named after the district. It’s tucked inside a walkable community. It serves several neighborhood feeder schools. It’s where a teacher auditioned for NBC’s American Ninja Warrior to show his students they could do anything. It’s where kids actually have a chance to make the team, any team. It’s where students with unique special needs find comfort, security and the specialized attention they require.

Please don’t close it. Please think about the ramifications. Please put yourself in our shoes. If not our shoes, the shoes of the children who go there or will go there.

What if it was your school? In your neighborhood? Where your kids went to school? Where they played in sports, walked younger siblings home from school because their parents were at work, and attended their first, eternally-awkward after school dances.

What would you do if it was your school? What would you do if you knew that closing the school was wrong? If you set emotion aside, analyzed the facts, and still came to the same conclusion?

You’d fight for it. And, that’s what we’re doing.

You are on a mission to find a new campus for Gilbert Classical Academy, a school of choice for accelerated, exceptional students who would place at the top of their graduating classes at any traditional high school. Academically, these kids are the cream of the crop. And, I’m regularly impressed by their achievements and intelligence.

Finding a better campus for these few hundred students was your number-one goal for the 2015–2016 school year, as stated at a public meeting.

Not teacher salaries, not reams of much-needed paper, not funding the previously-unfunded district reading program, not anything related to academics. Finding a campus, for a school that graduates about half of its enrollees, was the top goal.

Now you’ve once again zeroed in on Gilbert Junior High and Mesquite Junior High, two neighborhood campuses in communities with high minority populations and a large number of households that qualify for free and reduced lunch, a measure of a family’s income.

Those campuses are experiencing declining enrollment, you said.

Except, a demographics report—one that you commissioned and received in April of 2015 at a cost of $15,000—states the exact opposite.

The report projects growth at most of the district’s junior high schools before the year 2020. And, Gilbert Junior High is expected to see the largest influx of students. A growth of 41% according to your study. <Letter continues below the image showing significant student increases at GPS schools.>

But that report is old, according to a school board member. It’s going to be redone, the person said.

A $15,000 report from 2015 is old and needs to be redone? Now I not only question the district’s motives but its fiscal discipline. Surely, a district that pushed for and received a bond and override in the fall of 2015 on the perceived reality of diminished services could find another way to spend $15,000. If you’re looking for ideas, our elementary school needs a new copy machine. For starters.

To be fair, the report is outdated. The growth projections don’t include a new multifamily development slated for GJHS boundaries, or other new build projects throughout the district that received permitting after the report was completed. A new report would only show additional growth.

Armed with that information, what would you do if you were me? If you lived in our community? If it was your school?

You would fight. Because it’s wrong. The story you are telling is wrong. The numbers don’t support it.

Note from Westie: we’ll continue this letter in our next post. In the meantime, enjoy a new video from the community advocates for the Gilbert Junior High School Tigers, “What Gilbert Junior High School Gave Me.”

The Gilbert Junior High School community is rallying once again to protect their neighborhood school. Those students, if they are displaced by the privileged 1% of students who attend Gilbert Classical Academy, will miss out on opportunities for before and after school tutoring, as well as the chance to play after school sports, because they will have to be bused 4 to 5 miles away from their neighborhood school. Availability of transportation is a major factor for lower socio-economic students. The reality for families in the Gilbert Junior High School community is that allowing students to walk to school greatly affects the education opportunities they receive. Income limitations seem to be something GCA families don’t face. How lucky for the 1% <sarcasm>.

The heartfelt letter from a Gilbert Junior High School advocate continues: <click here for Part One>

Knowing that enrollment is projected to increase, it would be irresponsible, dare I say reckless, to close a general enrollment junior high school in favor of a specialty school. Totally irresponsible. Closing a junior high would funnel those students to other schools, which would then have to accommodate both the new growth within their boundaries and the influx of students displaced by the closure of their school. Those schools would then reach capacity or spill over.

Closing a junior high anywhere in the district would and should strike a chord. At least one of our school board members knows that. During a public meeting recently, she encouraged stakeholders to keep emotion out of the process and ensured the public the district would do what’s best for everyone.
I agree.

Let’s keep emotion out of this decision. Let’s look at emotionless numbers. And, let’s do what’s best for everyone, not a select few.

Here are the numbers:

** Gilbert Junior High is projected to see a 41 percent increase in enrollment over the next few years.
** Closing a junior high would impact at least 200 teachers and staff and affect more than 14,000 students at a number of schools.
** Gilbert Classical Academy graduates about 50 percent of its enrollees.
** 99.87 percent of GPS students graduate from schools other than Gilbert Classical Academy.

The school board, and the district, has another avenue to consider, one that is formally on the table as a proposed option and carries as much weight as a proposed school closure. The board can choose to make Gilbert Classical Academy, a 7–12 program, a “school within a school” on the Mesquite Junior High campus.

It’s not a new concept. And, it’s been proven to be effective.

The “school within a school” option allows Gilbert Classical Academy to share facilities and amenities, including those for athletics and the arts, with Mesquite Junior High School. It’s a model that University High in Tucson, a nationally-lauded accelerated program, benefits from at Rincon High.

It gives GCA a better campus. It keeps the program intimate and enrollment in check, as teachers at GCA have demanded, and allows it to continue serving select, accelerated students in the way for which its become known. And, most importantly, that choice allows the district to serve ALL of its students as it continues to grow.

It doesn’t displace students. It keeps neighborhoods in tact. A “school within a school” model serves everyone, which is what the district assured the public it would do.

Heck, you could even reallocate the money you had planned to spend on campus upgrades at GJHS in preparation for GCA’s arrival and instead invest it back into the current enrollment at GJHS, a school that has long been starved for attention.

I’ll say it again, with hopes of reaching your conscience.

Please don’t close our school. Not because of the emotion behind it. Because of the facts.

We’re fighting this. Because, it’s wrong. You would do the same.

Sincerely,
Gilbert Junior High School Community Advocate

Shown below are the most recent costs for the options under consideration for a new campus for Gilbert Classical Academy:

***************************

Enjoy this video, “What Gilbert Junior High School Gave Me.”  #SAVEGJHS

Remember the *Good Old Days* in Gilbert Public Schools when decisions were made with smoke and mirrors? That was so innocent compared to what Superintendent Christina Kishimoto is doing as she bludgeons the citizens of Gilbert, Arizona, all the while making things up as she goes along. It’s all about her quest for her *national reputation.*  She’s had a lot of practice, you know.

Just one month ago, Superintendent Christina Kishimoto discussed procedures and district policies that apply to the proposed options for closing a GPS junior high school so that Gilbert Classical Academy can take over the campus.

Listen to Christina Kishimoto *eloquently* explain how GPS and the board will work their way through the process of choosing which junior high school campus to close for the benefit of the privileged students of Gilbert  Classical Academy:

Transcript from January 26, 2016 Governing Board meeting:

Christina Kishimoto: “The intention now is based on the board’s decision tonight to pare these options from 16 down … down to a certain number of, of options that we do want to pursue is to have a community forum with all of the community groups that are impacted by the potential final option, oh, by the final options and to answer questions related to those options and to get that input and get a report back to the board about that input. And then there is the policy that you have in place, board policy JC and JC-R, which relate to the timeline and process we would use, so we need to give ten days notification to the community about the forum and then we need to allow for 30 days [fumbling for words] for the board to look at that feedback and to make a final decision … by the board.  So sometime between, sometime in the month ultimately of March is when a final decision can be executed in light of what the policy demands in terms of further vetting of, of this. We also need to make sure that if there are impacts on boundary changes that then we also have a notification process in terms of this.”

Quoting Arizona Revised Statutes 15-341 Paragraph A 33: [The Governing Board shall] 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.

It seems that following the requirements of Arizona law and GPS policies somehow got in Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s way. The result?

Item 7.03 on the agenda for the board meeting on February 23, 2016, which calls for suspending Governing Board Regulation JC-R. You know that the the GPS governing board is going to give the superintendent what she wants, without even pretending to consider the input of the public, when the vote to close a school happens at the end of March 2016.  There’s been too much backlash already.

Here’s what Superintendent Christina Kishimoto claims is the very important reason that she doesn’t want to give written notice that Arizona law requires:

I have also received feedback from the State that our Board policy JC and JC-R do not align with statutory language, and thus they suggest that we update our policy with the direct statutory language. I spoke with Board President Tram and have added this policy and regulation to the February 16th Board Policy Committee for discussion. In addition, JC-R, sets internal procedures that are not financially viable. We received feedback that the reference to providing notice in writing, is not typical because the cost of written notice or paper notice will run us hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are required to provide public notice not written notice.

It appears that doing what lawyers and state Department of Education folks say is necessary (updating the policy) would take too much time. It seems to be interfering with Christina Kishimoto’s  personal schedule for burnishing her *national reputation* before she gets booted from another school district superintendency. Based on her track record in Hartford, Connecticut, she must believe she doesn’t have much time left in Gilbert, Arizona. It’s most likely due to that *reform* thing and school design mantra Kishimoto is cramming down the throat of GPS, already an A-rated school district.

This scenario is very much like what Christina Kishimoto engineered in Hartford two years ago. It did not end well for the parents or the students who were sacrificed on the school reformers’ altar of *choice.* They’re still bitter in Hartford, where they describe the school district that Christina Kishimoto left in total disarray this way:

“… an organization with little appetite or capacity for real community engagement, as well as a very top-down and opaque method of dealing with parents and community stakeholders,” stated the board, which often faulted the administration under former Superintendent Christina Kishimoto.

Back to Arizona Revised Statutes 15-341 Paragraph A 33: [The Governing Board shall] 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. Chica, do you really think a judge will believe that “repurposing” a school is not the same as “closing” it? Too bad for you that the word “closing” appears time and again in your own documents about your strategic plans.

Complicating the issue is the fact that GPS already blew through the statutory requirements for notice to the public.  The three day weekend holiday meant that no one was watching the calendar to be sure that there was ten days notice to the public. When notice was finally posted on the GPS website some time after normal business hours on February 16, 2016, GPS admins had already missed the ten day requirement for a public meeting scheduled for February 24, 2016. Another bad fact for GPS: at 2:00 PM on February 17, 2016, the only notice posted in the infamous glass box at the entrance to the district offices was for the Policy Committee meeting that was held the day before. Tsk tsk – you got nailed again, incompetent GPS administrators.

If experience is any guide, you know Christina Kishimoto and GPS will lie. And lie some more. They’re caught, so they’ll do what they usually do. Kishimoto’s Three Votes on the board just want the whole thing over and done. You know they never intended this *process* to do anything but put some lipstick on this pig of a project to elevate Gilbert Classical Academy above all else. Remember when GPS accidentally let the cat out of the bag with evidence of the treachery of the GPS superintendency and a board member?

Expect the worst, then you’ll never be disappointed with Gilbert Public Schools. Expect the board to suspend the policy on a 3-2 vote. Expect Superintendent Christina Kishimoto to do her end-zone celebration fist pumping when the voting is done. Sheeesh.

*** Excerpt of the Inconvenient GPS Policy to be Suspended ***

Controversies in Gilbert Public Schools are heating up rapidly. Sadly, they’re just not necessary. Superintendent Christina Kishimoto may think she’s setting a *controlled burn* by suspending a district policy she doesn’t like and refused to follow, but many others predict her capricious decisions about closing a school, rubber-stamped by Her Three Votes on the Governing Board, will become a horrific wildfire that consumes the school district. The former good relations with the community will be collateral damage.

In our newly-created category of *Lies Christina Kishimoto Tells,* we feature another abdication by the Governing Board of powers reserved to the board by Arizona statutes. This story began at the GPS Governing Board meeting in January 2016, when the Superintendent demanded the Governing Board delegate $100,000 contracting authority to her and her *designees.* Obviously, this power grab was not intended to be publicized; Christina Kishimoto thought Her Three Votes would just acquiesce and that would be the end of it. Westie applauds Board Member Charlie Santa Cruz for sort-of standing up against this strong arm tactic. We have great hopes he will start doing his job of overseeing what’s happening in GPS.

For some reason, citizens of Gilbert, Arizona want to see EVIDENCE when rogue school district administrators purposely mislead their bosses, the Governing Board, about things involving taxpayer money. First, watch Superintendent Christina Kishimoto tell board members that  what she is asking for is just *standard practice for a district of this size.*

Now we’ll show you how Board Member Julie Smith called out Superintendent Christina Kishimoto and her Chief Financial Officer, Tom Wohlleber, about their prevarications. Board Member Julie Smith says only one other district in the state of Arizona even has a policy DJA, and it is nothing like the one the superintendent wants the board to approve. Julie Smith points out that the Superintendent and Chief Financial Officer and their assistants have not been forthright with the board about this policy. Do they have the grace to be embarrassed at being caught in lies? Oh course not. They just prevaricate and try to obfuscate some more. <How’s that for an educrat vocabulary?>

In other words, the Top Dog administrators of GPS flat-out LIED to the Governing Board about GPS Policy DJA. Okay, citizens who demand evidence, now watch as Superintendent Christina Kishimoto tries to wriggle out of being caught with her hands around the cookie jar … by claiming it’s just standard practice.  <To the usual H8rs out there- Kishimoto doesn’t have her hand IN the cookie jar yet, she’s just holding it for now>

Finally, a community member, citizen, voter and GPS parent warns that adopting this policy change will allow the Superintendent to evade accountability. It’s a bad move, and it will energize opposition, at least from this staunch advocate for accountability, who happens to have excellent credentials for overseeing financial details from her day job as an aerospace engineer:

Even Good Old Charlie Santa Cruz realized that having the dogs and cats of Gilbert looking at his every action would be a problem. He voted with Julie Smith and Daryl Colvin to send the policy back to the Policy Committee … you know, the monthly meeting where all board members meet with the Superintendent and a few of her minions to transact the REAL business of Gilbert Public Schools. Where there are no cameras recording them as they conspire. While chowing down on a catered lunch, to boot! At taxpayer expense. Life is good for Queen Christina Kishimoto. The result was predictable.

Item 7.06 on the Agenda for the GPS board meeting on February 23, 2016 is “Second Read/Adoption of Policy DJA – Delegated Procurement Authority.” Obviously the Policy Committee met – on February 16, 2016, to be precise – and Her Three Votes  will give Superintendent Kishimoto what she wants, in spite of her lying, deceiving ways.* After all, as Lily Tram famously said, “Everyone makes mistakes.” And as Silly Jilly Humpherys said, “A hundred thousand dollars isn’t much.” You know Good Old Charlie is hoping the opposition will be busy at a PTSO meeting or baking cookies or something… sheeeeesh.

* Big Fat Asterisk: Keyboard says that Eagles song has taken on a new meaning with regard to Christina Kishimoto: “She’s so far gone, she feels just like a fool.” Can’t resist one more video: