Significant Changes

 

At the time of the last WASC Visitation Gilbert High school was housed on three different locations. After much thought and consideration, a committee of teachers, administrators and district personnel recommended the closing of the East site. Therefore, Gilbert was consolidated from three locations to two. The move allowed the school to merge resources and refocus support systems. In addition to the merging of campuses, several changes were made to staffing. Two prime examples were the loss of an assistant principal and the loss of a principal. Gilbert is now run by a single principal with two assistant principals and a teacher on special assignment (TOSA) serving in an administrative support role. Ultimately, the unification was extremely successful and at the end of this year; Gilbert will be consolidated even further to one campus. Through this merger the school will focus supporting the students, improving attendance and credit recovery.

 

 

Following the consolidation, a team was developed to focus on the program as a whole. The Vision Team is a representative group of teachers from multiple subject areas, counselors, and administrators. It is through the input of this team that the major changes to the program came to fruition.

 

 

Gilbert High Schools’ old program consisted of students attending school for three periods a day in classes that likely consisted of multiple courses at one time. It was apparent that the system was inefficient; did not best serve the students who started behind in High School Credits. Therefore, the Vision Team recommended the system be changed. As stated in the critical areas of follow up from the last WASC visit, the program needed to improve the following: attendance, credit recovery rates, the number of courses being taught in each period, parent involvement, opportunities for collaboration and professional development to improve low math and literacy scores. The critical areas of follow-up were all difficult tasks; however, the following changes in the program directly address the recommendations from the WASC report.