Parents, teachers and students have mixed feelings about the new
year
On Sunday night, there will be more than 8,000 kids in Morgan Hill either depressed or excited as the final curtain falls on their summer vacations.
Class starts Monday morning in the district’s 14 schools.
Opening day kicks off the second school year with freshmen back in both high schools since Sobrato High opened last year with freshmen and sophomores. It also begins the first year of new Superintendent Alan Nishino’s leadership.
Students will attend nine elementary schools, including the expanded and refurbished Los Paseos and the freshly painted San Martin/Gwinn, plus two middle schools, now serving only seventh and eighth graders, one continuation high school and two comprehensive high schools.
Typically, the students aren’t the only ones with mixed feelings about returning.
“No, I’m not looking forward to it,” said Cindy Peterson, a mom with three kids in the district and three others who are graduates. “I love having them around all summer. It just went by too fast.”
This school year will also bring back a pattern for Peterson: except for the last two years, she typically had at least one child at each level of school, elementary, middle and high school. She is a mom who tries to be involved at all her kids’ schools, so her time is stretched thin during the school year, but she enjoys volunteering.
Peterson will have kids at El Toro Elementary, Martin Murphy Middle and Sobrato High.
She was not out fighting the crowds at Target in Cochrane Plaza or WalMart in Gilroy buying supplies the week before school starts.
“I haven’t bought anything yet; I’ll probably be standing in line with everyone else this weekend,” she said.
For some kids, buying school supplies is part of the fun, as is enjoying the social aspects of school.
Kelly Anderson, 7, is looking forward to being a second-grader.
“I want to see my friends I missed this summer,” she said. “I think it will be fun.”
As students pour back into the classroom Monday morning, they will be greeted by 47 new teachers, most of them at Sobrato High, which will be adding a junior class. Students at Paradise Valley Elementary and P.A. Walsh Elementary will be greeted by new principals.
Teachers are looking forward to starting a new year, especially the district’s new teachers, many of whom will be beginning their “freshman year” as teachers.
For Howard Barnes, who is joining the Sobrato staff, the excitement isn’t in the newness, as he’s an experienced teacher, but in the location. He is looking forward to teaching in the district his daughters will attend when they are old enough.
“This is going to be a good year,” he said as he prepared his classroom earlier this month. “I am so pleased with the school, with the staff. I’m ready to meet my students and get started.”
Much of the district staff has been “started” since earlier this summer, finishing up the business from the last school year and then focusing on the new year ahead.
Schools will look fresher, as district maintenance and grounds workers have been bustling to have everything ready for the first day, cutting lawns, pulling weeds and trimming bushes. Some schools will have fresh paint in areas, including some classrooms at Live Oak High. The classrooms had gone unused in recent years due to their deteriorated condition. Over the summer, the district paid contractors to clean them out and spruce them up.
Live Oak High will also have 14 less portables in its portable village this year. Sixteen portable classrooms and two administrative portables were removed from the campus, saving the district $1,400 per portable per month and making space on the campus.
When parents and students stream out onto buses and into cars Monday morning, Morgan Hill Police officers want them to be careful, of themselves and of each other. Officers will be watching for traffic and other violations at the school sites. MHPD Cmdr. Terrie Booten said the department suggests parents leave early to allow plenty of time for the unusually busy school parking lots and above all, be aware of their surroundings and drive with caution.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
State Superintendent of Schools Jack O’Connell and MHUSD Superintendent Alan Nishino kick off a new academic year for local teachers and district staff
The excitement in the air was palpable Friday morning as State Superintendent Jack O’Connell joined Morgan Hill School District Superintendent Alan Nishino and School Board trustees in the Sobrato High gym to welcome back district employees.
“This is a new school year, a new beginning in leadership, and I’m extremely enthusiastic about Dr. Nishino being a part of our team,” School Board President Shellé Thomas told the crowd perched on Sobrato’s new bleachers. “We believe we have found a leader who can accomplish and complete our vision of success for all students.”
The speeches were upbeat, the applause was frequent and laughter flowed freely as both Nishino and O’Connell demonstrated their pubic speaking skills and abilities to hold a crowd’s interest.
O’Connell joked about some of his “first day on the job” experiences, speaking particularly to new teachers when he told them what happened on his first day as a teacher.
“I wrote my name on the board, ‘Mr. O’Connell, Government,’ and turned to the full classroom, introduced myself and said, ‘If you’re not supposed to be in Government, you can leave,’” he said. “The entire class stood and walked out; I was in the wrong room.”
He was in the right room Friday – a room that buzzed with excitement as teachers and district staff waited for O’Connell’s appearance.
Other Morgan Hill officials joined the crowd of exuberant classified workers, teachers and administrators, including City Councilman Greg Sellers and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dan Ehrler, along with a representative from Assemblyman John Laird’s office and San Jose City Councilman Forrest Williams.
Representatives from the three employee groups, the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees International Union and the Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association, addressed the crowd.
MHFT President Donna Foster announced to her colleagues, to bursts of applause, that a contract agreement has been reached between the district and the union. Teachers have typically been paying $250 to $700 per month for benefits, she said. As a result of the new contract, the amount of benefits will increase approximately 230 percent over the next three years.
“Dr. Nishino and his leadership team found agreement with the Federation that respect for the work that you do in the classroom extends to your salary, benefits and working conditions,” Foster said.
Nishino echoed Foster’s comments about respect and positive relationships in his comments.
“When I walked in that hallway (of the District Office), and I saw the words, ‘Morgan Hill Unified School District,’ I said, ‘I’m going to emphasize the unified,’” Nishino said. “I am about three things: teamwork, integrity and loyalty.”
MHELA President P.J. Foehr, who is also San Martin/Gwinn’s principal, lauded Nishino’s ideas.
“We are so excited to be here right now, do you know how excited we are about the direction Dr. Nishino is taking us,” he said. “Dr. Nishino has some lofty goals for this district.”
O’Connell also has lofty goals for the state, mainly closing the achievement gap and acquiring adequate funding.
Although he did not address it during his speech, he said after the event that he is “optimistic” about his pending lawsuit against the governor for broken promises.
“I am taking this very seriously, I have never been a plaintiff in a lawsuit in a professional sense,” he said. “But Gov. Schwarzenegger has underfunded Proposition 98 to the tune of $3.1 billion. That’s money that we could use to look at more class size reduction.”
Foster exhorted the crowd during her speech to stand strong against the governor’s proposed Prop 74, which she said she calls the “punish new teachers act,” and Proposition 76.
“We face great challenges politically,” she said. “We are about to enter a political fight like the state has never seen. Never have we been assaulted so directly by attacks on our livelihood as teachers and as protectors of children’s interests.”
