Payzant Offers a Plan Designed to End the Gompers School Crisis

San Diego city schools Supt. Tom Payzant Wednesday night made a major effort to defuse the crisis at Gompers Secondary School.

Payzant proposed fundamental changes to boost academic achievement for the large numbers of seventh- and eighth-grade resident minority students at the Southeast San Diego school. At the same time, the plan would attempt to keep the many seventh-through-twelfth-grade white students who now voluntarily bus to Gompers from leaving.

Payzant and the district have been under strong pressure to save the special math, science and computer magnet program at Gompers, which has won numerous state and national awards because of the prowess of its science-oriented students and gained the district widespread favorable publicity.

At a special school meeting, Payzant proposed expanding instruction in the troubled school’s special curriculum--now restricted to a limited number of magnet junior high students--to all students in the seventh and eighth grades. That would give the resident students, almost all of whom are nonwhite, the same courses as the magnet program students, who are now selected on the basis of racial balance as part of the district’s voluntary integration efforts.

Payzant promised that existing funding would cover the special remedial, tutoring and motivational requirements necessary if the resident students are to succeed academically in the more rigorous program. (A key problem has been the poor performance of resident students under the regular curriculum at the school.)

Payzant left open the question of whether the small ninth-through-twelfth-grade senior high magnet might ultimately be expanded to permit more resident students at the expense of the current 50-50 white/nonwhite racial balance.

At the same time, Payzant said that Gompers Principal Marie Thornton will have to work much harder to communicate with teachers, students and parents to avoid perceptions of racism and low morale. Those perceptions have resulted in many teachers asking to leave Gompers and many white parents threatening to pull their children from the program. Those parents have demanded the transfer of Thornton, a black, which Payzant said is not going to happen. However, he made it clear that Thornton will have to change her attitude and that parents will also have to change.

Payzant and the board already have approved two new vice principals for the school in a move to clear the air and help Thornton rebuild relations with teachers.

Payzant proposed additional counselors, a consistent grading program, and a strong administrative effort to end the racial name-calling and general distrust that have polarized white and nonwhite parents for the last two months.

Payzant’s proposals came in response to a report presented Wednesday night by a special crisis committee formed in April. That committee had divided largely along resident-magnet parent lines and Payzant attempted Wednesday night to begin bridging what he admits is a large gap between the groups.

Proposals Not Detailed

While his proposals will not be detailed until he makes a formal recommendation to the Board of Education on July 19, they appeared to initially satisfy a majority of the 75 parents and teachers in the Gompers auditorium Wednesday night.

“I express the hope that we, as the Gompers community, can look at the recommendations and the response tonight as a sign that there is a possibility of a positive future,” said Walter Kudumu, a prominent black community parent who has worked hard to find compromises.

“And for those (white parents) who have strayed, I hope you will come back home.”

One magnet parent, Paul Speckart, told Payzant: “I hope that your comments are translated into results. This has been a tragic period for Gompers and already many (magnet) parents have voted with their feet (to leave). . . . But I fervently hope for a change and can assure you that we will be here to carry (your plans) out.”

Speckart earlier this month acted as a spokesman for magnet parents when he told the Board of Education that the problem-solving process could not work because of unfairness.

“Communications are going to be key,” Payzant said. “Attitudes and behaviors must change, and there are no exceptions. We can have honest disagreements but I call for an end to personal attacks on individual teachers, students, and the principal.

“You can’t legislate attitudes, but you can expect civility to prevail. It’s a very important prerequisite for the team-building and trust that are so sorely needed.”