School Board Approves Plan Aimed at Solving Gompers Strife

A controversial blueprint for solving serious educational problems at Gompers Secondary School in Southeast San Diego was approved Tuesday by a divided city school board.

The board voted 4 to 1, with Kay Davis dissenting, to move the long-debated plan forward. But all members emphasized that they harbor no illusions that implementation will be easy or even successful for the special science-math facility, which has garnered many state and national awards in past years for its academic prowess.

The decision came after three hours of debate that showed that white and black members of the school community remain deeply divided over the school’s long-simmering conflict: how to help more of the school’s heavily minority student population succeed academically while maintaining the rigorous special curriculum that lures a substantial number of advanced white students to be bused to the campus.

The renewal plan by schools Supt. Tom Payzant will expand the science-math magnet at the junior high level to include all seventh- and eighth-graders who live in the school’s neighborhood, almost all of whom are black or Latino.

The magnet at that level is now restricted to a limited number of minority students and an equal number of white students, almost all of whom are bused to Gompers. The campus also contains an all-magnet ninth- through 12th-grade high school that will not be directly affected by the plan.

Payzant drew up the plan as a result of a near-revolt this spring by teachers, upset that all instructors at the high school level could be tapped to also teach at the junior high level as a way to help minority students.

Magnet parents, predominantly white, supported the teachers and attempted to force the removal of Principal Marie Thornton. Payzant backed Thornton and crafted his plan more to address the complaints of minority parents, who for years have said the school’s structure discriminates against their children.

“There’s still a lot of tension at Gompers,” Payzant said before the final vote Tuesday, referring to bitter public comments, many of them racially tinged, before the board. “There are those who see an emphasis on equity as meaning we are less committed to excellence, and there are those who see excellence as only for some kids and meaning we’ll never get to equity.

“I can’t just say, ‘The folks at Gompers are OK and will work things out at the school,’ ” Payzant said.

The blueprint calls for substantial tutoring, special classes and new teaching techniques as well as other strategies meant to raise academic performance of minority children now mired in low-level courses.

Payzant cautioned that academic results could require up to three years to fully take hold, although he said he hopes an improvement in school climate will come more quickly.

Board member Susan Davis expressed hope for a short-term improvement in the morale of teachers if they are given a major voice in designing specific curriculum changes that now must be made. The faculty remains highly skeptical of the plan, in part because many minority parents have accused teachers of not caring about the success of neighborhood students.

Board member Jim Roache asked that the community forgo further mutual recriminations, saying that, regardless of the past, a substantial number of students do not succeed at Gompers.

Roache warned Payzant and Assistant Supt. George Frey that he expects a major emphasis beginning this fall on improving reading 25% or more of Gompers students who read one or more grade levels below average.

“Without that emphasis, these students will be unable to do well in the rigorous curriculum,” especially since many of the white students come to Gompers with basic academic achievement levels above grade level, Roache said.

But Kay Davis, in voting no, said she does not believe the plan is realistic in putting large numbers of students with poor academic records into the magnet without diluting the academic quality. She also cited preliminary figures showing that fewer white students are planning to attend Gompers this fall.