Saturday, August 09, 2008
By Kelsie Hahn
Tribune-Herald staff writer
Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy says the road may be difficult, but the future is bright for G.L. Wiley Middle School and its former students.
DuPuy lent a quiet presence to Thursday’s Waco school board meeting when board members voted to close the East Waco fixture and disperse its students to surrounding middle schools. The vote came after impassioned, sometimes angry comments from East Waco students, parents and neighborhood leaders determined to keep the campus open.
At one point Thursday, Waco City Council member Wilbert Austin said he and his East Waco constituents felt betrayal over the Waco Independent School District’s consideration of proposals to close academically low-performing G.L. Wiley Middle School.
Multimedia
Photos: East Waco residents speak out at packed board meeting
Video: Watch what the community had to say
» Editorial: Rush job on G.L. Wiley (8/7/08)
» Waco ISD: Middle school TAKS passing rates
In front of a crowd of about 200, Austin noted that gradual academic strides the past few years have been significant and that to close the school now would be for students “like slapping them in the face.”
Though DuPuy offered no comment during the occasionally volatile proceedings, she later said she found the meeting “encouraging but painful at the same time” — encouraging in the hope and investment of time and effort by students, parents and community, painful in their disappointment at the board’s 4-3 decision.
However, the mayor voices faith in the school board’s commitment to helping G.L. Wiley’s former students succeed and finding new purpose for the campus.
“The Wiley facility is one of WISD’s finest campuses, and a positive educational purpose can be so essential to the ongoing development of the area,” she told the Tribune-Herald on Friday. “It’s like all eyes now are on this situation, and this is an opportunity for the community to pull together and ensure our children succeed. That has got to be where we put our focus, because our children deserve the best from all of us. They deserve to see how a community lives, works and learns together.”
She also applauded the efforts of Wiley students who made “extraordinary gains” in their academic performance on increasingly difficult state tests in recent years.
“We need to celebrate that and help make sure now that they don’t lose that momentum,” she said. “Our children are going to succeed, and we’re going to follow them and make sure these students, wherever they’re going to be in school, that they have the right transition to get there and to get off to a positive start. That’s going to be important.”
DuPuy said she also hopes the interest and enthusiasm of the community that she saw at Thursday night’s meeting continue. An educational summit planned for November could help the community find more ways to connect with local students, she said.
“It’s going to be important that our community stay focused on what it is we can and must do, because in the end the entire community shares the responsibility of educating every citizen,” she said. “That’s our message and that’s our mission, and that’s what we’re working to do.”
The city will also work to help bridge differences and conflict, she said, “doing what we can to help the community understand that we all are part of one community, and that if one part of the community is having a lot of difficulty, that impacts the whole.”
Regarding G.L. Wiley’s future, DuPuy said her hope is behind board president David Shleicher’s move to assemble a task force to give the 70-year-old campus new purpose.
“The people who live in the area are the ones who really need to be engaged in coming up with some recommendations,” she said. “They won’t be wanting for talent. They’ll find some good people who will come up with some good recommendations.”
khahn@wacotrib.com
757-5735
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