Yes on Measure I
Gilroy officials have made choices for the town that are
designed to shake its rural past and position it as a high-tech
working, shopping and living city of the future.
Yes on Measure I
Gilroy officials have made choices for the town that are designed to shake its rural past and position it as a high-tech working, shopping and living city of the future.
Officials are in the midst of planning for state-of-the-art athletic fields, they have secured top retailers that are the tax-generating envy of all its neighbors for the Highway 152 corridor and, for better or worse, they have designated 660 acres in the county agricultural preserve as a future high-tech office park.
What the city seems to have forgotten to do along the way is to ensure the schools also can be pointed to as a source of pride. With worn structures – some without the electrical systems they need to power computer labs – overcrowded buildings, leaking roofs, a lack of multipurpose rooms and cafeterias, faulty plumbing, inadequate fire and security systems and an over reliance on portables, the Gilroy Unified School District lacks an infrastructure that the city can be proud of. Gilroy High School is stretched beyond capacity and the growing metropolis must plan for a second one.
Those shortcomings would be unfortunate even if the city weren’t attempting to position itself well in all of the other areas we have mentioned.
Gilroy will fail in its attempt to become a California city of the future if it neglects its school system. The quality of schools – and that means the physical quality as well as the academic quality – is the first thing CEOs look at when they consider relocating a business.
GUSD needs Measure I to help bring its school facilities up to a respectable level. A robust city must have a healthy educational system. Measure I will go a long way toward making that happen for Gilroy.
