Cover story: Back to School -- Sequoia chief brings fresh ideas to high school challenges Cover story: Back to School -- Sequoia chief brings fresh ideas to high school challenges (September 01, 2004)

Will new ideas raise results for under-performing students?

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

Patrick Gemma, the superintendent of the Sequoia Union High School District, is in a position that doesn't lack for things to do. He oversees a district that could hardly be more diverse. From wealthy Woodside estates to impoverished multiple-family living arrangements in East Palo Alto, students come to school with a range of unmet needs waiting to be filled.

Many of the roughly 7,600 students in the district are doing very well academically, according to common measures of achievement, but there are also many who are doing poorly and have been doing poorly for some time.

Mr. Gemma has been on the job now for 19 months, having come to the district in February 2003 from the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District near Lake Tahoe, where he was also superintendent. The Almanac interviewed him recently to get his sense of the district and his plans.

"It's very personally energizing," Mr. Gemma says of his job. It's "difficult and complex, but in an energizing way. We have many plates spinning, but I feel blessed to have landed a district that has hired such spirited and accomplished administrators," he says.

They have some work ahead of them.

Exit-exam results

Student performance continues to vary widely, depending on social and economic circumstances.

That is clear, once again, when the recently released results of the high-school exit exam are grouped by those students who are eligible for government-subsidized lunches (those from a family of four with annual income below $34,873 a year), and those who are not. The test was taken by sophomores last spring.

Among students not receiving government-subsidized lunches, 87 percent passed the English-language part of the exam and 86 percent passed the math exam -- figures that essentially match statewide numbers. (The language exam measures ninth- and 10th-grade skills, while the math exam measures sixth- and seventh-grade skills.)

But the results were disappointing for the roughly 615 sophomores in the district -- including some 345 at M-A and Woodside -- who participated in the federal free-or-reduced-price lunch program.

Among these students, 44 percent passed the language exam, while 60 percent passed statewide. In the math exam, 51 percent passed in the district. Statewide, the number was 61 percent. The students have five more opportunities to take the test before graduation.

Academic performance statistics compiled annually by the state over the last five years show similarly large achievement gaps in the Sequoia district based on whether a student uses federal assistance to buy lunch.

On the radar

The Sequoia district's overall goal, Mr. Gemma says, boils down to this: "We want to be seen as a place where everybody's visible." In other words, the kids need to know that they're on a teacher's radar -- that teachers care, that students won't be ignored. This is a core value that he says he drew from conversations with "virtually everyone" he's talked to since coming to the district.

Asked to rate the district's performance on a scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Gemma, without hesitation, gives it a 9 and approaching a 10. The district provides an education "second-to-none" for college-bound students, though that's not so, he admits, for underachieving and average students, despite several programs offering tutoring, sheltered instruction and other kinds of targeted assistance.

Idea factory

To address the needs of underachieving students -- many of whom come to school unprepared for freshman-level work -- Mr. Gemma says he regularly seeks ideas and asks for measurable goals from his staff and principals. He also talks regularly with Sequoia district trustees and superintendents from local elementary school districts.

"Pretty soon we start to identify the problem to solve," he says. "It's my job to orchestrate the instruments to have it come out as a sound that can be appreciated."

Indeed, there was nary a disapproving word from trustees in response to his recent proposal to erect a school building for Summit Preparatory (Charter) High School, perhaps on the Woodside campus of Canada College.

Summit plans to offer senior-year alternatives that include customized college classes and career-related internships concurrent with classes. A partnership with Summit lays the groundwork for Sequoia to mention Summit's programs in its offerings to prospective freshmen.

Mr. Gemma is also talking with the Redwood City Elementary School District about a partnership to create a four-year bridge school for sixth- through ninth-graders who may need extra help to prepare for high-school-level work. If it works, a partnership with the Ravenswood City School District could be next, he has said.

And he has a green light on a plan to construct a building and gym in East Palo Alto for three-year-old East Palo Alto Charter High School. This from a district that two years ago was embroiled in legal battles -- under another superintendent -- over charter school requests for facilities.

"Summit and East Palo Alto High School are dedicated to teaching, in a more productive way, the individual student," Mr. Gemma says. Teachers there can sit down once a quarter, display a student's picture and talk about him or her, Mr. Gemma says in a tacit acknowledgement of the value of a small school for students who need extra attention.

These two schools "want a diversified student population to be challenged," he says. "This is the first time I've witnessed (charter) schools truly in line with the purpose of the charter school law," he notes, adding that he has seen some go on to become undiversified "white flight" schools.

Economic priorities

Mr. Gemma is keen on saving money, which is tight these days with costs rising for health care and workers' compensation insurance. "As resources shrink, we become more threatened," he says.

A frequent topic at meetings is finding economies of scale, such as combining bus services or staff development programs, he says. Spending money is another issue, though. Some potentially effective programs have been met with resistance, often from the teachers' union, he says.

Kudos

"Pat Gemma is the 'master' at relationship dynamics and partnerships," says Rosa Perez, the president of Canada College. "He understands how partnerships across segments -- kindergarten through college -- can produce more financially efficient programs that help us stretch our dollars while also creating better pathways for students to succeed.

"He is a classic 'out-of-the-box' thinker who seems to have fun every day of his life by practicing a philosophy of possibilities, not limitations," Ms. Perez says.

Pat Gemma "is innovative and willing to explore new ways of helping all our students to succeed," says Sequoia Trustee Lorraine Rumley. "He quickly gets to the core of the problem and looks for mutual interests and/or understanding."

"He never lets ego or ownership of an idea get in the way," says Trustee Gordon Lewin.

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