Gallup HS boundaries posed

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — One high school or two?

That was one of the questions raised Thursday night at the first transitional meeting of Gallup’s new high school, Miyamura High School.

The school is planning on converting Gallup Junior High over the next couple of years into the district’s second high school and is now going through the process of figuring out how to make that happen.

But there were a couple of people at last night’s meeting who wondered just how much input has the public had in arriving at the decision that the city needs two high schools.

One person mentioned she had talked to several businessmen in town who said they had no idea there was talk of two high schools and expressed concern because they are hit up all of the time from high school groups needing money for various projects. Now, she said, the businesses are looking at getting hit up by twice the number of groups.

Joe DeLaO, the only school board member at the meeting, said he didn’t know how the community felt. “I’m in the dark. No one has been calling me up saying aye or nay,” he said.

School Superintendent Esther Macias said she also has not received any phone calls from anyone expressing concern about the creation of a new high school.

But the talk last night was that it was probably too late to make a change now. There is opportunity, however, for area residents to have input on how the transition will occur by attending one of the future transition meetings. The next one will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Gallup Junior High/Miyamura High School Library.

Some at the meeting questioned just whether the school district has done enough to make people in the community aware of its plans to go to two high schools.
DeLaO sad the school board has been discussing it since 1999 and that the idea of going to two high schools eventually has been a part of the district’s master plans since then.

DeLaO said one of the biggest areas of concern regarding the transition will be over athletics, since the city, which has had a difficult time fielding a decent team in anything other than girl’s basketball, will now see their teams even more diluted by fielding two teams in every sport.

One effect of this, he said, is that Gallup will have to step down from division 5A and both teams will probably be playing in the 4A division in the future.

The question of athletics will be one of the main subjects discussed at the next meeting of the transition team. How to better inform the community on its plans will also be discussed.

Another area that was discussed was the proposed boundaries of the two schools.

The idea originally was to have Miyamura be a career high school with students going there who wanted to pursue a career like welding or cosmetology. But in the last couple of years that has changed and both schools will offer the same programs and who goes to which will be determined by where they live (see sidebar).

Joe Henley, transportation director for the district, said while the boundary lines will determine which school students will attend, parents have the option, as they do for every school in the district, of sending their child to the other high school if that high school has room for them and if the parents agree to transport the student to school.