Separate but equal?
Miyamura High School still lacks some amenities

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Two years ago when discussions first were made public about having two high schools in Gallup, district officials said both schools would be equal.

But after the changeover took place earlier this year, parents and staff at Miyamura High School are saying the schools are not equal.

Jonathan Flannery, who has children at both Miyamura High and Gallup High, came before the Gallup-McKinley School Board Monday and said parents have a number of concerns about the current situation at Miyamura High.

These concerns include the fact that while both high schools are supposed to share sports fields, Miyamura is not allowed a fair use of practice fields and has to use city facilities. Another concern district officials have failed to address is the upcoming renovation of Miyamura, in which students will have no cafeteria for more than a year.

Frank Chiapetti, the school’s principal, said he could see why parents may have some concerns about the school’s operation.

“They’re not seeing the wheelings rolling right now,” he said, adding that the other concerns will be resolved once the renovations are completed. The district will be spending more than $38 million in the next 18 months to turn the building that housed Gallup Junior High into a high school that is comparable to the Gallup High School facility.

The problem with Miyamura’s equal use of the public stadium, he said, was caused by the fact that Gallup had signed contracts with the various schools they played and these contracts had to be honored. This should ease up in the next year as these contracts end and new contracts are signed.

As for the practice fields, that’s going to remain a problem because the school district doesn’t have enough, which is why Gallup Catholic shares some of these fields as well.
Right now, Miyamura only has a dirt field behind the building, but as part of the renovation, a new field will be developed.

The problems of sharing a football field, baseball and track fields will increase for awhile next year when Miyamura finds itself without a gymnasium because of the renovation.

The entire sports situation this year is a problem because of the number of transfers that have been allowed to take place by the state athletic association, which agreed to allow the transfers since the students had started out at Gallup High the year before and were allowed to continue there.

Miyamura won’t have that problem next year but this year it’s causing problems in recruiting enough players.

That’s also true of the band since many of the band members have also transferred to Gallup High to stay with the band program.

The good thing about this, however, he said is that the attitude of the Miyamura student body is so good that the band members who stayed at Miyamura realized they had a problem and came up with the solution themselves.

“We had 14-15 clarinet players but when they realized that we were lacking in other instruments, many of them volunteered to learn another instrument,” Chiapetti said.

But it’s the cafeteria problem that is getting the most discussion right now, since some kind of solution will have to be found by February when the renovation starts.
Chiapetti said several options are under consideration, including asking the Federal Emergency Management Administration for a tent that could be used to be a temporary cafeteria.

There’s also a possibility that an arrangement could be made to have the cafeteria staff at JFK Middle School just a few hundred yards down the road make the lunches and have them delivered to Miyamura. Or Miyamura students could walk down to JFK to get their lunches.

Despite all of these concerns, however, Chiapetti remains upbeat and proud of the school’s student body who have become united in the effort to make Miyamura a good school.

Flannery agreed.

“Overall, the parents in the advisory committee are happy with what has been accomplished at the school this year,” he said.