Thompson ready for YUHSD challenges as supt.

When twenty-something Gina Thompson arrived in Yuma back in 1989, her intent was to visit her parents and return to Washington to start her teaching career.

Having grown up in that state’s interior, exploring Seattle was on her mind.

“I came for a visit,” Thompson recalled. “I was going back to experience Seattle, because I came from the middle part of the state.”

Thompson ended up staying in Yuma because of the environment she found, not only inside the classroom, but outside of it as well.

“I’m really fortunate I fell into some amazing mentorships,” she said of her beginnings in Yuma, citing the then-guidance director at Cibola Jim Sullivan and Principal Jon Walk as two people whose influence helped guide her in her early teaching years.

“From the beginning, Yuma, the community and Cibola High School, really just welcomed me in as a family member, as well as just whatever I wanted to be.”

Thompson started attending the master’s teaching program at Northern Arizona University Yuma, which she credited with helping her succeed.

“NAU-Yuma made it possible because I was a new mom. I was new to Arizona. I didn’t really have any money. I wasn’t broke — my parents would’ve helped me

— but I really didn’t want to keep doing that route either,” she said. “NAUYuma allowed me to get my master’s right here in Yuma gradually and they made it real.”

Fast-forward to February 2018, and Thompson’s the superintendent of the Yuma Union High School District (she was named interim Oct.2).

During her first “official” month at the helm, she navigated a perceived shooting threat at Gila Ridge, dismissing classes for the day. School districts all over the county experienced a number of absences due to the heightened awareness of a school shooting in Parkland, Fla. The threat turned out to be a misinterpretation of a post on social media.

“Having the benefit of serving as the interim and having a long history here definitely has its advantages,” Thompson said of her first week of work from the district’s temporary offices at Yuma High School. The district is hoping to move into its new administration offices this summer.

Thompson has several projects and challenges before her: bond projects from a measure passed in 2015; achievement test scores; and helping the district board achieve its goals.

The bond projects are still underway, with work being done at Kofa, Vista High and the new district offices. The offices are replacing modular buildings at the district’s property on Avenue A.

“I know that we work very closely with AWC and it’s always our goal to make sure that the scores and the achievement scores are where they need to be,” Thompson said of claims students entering the local community college are not up to doing college-level work.

Thompson said the district is focused on raising “the whole child” and not just chasing a test score. The district’s AZMerit math scores have consistently fallen below the state average. In 2017, of 8,306 tests of students taking any math course, only 11 percent passed. However, fewer students are taking high school math, instead electing to take Algebra I or II or geometry in the 8th grade.

Part of the challenge facing teachers is that each student comes to the district with his or her own skill-set and sense of self-discipline (or not).

“I think the difficulty from the classroom perspective is equal isn’t always equitable, and equal isn’t always the same,” she said. “This isn’t a high school district problem. This is a national problem of preparing our children from preschool equitably.”

Thompson noted that if teens are having challenges in learning at the high school level, it is not a new problem, but one that was present in the earlier grades.

“You’re looking at a state that hasn’t supported preschool and early childhood education. Again, you don’t get to have it all,” Thompson said. “You don’t get to not invest in public education and then expect public education on the end to make miracles happen, or make these incredible strides.”

Test scores don’t always measure the true growth and achievement that students may have, she continued.

“(There is) phenomenal work that’s going on at all of our partner districts ... Kids are coming to us differently prepared ... I’m not going to say more prepared because everybody’s always worked very hard, but just trying to prepare for the measurements that are the expectation,” she explained. “Regardless of how we feel about it that is what our community needs to see moving is achievement scores.”

“We stay the course of working on the equity gap rather than a test score guiding us and that’s not to be defensive, but it is to set the tone of where the priority is,” Thompson said.

Working with the board to achieve its goal of student achievement is Thompson’s goal as well, she said.

“We also have a wonderful board that really, truly allows us to set our goals,” she said. “I definitely have some private, internal goals but … the overarching goal for me is to move the needle on student achievement. That’s what we’re all here for is to increase student achievement, increase teaching and learning.”