Valley Grande Academy Closing

[Dr. Shane]

 

"Dear Parents

 

Last night on his way back to Keene, TX our board chair Elder Steve Gifford received a phone call from the Texas Conference School Superintendet Elder William Reinke to tell him that the Texas Executive Committee voted yesterday evening to closed Valley Grande Academy for the school year 2015-2016. 

This morning I met with the faculty and staff members and then with the students to tell them the sad news that their school will be closed next year.

Valley Grande Academy is in debt to the conference as of December for 1.1 Million. The school need to be financial sound to continue its operations. 

This action is at it early stage, the final outcome still to be know.  Please pray and support the school, Students, faculty, staff and administration as we need to have a possitive attitute in this dificult times.

The conference officials will be here on Wednesday March 4 at 6:00 PM in the school chapel to speak to parents and constituent members.

Please be here at that time so they can here your voice and hear ideas you migth have for the future of VGA."

 

 

 

The school currently has 170 students and recruitment shows that it was to have more in the coming year.  My children have attended the school since first grade.  The academy is on the east side of Hidalgo county in south Texas.  There is another Adventist academy on the west side of the same county.  An Adventist elementary school just closed down in the neighboring county to the east.  It was was15 miles east of Valley Grande Academy and they were already making plans - before today's news - to open it again next year.

 

Please pray for this school.  There is no reason an Adventist school with 170 students should be closing.

[Jeannieb43]

Oh dear!    And the news just came out that Mount Vernon Academy in Ohio is also closing.   It's a boarding school; I don't know its enrollment.  But school funding is becoming more and more difficult, especially for our Adventist academies.

 

I'll pray that your Texas school can stay open.

[Gregory Matthews]

Shane said:

 

"  The school currently has 170 students and recruitment shows that it was to have more in the coming year.  My children have attended the school since first grade.  The academy is on the east side of Hidalgo county in south Texas.  There is another Adventist academy on the west side of the same county.  An Adventist elementary school just closed down in the neighboring county to the east.  It was was15 miles east of Valley Grande Academy and they were already making plans - before today's news - to open it again next year.

 

Please pray for this school.  There is no reason an Adventist school with 170 students should be closing."

 

Just about all of our boarding academies are in financial trouble.  More and more of our members do not want to send their children to a boarding academy.  We may very well have reached the time where we can no longer justify boarding academies. 

 

 

A boarding academy with 170 students, many of whom are day students, is not going to be able to support financially remaining as a boarding academy.  However, 170 students should be able to support a quality day academy.

 

The Conference should consider letting the school remain open as a day academy.

 

Shane says that there is another academy in the same   county.  That indicates miss-management on the part of Conference officials.  They should jot to have allowed such to occur.  Unfortunately, that is a symptom of SDA Education.   All to often, planning does not take place in a manner that encourages healthy growth.  Schools are all to often allowed to be established in situations where the community will not support that number of schools so close together.  This is just one area in which Adventist education needs to change.

[Gail]

That is sad news... It will be big adjustment for some of those kids to change to either public school or another independent school. But it can be done

[Gail]

If Dr Raymond Moore was still around he would put that school on a work program 1/2 time

[Dr. Shane]

I believe there are about 40 boarding students and they are all international.  Most of the students are from the local community.  A big problem is that the school owned a nursing home that subsidized it.  About 8 or 10 years ago the Conference sued the nursing home management and loss a humility defeat in federal court.  As a result of their loss in court, the school loss the nursing home and its subsidizing.  On top of that, a few years ago it was discovered the school had a treasurer who wasn't doing his job.  I don't know all the details of either the law suit or treasurer.  I don't want to criticize or be negative.  However,,, when we have the facilities for a school and have 170 students,,,, there should be some other options besides closing the school.  I mean, as Adventists we want to be opening more schools, not closing the ones we have.

 

I do think the elementary school 15 miles to the east (which is actually not in the same county) will start up next year and start out with 40-50 students.

[Gregory Matthews]

The major issue is that it was a boarding school.  That drives the expenses up well beyond what a school with 40 boarding students could sustain.

[Dr. Shane]

Last night at the school board meeting the school board asked the Conference to allow them to become a self-supporting school.  They have donors committed to supporting the school if the ties with the Conference are cut.  Hidalgo county and neighboring Cameron county are two of the poorest counties in the US.  This year Forbes Magazine listed Brownsville as the fourth most uneducated city and McAllen as the ninth.  Those are the two biggest cityies in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. So running an Adventist school in such an area is truely a ministry.

 

The school has 100 ESL students lined up to spend the summer in the dorms.  They have hired a recruiting firm that also recruits students for Andrews Univeristy.  They claim that rumors of the school closing have undermined recruiting efforts and gave examples of 37 specific students that had decided to come but later went to another school due to rumors of our school closing.

 

Losing the nursing home subsidy seems to be what has plundged the school into difficulty.  The school runs a deficit roughly equal to the amount of money it had been recieving from the nursing home.  That is only part of the problem but it is a big part.  The school had mismanagement for years.  Parents and church members complained about the situation for years before something was finally done.  The school just got good leadership two years.

 

The academy is the problem.  The elementary school does not run a deficit.  However the Conference decided to close both.  The Conference President will be at the school tommorrow for a meeting to be held in the gym.  There will be a very large crowd of parents, church members and alumni.  The school is a constituent school with eight Adventist churches supporting it.  There are about 30 Adventist churches in the two county area.

 

The school that is being left open does not have the capacty to absorb all of VGA's students.  It's high school is much smaller than VGA's.  It is also located to the far west of the county and is not near the expressway.  Bussing would be required to run out about 60 miles from the school.  VGA is located in the center of the two county area so busses only have to run 30 miles in either direction and pick up students at stops along the expressway.

[Gregory Matthews]

The academy is the problem.  The elementary school does not run a deficit. 

 

Quite typical.  It costs more to run a High School than it does to run an elementary school.

 

That is why many of our 12-grade schools have separated into two schools as the elementary school parents did not want to continue to pay a higher fees because kof the High school. 

[Dr. Shane]

The Conference came down tonight to a very large crowd and were served a temporary Injuction by a lawyer hired by the alumni association.  This, they have stated, is how Sandiaview Academy was saved from being closed last year.  So with the injuction in hand, the Conference said nothing and everyone went outside.

[Dr. Shane]

Things are getting hot down here in Texas.

 

http://m.krgv.com/news/School-Open-for-Over-100-Years-May-Soon-Close/31622168

[Gregory Matthews]

Shane, interesting.

May I assume that Stephen Gifford is a retired denominational administrator?

The article does raise in my mind, a number of questions as to ownership rights and relationship to the denomination of the nursing home, as well as other questions.

[Dr. Shane]

Yes, Stephen Gifford is the chairman of the VGA Board.  Their legal arguement centers around the school's constitution which specifies what is required to close the school.  The school's constitution specifically states that the Texas Conference cannot close the school without the consent of the school board and the constituency churches.  I don't know how legally binding that constitution is.  The VGA Alumni and Friends claim this is the same tactic that saved the Sandia View Academy last year.  Basically, the Conference has the ability to stop funding the academy but not to close it.

 

We will see how things work out.  I do wonder if the Conference realized how much of an issue this would become for them.  Closing a school with just a handful of students is proabably a lot easier than closing one with 160+.  Also, the Hispanics in the region have grown accsutomed to institutional racism.  That is, for decades (and still to some degree) this region is denied state and federal funding because it is so poor and the population is 90% Hispanic.  That may have nothing to do with VGA closing but what I am talking about is a general attitude among the population here that they have to fight and protest in order to get anything.

 

The school's financial problems are undeniably tied to the area's poverty.  This is why the nursing home was built in the first place.  They knew the impoverished community here would not be able to support the school.  The Conference's legal battle, resulting in the loss of the nursing home, has been disasterous for the school.

[Dr. Shane]

I don't think they can have another meeting until there is a court date.  I don't know when the court date is.  But that is a good question.

 

SHANE 

 

I  was  wondering  the out come was  ---so  when  is the  next  meeting

 

dgrimm60

[Dr. Shane]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oThjrHlcvFE

 

Here is the promotion video the school made for this year.  My kids are not in the video.

[whbae]

I strongly feel this is a lack of management skill.  I believe this is the big problem throughout our denomination.  For instance, AUC was closed for lack of money, I heard.   Now a president of AUC is hired!  It is so ridiculous! Hire a president of a college which doesn't even exist and put her on payroll?!  

If our leaders in our denomination have to earn their own money to run and manage the organization, I am sure, they will think twice before spending money  and able to manage better.

There is another question.  Why do the conferences including GC have so many departments and so many people working.  I do not understand it.  Back in 70's I used to visit the local conference time to time .  Some of the heads of department have nothing to do but read the Bible sitting at their desk.  Can they shrink the working people and organized to run it a few departments together under one head?  I do not know but, it seems to me they are very generous with our tithe and offerings not knowing how to manage the money.

[Dr. Shane]

I agree that our schools have mismanagement.  However, those working above them at the Conference and Union levels should 1. Not let bad management continue, and 2. put good management in place.

 

Many schools have also got rid of their industry which allowed for students to work their way through school.  The Conferences and Uniones should also help the schools establish an industry for that purpose.  One of the roles of the education departments in our Conferences and Unions should be to help schools with training, fund-raising and marketing so the schools do not close.

[Gregory Matthews]

Shane,  I agree   with the majority of what you said in post # 19.  However, the natural evolution of what you have said would be greater control of schools by at least the Conference, and potentially the Union with more limited control by the local congregation.  Frankly, I think that may be what should be done as part of the problems as I see them occur at the local congregational level.  Is that what you would want? 

 

Yes, I do believe that there are issues at the Conference level. 

 

As to school supported industry:  Once upon a time, they were financially sound.  All to often today they are not financially sound in our modern economy.  In fact, in some situations it has been found that the industry could be closed and their supported students simply given scholarships at a lower cost than the cost incurred by supporting the industry.

 

I will acknowledge that there are examples of industries that are well run and in a situation where they actually improve the financial position of the school.  The dairy at Andrews University is one example.  However,   it is doubtful that its success could be matched by many other schools.   Financial success involves more than good management and planning.  Part of the success of the Andrews dairy is related to its investment in automation--that cut student jobs.  Another part of its success is due to its ability to enter and compete in the area market.  It is not every school dairy that would be able to economically invest in the automation that Andrews has done and    it is not every dairy that would be able to enter and compete in  the market as has the Andrews dairy.

 

As far as training, fundraising and marketing,  absolutely.

 

However, in general terms, the day of boarding academies has gone.  They are no longer, in general, seen as a need.

[Dr. Shane]

I have many more questions than answers when it comes to Adventist education.   I do believe it should be a priority for our denomination.  I don't like boarding schools.  Our boarding school has mostly international students here to learn English as a second language (ESL).  I don't know the financial end of that but I know the intent is for the international ESL students help the school financially.  One would think that as more and more of our elementary schools add the high school grades and become day schools the need for boarding schools would diminish.  That would be a good thing as far as I am concerned.

 

Many of the industrial jobs probably have been moved overseas making it more difficult.  Healthcare, automotive maintenance and construction are industries that can't be shipped overseas but harder for school to build and use students.  The furniture factories and daires are not what they once were for us.  I did work at the dairy at Andrews when I attended there.

 

I don't know what the church is doing in the area of homeschooling and virtural schooling.  I have seen Christian, online schools that are affordable and have certified teachers.  That is something that a church could set up even if there were only handful of students.  That is an option that I am looking at if the school does close down.

[Dr. Shane]

It made it into Spectrum Magazine.    I am not sure that is a good thing.

 

http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/03/07/valley-grande-academy-will-likely-close-after-school-year

[Gregory Matthews]

Shane, the word is "distance schooling," rather than home schooling.

 

SDA Schools in some conferences are setting up for remote education.  Students gather in one location and by teleconference  they are taught by teachers from a remote location.  The typical setup involved academy teachers tele-conferencing some of their classes to schools in remote locations.  In tat setup, the academy that is doing the teleconferencing grants the academic credit.  Normally the remote location is supervised by licensed teachers.  In any case, people have to be trained for this.

 

Talk to your education department in regard to distance learning.  IF your Conference is not involved, see if an arrangement can be made for this from a school that is doing this and located in another Conference.   There are SDA Educators who are big on this concept.

[Dr. Shane]

That sounds like a good direction to go.  I have been looking into virtual school for my oldest and it can be done from home.  It is not the same as distance education.  Each class is online and taught by a certified teacher.  If a local church were to put a group of students together it would only require a youth pastor to supervise them.

 

I think this VGA closing controversy could have been defused more easily if the Conference would have put forth a plan for the students at the same time they announced the school's closing.  There are many options.  As I mention, a K-8 school just east of here, with a 50 student capacity, closed this year and already had plans to re-open next year before the VGA closing was announced.  Some of VGA students live on the west side of the county and can attend the other Adventist school there.   A distance education program could be set up for the high school students that would fall through the cracks.

[Dr. Shane]

I counted them.  We have 29 Adventist churches in this area known as the Rio Grande Valley.  I don't know how many members there are.  Our largest church has over 1,000 members and some of the smaller churches only have about 30.  However evangelism here has proved successful and the churches here are growing.  This is the poorest area in Texas and according to Forbes magazine, two our our cities are in the top ten of the most uneducated cities in the nation.