Main story: Superintendent Flores leaves behind a legacy of excellence
Accomplishments include a $10 million upgrade to technology infrastructure
Photo by Kaylee Arca
GUSD Superintendent of School Deborah Flores interacts with students at Brownell Middle School.
By Kaylee Arca
The Gilroy Unified School District community will bid farewell to a transformative era. After 16 years at the helm, Superintendent Dr. Deborah Flores retires at the end of June, celebrating a legacy of educational excellence.
The job will be filled by new Superintendent Anisha Munshi, who has worked in the district in several positions.
Flores has worked in public education for almost 50 years. She joined GUSD as superintendent in July 2007, making her the longest-serving superintendent in Santa Clara County.
“My job is a job, but it’s also been my passion,” she said. “It’s like my second home. Being here for 16 years allowed me to bring a lot of stability to the district. Superintendent tenure averages about 2.5 years nationwide.”
Flores has a long list of accomplishments. The biggest projects under her supervision included building Christopher High School, rebuilding Brownell and South Valley middle schools, and constructing new wings at Gilroy High School and Glen View Elementary School.
“Thanks to the voters and bond measures, we’ve modernized all of our campuses in one way or another,” she said. “Those campuses that we didn’t rebuild, we’ve done modernization work. Districtwide we’ve improved our technology infrastructure. There was a time when just getting the Internet to work was a problem. Now it pretty much works everywhere because of a $10-million upgrade to technology infrastructure.”
The superintendent often visited GUSD campuses to connect with students and staff.
“I love visiting schools,” she said. “This is a huge commitment I make three times a year to visit the 15 schools. So that’s 45 visits a year to school sites. It keeps me grounded in why I’ve done the work all these years.”
Flores found it imperative to include the community’s perspective in her leadership. She created a Superintendent’s Parent Advisory Committee. The SPAC consists of two parent representatives from each school. The group meets monthly with Flores to discuss the schools’ needs and parents’ observations.
“It’s good for me to be able to have those discussions,” she said.
Her final test as superintendent was guiding GUSD through distance learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was going to retire in 2020,” she said. “But with the pandemic, I couldn’t leave. I had to stay and make sure the district got through the pandemic. Then when the students returned for in-person learning, it was challenging, so I decided to stay again.”
Flores recalled that fateful Friday in March 2020 when the schools had to close. She rallied the district and initiated Phase 1, GUSD’s curriculum and infrastructure pivot to provide virtual instruction for remote learning.
“It was an incredible challenge that all districts went through,” she recalled.
With the sudden change to distance learning, students struggled with Internet access issues and missing meals that had been provided by the schools. As a solution, Flores and GUSD created distance learning centers, transported students to the centers, and provided meals.
“It was just constant problem solving,” she said.
Phase 2 welcomed everyone back to campus in fall 2021. This proved equally as challenging.
“The students had been learning for 16 months on their computers at home,” Flores said. “We had to reteach social skills and classroom skills.”
Flores also supported students’ return to in-person learning by increasing GUSD’s mental health program. The district brought in additional social workers and counselors.
“Now the challenge is the learning loss caused by distance learning,” she said. “I’m proud of the intervention programs we put in place to counter the learning loss.”
Brownell sixth-grade science and math teacher Elizabeth Hiserman believes it’s going to take a while to get the students’ education and skills back to pre-pandemic levels.
“They’re making strides,” she said. “They’re about halfway back to the level they were at before the pandemic. We’re going to miss Dr. Flores. She did a lot for the district.”
Flores said she’s proud of the way team GUSD responded to the pandemic.
“The commitment has been incredible. Everybody went above and beyond and did whatever it took to provide the best program we could, given the challenges we faced.”
With a passion for Gilroy, Flores will remain connected to many of its people even after she leaves. The decision to retire was a difficult one, she said.
For her first six months of away from the district, Flores plans to take some “much needed” time off and go backpacking, explore national parks, visit family in Santa Barbara and on the East Coast, and simply relax.
“I want to be free of my ringing phone and just do the things that I love,” she said.
Flores’ friends and colleagues praised her years of service to GUSD and showered her with well wishes for the best retirement.
“I’m so happy for her,” said Melanie Corona, GUSD public information officer. “She’s worked so hard for so long. It’s time for her to have a new adventure. She’s been a tremendous leader for our district and community.”
Brownell Principal Mike Nebesnick has worked with Flores for 10 years.
“She’s been a fantastic leader,” he said. “I wish her nothing but the best. I hate to see her go because she’s been really supportive and brought a lot of different ideas into the district.”
Kaylee Arca is a graduate of Sobrato High School. She earned a degree in journalism and media studies at San Diego State University.