Gadsden schools resolving isolated problems, superintendent says

  SAN LUIS, Ariz. - Lack of textbooks and classroom crowding notwithstanding, Gadsden district schools got off to a normal start this year, the superintendent says.

  Ray Aguilera said the problems that came up in the first few days of the school year have since been resolved.

  "We are still looking to see which adjustments we need to make. The principals met to evaluate the beginning of classes and analyze the problems that arose. This is something normal that happens year after year."

  Asked about a complaint by a parent, Omar Villacorta, that a second-grade class at Gadsden Elementary School had 45 students and only 24 textbooks available, Aguilera said the district makes available enough materials for the classes to the schools.

  "It's the responsibility of the principals to make sure they get to the schools, but (a lack of supplies) is not something that happens in the district every day."

  Aguilera said that the schools on the east side of the city, like Cesar Chavez and Desert View elementary, are the ones with the highest growth in the district and where special attention has been placed on avoiding classroom crowding.

  He said the district is continuing to investigate a mix-up involving Sebastian Cisterna, a student in Rio Colorado Primary School who wandered across the border to San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., and got lost after a school bus dropped him off at the wrong address.

  "The school video was watched and we asked for a video from Customs, to see the circumstances under which the boy crossed to Mexico. Sometimes it happens, with all the new students, that they struggle with the transportation in the first few days of school classes. But that one that ended up in Mexico, I had not seen that in the 10 years I have been here."

  The boy was eventually returned safely to his home in San Luis, Ariz.