It’s nearly Halloween. This makes me feel warm and fuzzy for a
number of reasons.
It’s nearly Halloween. This makes me feel warm and fuzzy for a number of reasons. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love watching my kids dress up in elaborate costumes and collect candy from everyone who lives within a mile radius of my house. The one downside to this is that I am the wardrobe mistress for my family. Ever since my kids were babies, I would endeavor to make them each a homemade Halloween costume. I would go to the fabric store, buy the appropriate materials, cut out the patterns, and sew the costumes. I did not own a sewing machine back then, I did this all by hand.

A few years into this, my husband gave me a sewing machine for Christmas. I know that he meant well, but giving me a sewing machine was like giving a Stradivarius to a tone-deaf man. I don’t enjoy sewing. Fashioning my own wardrobe has no appeal for me. But over the years, I have learned to thread the bobbin, sew a straight seam and produce some doll-worthy clothing. This week I will be as busy as ever, making a Harlequin costume for Carly, a deranged clown for Daniel, and Samara (from the movie “The Ring”) for Kimberly. In addition to sewing, I need to transform a metal bucket into a well for Kim to collect her treats.

In a fit of sanity, we bought a costume for the dog this year.

Another nice thing about Halloween is that it means that the election season is almost over. Because of the recall vote, our local races got a late start. The upcoming elections have made for some interesting reading. Not especially from the candidates, but from Wal-Mart. Did everyone get their Wal-Mart mailer? I fully expect that unions will mail out campaign literature supporting certain causes and candidates. But retail stores?

This is a first. All week I will be checking my mail to see if the folks at Orchard Supply or In ‘n’ Out Burger have anything relevant to say about the local election.

* * *

Congratulations to all the schools in Gilroy that have made progress in the latest round of testing. All GUSD schools made progress, and that is good news. However, a quick perusal of the results for the whole county reveal that almost all the schools made progress this year, and we as a district still lag behind almost all of our neighboring schools.

Only Luigi Aprea School has met the state benchmark of an API of 800. Rucker School and Antonio del Buono are headed in that direction as well. These two schools deserve special recognition, because unlike Luigi Aprea, both have a large number of students still learning English.

Rucker School is ineligible for state award money because its population of white students‚ scores went from an API of 876 to 875. This is the highest score of any subgroup in the district. It means that Rucker School cannot receive money that the state doesn’t have available to award anyway. So, while I applaud the progress, the fact remains that the majority of our schools still have work to do.

* * *

I don’t know Kim Lemos, although I have met her at some of the meetings at the high school. Cynthia Walker’s columns of the past two weeks are very troubling to me as a parent. If Kim Lemos is an outstanding teacher, which it appears she is, why is she not a good fit for Gilroy High? I realize that the District can not comment on personnel matters, but this is really disturbing. Excellent teachers and academic excellence go hand in hand.

I have had a few people ask me whether my defense of the book “Beloved” still stands. It does. When I wrote that column, I did not have a child in high school. I was under the mistaken impression that the books on the Gilroy High reading list were supplementing a textbook. Only this year did I discover that there are no textbooks for English at the high school. And no curriculum maps. Again, this is very troubling as the parent of a college-bound student.

With the SAT being overhauled, it is imperative that our students learn how to write essays and have a solid understanding of English grammar. While I still support having challenging books on the high school reading list, I don’t believe that any five books can stand alone. It is time for the high school to adopt one of the anthologies that other high schools in California are using to teach English. Until that is done, I won’t fight over the selection of novels.

Denise Baer Apuzzo has lived in Gilroy for seven years. She is married and the mother of three children who attend Gilroy Unified Schools. You can reach her by email at: [email protected]. Her column is published each Thursday.

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