GILROY
– As enrollment numbers settle into place, neighborhood schools
are making it easier for the school district to place students
where they need to be.
By Lori Stuenkel

GILROY – As enrollment numbers settle into place, neighborhood schools are making it easier for the school district to place students where they need to be.

Total enrollment in Gilroy Unified School District was 9,600 last week. That number could go up when the final state enrollment report is released in October.

These numbers are creating some problems in the lower grades, said Juanita Contin, director of student enrollment for GUSD.

“In the eight elementaries, we have very little space at any of the schools,” she said.

About 4,700 students are enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. Antonio Del Buono, Luigi Aprea and Rod Kelley each have enrollments of around 700 students. Eliot, the smallest elementary school, has 363 students for the 2003-04 school year.

Staffing is tighter this year because of budget cuts, so classes filled up faster. In an effort to keep class sizes low and accommodate students at their neighborhood school, more classes combined students from two grade levels. Having too few students in a class wastes district funds, Contin said.

“We look at what the current enrollment is and base our staffing on that,” she said. “At most of the places, what we’re trying to do is have our staffing mirror what our demographics are.”

For instance, most grade levels at El Roble, which has a total of 581 students, were among the first to fill up this year. More families with children are living in that area and the district may have to examine the number of teachers at that school and make a change to accommodate more students, Contin said.

This is the second year for neighborhood schools, with children in kindergarten and first grade attending the elementary school closest to their residence. Sixth-graders attend their neighborhood middle school.

The neighborhood schools program has lightened the transfer load for the district. GUSD has granted 220 transfer requests since March and there are 54 students on a transfer/overflow list.

Three years ago, when elementary schools had open enrollment, an average 1,200 students the waiting list at the start of the school year.

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