At El Portal charter school not missing class translates to a
free gift of technology
Gilroy – Last year, Joseph Soto often skipped class and arrived late.
And the 14-year-old freshman could have easily headed in the same direction now that he’s at El Portal charter school, but something changed his mind: a computer.
Soto recently learned that perfect attendance at El Portal, beginning Sept. 27 and ending Nov. 21 right before Thanksgiving break, will translate to a PC. And ever since the idea of a computer in his home entered his head, the teen has been able to think of little else.
“The whole entire time I was thinking about the prize,” he said.
But even with his eye fixed steadily on the pot of gold, Soto has managed to improve not only his absenteeism but also his school work. His teacher, he said, remarked on how much his academics have improved since the idea of winning a computer was laid before the student body.
“I really didn’t care (before) but then I changed a lot,” Soto said. “Because the whole time that I’m in class I would learn more.”
Soto is one of about 20 local charter school students on the path to receiving an entirely free computer. The rest of the student body – roughly 160 – failed to achieve the spotless attendance record required, further validating the serious problem at El Portal.
“Attendance has been a huge issue this year,” said Principal Noemi Garcia Reyes.
For the past couple of years, average daily attendance hovered at about 96 percent, but the most recent count revealed that it dropped to 90 percent. Reyes can’t pinpoint the exact cause of the decline but some students with past truancy problems did recently enroll.
To get to the root cause of the truancy issue, an employee solely dedicated to attendance and tardies was recently hired, Reyes said.
In addition, in effort to remedy the situation, the charter school board began exploring.
Chris Cote, chair of the Gilroy Unified School District Environmental Oversight Committee and El Portal boardmember, said the words of the late educator and GUSD trustee TJ Owens to always “look for new innovations in education,” led to the free computer idea.
“It just seemed like something that would work for kids on several levels,” Cote said. “So it wins on every level and that’s the kind of thing that TJ was always looking for.”
Many of the charter school students don’t have computers at home, probably the majority, Reyes said. El Portal now has a fully refurbished lab, complete with 20 new computers, so students at least have ample access during the day.
“For a lot of our students it’s through school that they actually have access to technology,” Reyes said.
Gardenia Perez’s parents happen to have a computer in their own home but it’s really more of a word processor since it doesn’t boast Internet.
That’s why Perez, 14, was so excited when she heard about the perfect attendance prize. The high school freshman said she already had decent attendance so it won’t be that difficult for her to hit the target.
The five-member El Portal board all pitched in cash to pay for the computers, which they plan to buy from the San Jose-based business Resource Area For Teachers which sells items at a significant discount to educational institutions.
Once local businesses learned that the boardmembers were funding the program with their own cash, they also began pitching in, illustrating the value of private/public partnerships, Cote said.
Before the students exit campus for Turkey Day, the teens who managed to make it to the end will each take home a Pentium III to keep as their very own.
Jose Chavez, 13, is planning on being a part of that group. He’s shaped up since hearing about the prize and knows “that I got to stay in school to get it and try not to get into trouble.”
For Chavez the concept of computer as motivational carrot has worked. Although the teen is maintaining impeccable attendance because he yearns for the treasure, through his actions he’s learned the value of showing up in order, “to get an education, to get a better job when you grow up.”
