GILROY
– Blink and you might miss him. Sal Tomasello is always on the
move, but that doesn’t mean he’s not around.
Tomasello splits his time between Ascencion Solorsano, Gilroy’s
new state-of-the-art middle school, and South Valley Middle School
located across town.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Blink and you might miss him. Sal Tomasello is always on the move, but that doesn’t mean he’s not around.
Tomasello splits his time between Ascencion Solorsano, Gilroy’s new state-of-the-art middle school, and South Valley Middle School located across town. He wears his principal’s hat while at Solorsano three days a week and fills the role of assistant principal at South Valley the remaining two days.
“To say the least, it’s quite a challenge,” Tomasello said.
He credits his teaching staff and Diane Elia, principal of Eliot Elementary School, which temporarily shares the Solorsano campus, with helping things run smoothly on campus. Tomasello said he connects with Elia “all the time.”
“The fortunate situation here at Solorsano is that I have not only Diane Elia to support me when I’m not here, but I also have a strong teaching staff,” he said. “The teachers who are providing some additional leadership on this site when I’m not here are a tremendous advantage to the parents, (other) teachers and myself.
“It would make it much more difficult here at the school (without them).”
Elia shied away from Tomasello’s praise.
“It doesn’t take much effort on my part, and he takes great ownership of this facility,” she said. “He’s here a lot – long hours – so it’s been really hard on him trying to split the two schools, so he’s being generous.”
Tomasello and Elia have shared the $25-million Solorsano campus, at 7121 Grenache Way, for about five months, and both say things are running smoothly.
“It has pretty much this year worked like two separate campuses,” Elia said. “We haven’t had a lot of interaction or a lot of issues between the middle school kids and our (elementary) kids.”
Tomasello splits his time between two schools because Solorsano middle school has only sixth-graders enrolled this year, Gilroy Unified School District’s first with the middle school (grades 6 through 8) model. Seventh- and eighth-graders will be phased in over the next two years. The district also saves money by keeping Tomasello as assistant principal part time.
Eliot is sharing the campus until fall 2005 while the Seventh Street school is demolished and re-built.
“I just love being out here (at Solorsano). I can’t wait till the day that I’m here full time,” Tomasello said. “Just interacting with the kids, interacting with the teachers and being here on a day-to-day basis, it’s just an exciting place to be.”
Next year, when 460 to 475 students populate Solorsano instead of the 226 sixth-graders currently enrolled, Tomasello will be at the school full time.
Tomasello, who has been an educator for more than 30 years, shares his assistant-principal duties with Jim Gama, who also teaches at South Valley part time. The school is looking for a full-time assistant principal to start next semester, when Gama will become Brownell Academy Middle School’s full-time assistant principal.
Dividing his time has its drawbacks, Tomasello said.
“After being (at South Valley) full-time for three years, there’s a big disconnect between some of the teachers and myself and the students and myself,” he said. “And I think one of the strengths that I have, especially in the capacity as administrator, was … working with students on a consistent basis all day long.”
Tomasello said he was pleasantly surprised by his experienced teaching staff this year. All 12 teachers at Solorsano are fully credentialled, with one exception, and that teacher submitted his credential paperwork this week.
The school has also established an official parent club.
While the Solorsano/Eliot split has worked well so far, Tomasello and Elia are already planning some changes for next year, when the school will house more than 800 students.
The schools’ start and end times will likely be staggered, to minimize interaction between the students and better manage traffic. If one school starts 20 minutes later, it would also make it easier for food service to provide students with breakfast.
Both principals are wary of the addition of another 230 middle-schoolers, however.
“Space is an issue, having enough classrooms is going to be an issue,” Elia said.
“We’re working on a plan right now to address the full facilities needs of both schools next year,” Tomasello said. “It’ll be a little tight.”
Elia says Eliot students and staff have come across some unforeseen challenges this year as elementary students try to mesh with middle school facilities.
Before door-stops held open the heavy bathroom doors, several students became stuck inside when they were unable to pull open the door.
The location of the multi-purpose room, across campus from Eliot’s classrooms, takes 15 minutes away from students’ lunchtime because they must walk there to pick up their lunch and walk back to their playground.
Also, Elia misses the interaction she had with parents when Eliot was on Seventh Street. Since GUSD has neighborhood schools, most students lived close enough that they walked to campus with their parents and many moms and dads hung around to talk to each other and school staff.
“The parents have become comfortable, but this is not in their neighborhood, so transportation is an issue sometimes,” Elia said. “They are starting to kind of come together as a community, but it’s not at their school, so I think that will really help to build a sense of community when we’re back where they live.”
Eliot will move into its own brand new, two-story school in 2005.
“I’m really excited about this community having that school.”
