GILROY
– Middle school children, a demographic long under-served by
gifted education in Gilroy, could have as many as 15 enrichment
courses to choose from next school year.
GILROY – Middle school children, a demographic long under-served by gifted education in Gilroy, could have as many as 15 enrichment courses to choose from next school year.
Even though an 11 percent, or perhaps total, reduction in state funding for the GATE program looms, local officials are putting together a pilot enrichment program for middle school students that could include activities ranging from outdoor education to Web design.
“Regardless of Sacramento’s commitment, our intention is to move ahead with our plans to expand GATE,” said Joe Guzicki, special education director for Gilroy Unified School District. “We don’t want parents to worry. We are going to provide a GATE program.”
Over the last few weeks, GATE parents and district administrators have contacted officials from Leadership Gilroy, the Rotary Club speech contest, Bonfante Gardens, the Gavilan College TV station (Community Media Access Partnership) and several other Gilroy organizations. Their hope is to develop with those groups a roughly seven-week educational program geared to middle school students.
“The speech contest, for example, could be used to prepare students for the high school competition and at the same time we’re exposing them to public speaking,” Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs said.
The middle school enrichment program depends on heavy involvement from parents and others in the community to teach the courses, ideally as volunteers. Because GUSD offers the enrichment courses after the school day is over, it does not need to hire expensive credentialed teachers to run the classes.
GATE parents and administrators are under the gun to firm up enrichment program plans by Father’s Day. June 15 is the state deadline for submitting GATE education plans. If plans are not received by then, the district’s GATE funding gets cut.
A June 10 meeting to write the plan has been scheduled for 7 p.m. at the district office.
GUSD has been offering enrichment to gifted elementary students for years. Typically, gifted children who were not enrolled in the district’s only full-time GATE program, at Rucker Elementary School, take part in the enrichment courses.
Currently, only one of the four after-school enrichment programs offered to Gifted And Talented Education students is for middle schoolers only.
The middle school enrichment programs will not be exclusive to students who were identified for GATE in elementary school.
Administrators said open enrollment offsets the pressure some adolescents feel to not identify themselves as gifted.
