About three in four former students of the now-defunct El Portal
Leadership Academy are failing at least one class as they struggle
to adjust to their new high schools.
About three in four former students of the now-defunct El Portal Leadership Academy are failing at least one class as they struggle to adjust to their new high schools.
Gilroy’s only charter school, which was operated by the Mexican American Community Service Agency, shuttered its doors last spring after an audit conducted by the Gilroy Unified School District revealed fiscal mismanagement and poor academic performance. In the fallout, about 125 El Portal students were dispersed among the district’s other high schools.
While students who chose to attend Mount Madonna Continuation High School have seen the most success because of the small school setting and extra time teachers have to address students’ individual needs, students attending Christopher and Gilroy high schools are facing formidable challenges, said Graciela Valladares, El Portal’s former principal.
The district appointed Valladares as a transition coordinator for El Portal students for one year. According to district salary schedules, Valladares earns $85,000, a cost that comes out of the district’s general fund. However, that expense is justified by the extra money that will come to the district from the state for the extra students, Superintendent Deborah Flores said.
“Graciela’s been a great help in their transition,” Flores said. “I think it would have been a much more difficult transition without her.”
Valladares said she didn’t expect the district to renew her contract next year because of a precarious budget situation.
Valladares’ students will have to take what they learned from her guidance and rely on the support of their teachers, academic counselors and principals to succeed after she’s gone, she said.
“Gilroy High is where the students are being challenged the most,” Valladares said. ” Academically, socially, in every aspect.”
Valladares estimated that about 75 percent of her students are failing at least one class. But the problem isn’t one of ability, it’s one of preparation, Valladares and Flores agreed.
“The curriculum wasn’t where it should have been here,” Valladares said.
While Gilroy High’s score on the Academic Performance Index, a scale that reflects a school’s score on the state’s standardized tests, was 723 in 2008 – the school didn’t earn an API in 2009 because it didn’t test enough students – El Portal earned a 520 in 2009. Meanwhile, the Dr. T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, a district-run college preparatory school, scored 894 in 2009.
“That’s one of the reasons El Portal was closed, because of their student achievement data,” Flores said. “I absolutely believe (closing the school) was the right decision and now their needs are being better met academically. It was in the students’ best interests to have them go to one of our high schools.”
Still, some of the students aren’t convinced that their new schools are the best fit.
“I liked El Portal better,” said Jacqueline Maravilla, 17, a senior at Mount Madonna. “Everybody got along. It was a good environment. I did get sad when they closed it down.”
Having the support of Valladares has helped ease the transition however, she said.
“I feel like she does take the time to listen and help you out,” she said.
Maravilla and her friend, Isabel Flandes, 18, who also attended El Portal, agreed that it was nice knowing everyone at their old school. The two typically eat lunch together and spend their free time socializing with friends they made at El Portal.
Many students still tell Valladares that they hope the district will reopen El Portal.
“They’re not going to open El Portal again,” Valladares reminds them. “It’s done and over with. We need to move on. Trust me, we all wanted it. We all loved it but the reality is it’s not going to come back no matter what you do or don’t do.”
Even if El Portal was still open today, it would be a very different school, Valladares said. She was only principal there for a year before it closed but said she would have wanted a more rigorous curriculum.
“I would have been more selective on who I would have brought in – teacher-wise, student-wise, everything,” she said. “It was a college preparatory school – or it was supposed to be. There were a lot of students we took in who probably shouldn’t have been here. But I’m glad they are because I’m still able to serve them.”
These days, Valladares spends each day at a different school and meets with students at least once a month. Students who are struggling more see her once a week. Time management and communication skills are some of the issues she works on the most with students.
All the students have her cell phone number and she cherishes her time with them.
“We have a lot of heart to hearts and they know I care for them,” she said. “I tell students that this was a good thing. It was a learning experience.”
