GILROY
– There are fewer than 10 days left in the school year, but
about 1,700 local students will attend class past Independence
Day.
GILROY – There are fewer than 10 days left in the school year, but about 1,700 local students will attend class past Independence Day.
The district is currently enrolling students for summer school, which starts June 21, and expects to have room for about 1,700 kindergarten-through-12th grade students.
Once again, the district will contract with Morgan Hill-based Extreme Learning, an educational services provider, to provide intervention classes, tutoring and “summer camp” enrichment classes.
“We’re going to use the same model – the Summer Academies type – so they get intensive literacy for kids that are struggling, and intensive English language development for kids that are learning English and intervention math for kids who need help with math,” said Olivia Schaad, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction.
Gilroy and Mt. Madonna High School students also can still enroll in Exit Now!, a program designed to help students pass the California High School Exit Exam.
The intervention classes in math, reading and language arts are particularly important for current sophomores and even freshmen, who must pass the exam to earn a diploma.
Summer school classes for high school students will be held at Brownell Academy Middle School this year because of extensive construction at GHS. Other summer 2004 sessions will be held at Antonio Del Buono, for pre-kindergarten through third-grade, and Solorsano Middle School, for third through eighth grades.
Schaad said Gilroy Unified School District is fortunate to be able to maintain a summer school session, given state budget cuts.
“We’ve had interesting calls from other districts that aren’t having summer school this year and we are going to be servicing a limited number of private school kids,” she said.
The state cut the amount of summer school funding this year, but GUSD received a $200,000 grant that is helping pay for the $788,000 session.
“We did make cuts in summer school … we try to keep the cuts away from the kids,” Schaad said.
The district cut back its summer school spending by not hiring a full-time principal for second grade and below.
Instead, GUSD managers will oversee the program. Also, the middle- and high school summer principals will receive a lesser salary than last year.
For more information on summer school classes and registration deadlines, contact the district office at 847-2700.
Lori Stuenkel covers education for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 842-6400 x277 or ls*******@************ch.com.
