Gilroy
– After five years of helping students go to college, El Portal
will be celebrating a sort of graduation of its own.
Gilroy – After five years of helping students go to college, El Portal will be celebrating a sort of graduation of its own.
The Mexican American Community Services Organization, which runs the El Portal Leadership Academy charter high school, will break ground on a new classroom complex and multipurpose facility today. The buildings – which will allow the school to more than double its enrollment to 360 students – will be completed by 2008 and signify that the organization has gained a foothold in the educational community.
“There’s a lot to be said about bricks and mortar,” said Xavier Campos, the organization’s chief operations officer. “You’re really making a statement that we’re here to stay.”
There’s No Place Like School
The students at El Portal could reap the benefits of the new facilities as early as January 2008, said Campos. The new classroom complex – which will arrange portable classrooms on permanent concrete slabs around a central courtyard – is scheduled to be operational when students return from winter break later this year. The multipurpose center will not be available until fall 2008.
The new facilities will be a far cry from the current school, which consists of a old corrugated steel building and portables more than 150 feet away.
“It’s cold in the winters, hot in the summers,” said Campos. “It’s just an outdated facility.”
The school also does not have its own place for activities that require a large space, such as school dances or assemblies. For such events, students must trek to the adjacent South Valley Middle School to use its facilities. The multipurpose center – which will be used for community events as well as school functions – will serve these needs.
In addition to addressing creature comforts, the new buildings will make students feel like their school is an established part of the community, Campos said.
“It’s going to finally give the students of El Portal a sense of place,” he added.
Even the prospect of new buildings has excited students.
“I’m really happy to know that our new school will be built,” said junior Berenice Magaña, who will only get to enjoy the facility for her final semester. “It will bring us more hope and determination to be empowered and prepare for college and be productive members of the community.”
The building will not only affect students, but Gilroy residents as well, she added.
“Our new school will also impact how society sees the Latino community,” she said.
The new buildings will alert the community that El Portal is not a reform school, said junior Nancy Marquez.
“A lot of families and people think about the school as a place that just allows gangsters here or kids who don’t behave,” she said. “It’s for people who decide to succeed.”
The Same, Just Different
The school is the culmination of more than seven years of work by the San Jose-based organization, which works to provide social services to and promote cultural appreciation of the Latino community.
The Gilroy branch secured a charter – permission to operate a small, public school – from the Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees in 2001 and opened the doors to El Portal a year later. The school has since grown to 176 students.
“When they wrote their first charter and went through their first year, they had a struggle,” said Jaime Rosso, a trustee who was part of the district board that passed the charter six years ago.
The years since have shown the commitment and skill of the organization’s members, he added.
“They have done a very good job in terms of getting the students they’ve worked with to go on and be able to get into colleges and continue their education,” he said.
The school promises a student-to-teacher ratio of 22-to-1, which is small compared to the more than 30-to-1 ratio at Gilroy High School. By keeping teacher contact high and remaining a public institution, the school can target students that might otherwise slip through the cracks, Campos said.
This was the case with Magaña, who dropped out of Gilroy High School her freshman year because she felt the school was too large.
“If it wouldn’t be for (El Portal), I’d be at home right now,” she said.
With higher enrollment, a new location and new buildings, the school will undergo a bit of an identity shift in the coming years. The increase in students will allow the school to field teams, such as soccer and basketball, that could compete in the Central Coast Section. The new facilities will boost interest in the school and make entrance more competitive, Campos said.
“What student doesn’t want to go to a brand-spanking new school,” he said.
Despite the cosmetic alterations and possible increased competition, El Portal’s charge will remain unchanged.
“The aim of the school has always been the same,” he said. “We’re trying to get our students to go to college.”
