The number of students vying for a spot at Christopher High
School far exceeds any of the school district’s expectations.
The number of students vying for a spot at Christopher High School far exceeds any of the school district’s expectations.
The school district received 297 transfer requests from students hoping to make CHS – which will open this August with freshman and sophomore classes – their new alma mater. Of those students, 236 are zoned for Gilroy High School and 61 do not currently attend Gilroy public schools. By contrast, only 39 students zoned for CHS requested a transfer to GHS.
“We’ve seen an incredible amount of interest in Christopher High School,” said Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Flores. “The number of applications we received is higher than we expected.”
Accommodating 75 extra students, in addition to the 550 freshman and sophomores already zoned for CHS – located at the corner of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Day Road in northwest Gilroy – was the original limit.
A firm believer that students should go to the school they want to attend, Flores said the district might be able to avoid a lottery for available spots by increasing capacity at CHS.
The initial decision to cap the inaugural year’s enrollment at about 600 students was made before voters passed Measure P in November, Flores said. The approval of the $150 million facilities bond and the successful sale of the first $50 million installment could put the second phase of the school on the fast track to completion, Flores said.
The school will add juniors in 2010 and seniors in 2011 and, with the addition of another classroom wing in phase two of the school’s construction, will eventually house 1,800 students.
Board members will discuss their options at a school board meeting Thursday, Flores said.
They could either increase capacity to accommodate all the transfers and avoid a lottery or stick to their original decision to cap the first-year student population at 600, which means about 200 students who have their eye on CHS will have to attend GHS.
Though Flores hoped the second phase of CHS would be completed by August 2010, it was not a certainty, she said.
“We don’t want to push the capacity of phase one if we’re not certain about phase two,” she said.
