Early College High School Program gives kids school diploma and
associate’s degree in five years
Gilroy – A new school in Gilroy will pave the way for some high school students to earn an associates degree or vocational certificate along with their high school diploma in five years.
The Gavilan College Board of Trustees and Gilroy Unified School District’s boards approved the Early College High School Program this week, which will create the Gilroy Early College Academy, slated to open in the fall of 2007.
The program, initially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has already been implemented in 11 schools throughout the state. Michael Hall, current principal of Gilroy Community Day School, will take the helm as principal of the new school. Hall was part of the Early College High School Program at his last position in the San Joaquin Valley.
During his presentation to the two boards on Tuesday, Hall said students at the new academy would attend classes on Gavilan’s campus. They would take college classes in the morning, high school classes in the afternoon and have two to four hours of homework every night. Hall did not return phone calls following the meeting.
The Gates Foundation has already given the college and GUSD $10,000 for the planning phase of the program. Once implemented, the program will receive another $400,000 to last over four years.
James Maxwell, principal of Gilroy High School, also attended the meeting to advocate the program. His niece graduated from a similar academy in San Mateo, and he said this program will help a very specific group of students succeed in higher education.
“We’re looking for students who may otherwise be at risk of not completing their four-year degrees in college, and for those who may not be happy in a mainstream high school,” he said. “If you want sports and drama, you belong at GHS. If you want the fast track to college, you belong in this program.”
Students at Gilroy Early College Academy would not be able to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports or drama because of the time commitment their classes would require. However, students that would be a match for the program would be the kind of students typically uninterested in such activities, Maxwell said.
“It’s something Gilroy hasn’t ever seen before, so the program may be hard to understand,” he explained. “But people in education understand exactly what kind of student we’re talking about here and teachers and counselors already have some students earmarked for this.”
Students earmarked for the new school are not necessarily those with 4.0 grade point averages, though they must be able to read at a 9th grade level. These students’ parents likely did not go to college, are low-income and may not currently be performing up to their abilities in school. According to the memorandum of understanding between the two boards, they are also students of color, English language learners and students “who will profit from elective and selective placement in a nontraditional high school setting.”
Maxwell said every school in California using the Early College High School Program has been successful and have had to turn kids away because of the program’s popularity. Students know what they’re getting into when signing up for the new schools, and perform well.
The academy will open with between 50 to 90 9th-grade students and grow from there over the next four years. That means parents of current 8th grade students – children who are generally 13 or 14 years old – would decide to send their children to a school that’s main demographic are adults. Students from Gilroy, Hollister and Morgan Hill are eligible for the new school.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Steven Kinsella, president and superintendent of Gavilan, called the program a “natural match” to prepare high school-aged kids for college.
The Gavilan board unanimously approved plans for the jointly-run academy following the meeting Tuesday and the GUSD board unanimously approved the plans at their Thursday meeting.
Gavilan College board president Tom Breen and GUSD trustee Pat Midtgaard both said the finer details, such as how the $400,000 will be allocated, were unknown to them. Now that the program has been approved, both said they expect to learn more as the academy is established.
