GILROY
– For the first time in decades, Gilroy Unified School District
elementary schools, and not the district office, will host
kindergarten registration March 1.
GILROY – For the first time in decades, Gilroy Unified School District elementary schools, and not the district office, will host kindergarten registration March 1.
Children who are 5 years old on or before Dec. 2, 2003, are eligible for kindergarten next school year. The on-site sign-ups are one more change in enrollment procedures since GUSD moved from magnet to neighborhood schools.
A neighborhood schools policy requires students to attend the campus closest to where they live. GUSD is phasing in the program, starting with kindergarten students at the beginning of this school year.
“We kept registration at the district last year, so holding it at the schools this time around is part of the smoothing in process,” said Juanita Contin, the district’s director of student enrollment and parent involvement.
Between 780 and 820 children are expected to enroll for kindergarten in 2003-04.
Registration runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Parents must show up at their neighborhood school with:
• Proof of age (birth/baptismal certificate).
• Proof of required immunizations (polio, DPT, MMR, TB, Hepatitis B series and varicella).
• Two proofs of residency (utility bill, property tax receipt or rental receipt).
• Completed registration form.
After registration, school sites will set up orientation days for kindergartners.
“We want to know who the kindergarten kids are, and then we can set up orientations,” Contin said.
Parents can locate their neighborhood’s school by visiting the district online at www.gusd.k12.ca.us and clicking on the “kindergarten enrollment” link. A few minor revisions have been made to some of the attendance area boundaries. For more information, call Contin at
848-7142.
One of the revisions involves the attendance area for Luigi Aprea Elementary School, the district’s highest performing school on state standardized tests.
As the boundaries stand now, students living in Sunrise Drive homes west of Kite Drive will attend Luigi Aprea. The district initially split the area down the middle of Sunrise Drive, meaning that children living in even-numbered homes would go to Luigi, while their neighbors in odd-numbered homes would go to Rucker Elementary.
That decision was fought successfully by Sunrise Drive parents, but the district said capacity issues could arise at Luigi in the next few years.
When classrooms are filled beyond a 20-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio, new classes must be opened or some other overflow plan must be developed.
Rod Kelley Elementary School had to take in over a dozen Luigi students at the beginning of this school year.
