Gilroy
– Dressed in a brown leather jacket – a flash of gold in his
hand,
”
The Ghost
”
arrived at Glen View Elementary School Thursday afternoon.
Robert
”
The Ghost
”
Guerrero, Gilroy’s own North American Boxing Federation
featherweight champion, heard about a fire March 29 that destroyed
one wing of his former elementary school and decided it was time to
make an appearance.
Gilroy – Dressed in a brown leather jacket – a flash of gold in his hand, “The Ghost” arrived at Glen View Elementary School Thursday afternoon.
Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Gilroy’s own North American Boxing Federation featherweight champion, heard about a fire March 29 that destroyed one wing of his former elementary school and decided it was time to make an appearance.
Under a sky threatening to downpour, the entire student body lugged their chairs across the campus arranging them in a semi-circle on the black top play area, anxiously awaiting to hear a Ghost story.
“I was a student here,” Guerrero boomed. “This is what I worked hard for,” he said dangling his diamond and gold championship belt in front of the entire school. “And I had to work extra hard in school to get this, because my dad said I couldn’t box if I didn’t do well in school.”
Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed his every movement, entranced. When Guerrero walked across the pavement in one direction, necks craned and feet followed from the other.
The 22-year-old champion attended Glen View in the mid-1990s and struggled to balance both boxing and school – a feat he accomplished with familial support.
“If you work extra hard – you can do whatever you want,” he promised. “Put all your mind into it and exercise your brain.”
Guerrero’s visit was scheduled so that it would occur right before next week’s California Standardized Test and Reporting (STAR) exams as one final motivational force for students.
“He heard about our fire and wanted to make a contribution to our school,” said Principal Marilyn Ayala. Guerrero made some phone calls and soon a date was set for him to speak.
Teachers across the district have spent the week covering the walls of their classrooms and reminding students of the importance of these tests. Testing requirements insist teachers eliminate any record of their instruction during the examination period.
Ayala compared the STAR tests to the world championships of testing.
“You might consider the (Measure of Academic Performance) tests and associate it with the playoffs,” she told students. “Next week is like the World Series. It’s the Superbowl.”
STAR tests are used for accountability purposes under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The staff at Glen View has developed an incentive plan to encourage students come prepared for the exams and exhibit good test taking skills. Each day of testing, students can earn points towards prizes like stickers and lollipops, by arriving on time and using scratch paper for making calculations to during math sections, among others.
“The best advice you can give students is to get plenty of sleep the night before, eat a good breakfast and come on time,” said fourth grade teacher Georgia Froumis.
After Guerrero’s speech, students returned to their classrooms for one last talk before the tests.
“The kids were so impressed (with Guerrero). They’re really relating to what he’s saying,” Froumis said regarding Guerrero’s story about his father.
“If you guys do well, then I’ll come back,” Guerrero assured students.
After the final bell, students ran from their classrooms crowding the front office trying to capture once last glimpse of The Ghost.
