GILROY
– The start date for the district’s Gifted and Talented
Education program was postponed this year due to problems at the
state level, frustrating parents who have long pushed to improve
GATE services and worry about gaps in their children’s
education.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – The start date for the district’s Gifted and Talented Education program was postponed this year due to problems at the state level, frustrating parents who have long pushed to improve GATE services and worry about gaps in their children’s education.
Parents pressed last spring for an expansion of services to GATE students in regular schools and the teachers who instruct them, but must now work against state budget cuts that are limiting the scope of that expansion.
“We had better momentum after last spring, and I think some of that momentum has eroded and needs to be rebuilt again,” GATE parent Susan Bassi said.
Supplementary activities for elementary students in the GATE program will not start until mid-November at the earliest this year.
In a GATE parent advisory committee meeting Tuesday, Joe Guzicki, director of special education for the district, revealed that poor communication from the state Department of Education left the GATE program in limbo until just two weeks ago. Gilroy Unified School District submitted its GATE program application by the June 15 deadline and was waiting for state approval and disbursement of funds.
“I found out (the program was approved on) Sept. 22, and that’s because I called them, they didn’t call me,” Guzicki said. He usually receives state approval by Sept. 1, he said. “There’s been major emaciation of the staff up there, so they just didn’t have the resources to get back to the district in a timely fashion.”
The state department had both good and bad news for the district’s GATE students: GUSD’s GATE program received a two-year approval, which Guzicki described as “pretty rare” – approvals are granted for one to three years – but for roughly $15,000 below what it requested to implement that program.
“We told them, this means we’re going to have a different program than the one we wrote about,” Guzicki said. “We’re looking at a major reallocation of the GATE funds.”
GUSD requested $85,500 to carry out its GATE plans.
“June was like, pie in the sky, and now we’re in a little bed of reality,” Guzicki said.
The money will fund enrichment classes for middle school students and after-school academies for elementary GATE students who do not attend Rucker Elementary School, the district’s only full-time GATE school. There are 197 middle school GATE students and 150 elementary students in grades three to five. GATE enrollment begins in third grade.
The program’s plan must be scaled back to accommodate the decrease in funding and re-submitted to the state office. The process should take a few weeks, but Guzicki said it would not further postpone the start of enrichment or after-school academies because the district will continue to work on implementing the program while the revised plan awaits approval.
The middle school enrichment classes are setup and scheduled to begin Oct. 18. There are only three classes scheduled, far fewer than district officials and parents were hoping for. Enrichment classes are taught by community volunteers and the program is desperately searching for more.
“We want people to teach their passion, stuff they’re interested in,” Guzicki said. The current classes include aviation, animation and Web design.
Volunteers would receive district support in setting up the class and developing lessons, Guzicki said. Classes are usually two hours long, once a week, for six weeks, he said. The enrichment classes and after-school academies are limited to 20 students each.
The start date for the after-school academies is still up in the air but should be sometime in November. The academies are taught by teachers for two hours after school. In the past, academies have covered subjects such as digital photography, computers, music, art and Spanish.
One major addition to the GATE program this year was the designation of a GATE resource teacher to assist regular teachers in providing rigorous activities for high-achieving students.
“My vision for the resource teacher was that they would help classroom teachers differentiate their instruction to reach the higher-level GATE kids,” Guzicki said. The teacher might also help parents develop enrichment courses.
While the original plan was to hire the resource teacher half-time, the position was cut to quarter-time after the state designated this year’s GATE funding. The district is now in the process of hiring a GUSD teacher for the position, who could start next month.
Parents at Tuesday night’s meeting were hopeful that a resource teacher would be able to help regular teachers meet the needs of their high-performing and sometimes difficult children.
“I think it’s a step, it’s a half-step,” Bassi said.
Bassi worried that one quarter-time employee would be hard-pressed to assist each teacher in grades three to five.
“What that will really translate to is very little time for them,” said Bassi, who has been involved in the parent push to improve the GATE program for seven years.
Parents want to ensure their GATE children are receiving the kind of differentiated instruction the district has said all teachers must provide. Those at the meeting suggested the district make available to all teachers the more challenging activities that are used in Rucker classrooms. Guzicki said he would try to make those available to teachers at all school sites.
Until the after-school academies and resource teacher are in place, GATE students will miss out with the formal program in place, Bassi said.
“If you have a child not in Rucker who is identified for GATE, there is nothing to benefit those students,” she said.
