The school district is eyeing the former site of Gilroy’s only
charter school as prime real estate for another district high
school.
The school district is eyeing the former site of Gilroy’s only charter school as prime real estate for another district high school.
Trustees are studying the possibility of moving Mount Madonna Continuation High School across town to the campus of El Portal Leadership Academy as soon as next school year. The agency running El Portal relinquished the school’s charter in June, leaving the future of the campus in the air. However, trustees voted to defer their final decision until they receive more information about the cost of relocating. Until then, the district will continue sharing the campus with the Mexican American Community Services Agency, the nonprofit that ran El Portal, as per their joint-use agreement. The facility, which includes 12 classrooms, restrooms, an office and a multipurpose room, was built with a combination of federal, state and local funds.
The school board voted to allow MACSA to continue providing services like after school programs, teen, adult and senior exercise classes, and Friday Night Jams during this school year. The school district will coordinate with the nonprofit to use the campus for staff development and student services.
Moving Mount Madonna from its campus on Hirasaki Drive in west Gilroy to El Portal’s campus on IOOF Avenue will open up the continuation high school’s campus for the district’s adult education offerings, a program district staff and trustees said they’d like to see expand. The issue with relocating Mount Madonna will be building a new child care center for the children of the school’s teen mothers on the IOOF campus. Trustees expect to discuss that cost and make a final decision in the next few months, with the input of MACSA administrators, said trustee Francisco Dominguez.
“In the general sense, I’m supportive,” he said. “I think it would be a smooth transition. Mount Madonna students come from various areas. It’s not a neighborhood school. What we would need to do is send out the information.”
But Dominguez said trustees were “not there yet.”
