Proposal to accommodate new elementary school rearranges borders
dividing the district
Gilroy – When the fall of 2007 rolls around, the puzzle-like boundaries dividing the district’s schools will once again be rearranged, this time to accommodate a brand new elementary school.
Students who live in homes south of First Street – currently within the boundaries of Luigi Aprea, Rod Kelley and Antonio Del Buono elementary schools – will attend the new elementary school.
The new school will replace Las Animas Elementary School and Gilroy Unified School District is planning to sell that parcel of land. The boundaries for Rod Kelley and ADB will be redrawn to absorb the current Las Animas students.
Although the new school is driving some of the changes, the major issue is Gilroy is growing and so are its schools.
“How big do we want our schools to get to be, that’s the big question,” said GUSD Board President Pat Midtgaard.
Some areas of Gilroy, such as the southwest tip of Gilroy, are experiencing massive growth, which means some schools are over capacity while others have room. The district has to rearrange the borders in order to give some of the overcrowded sites breathing room, Midtgaard said.
Also, campuses with an excess of students have more portables and less room for the playground, she said.
The new boundaries will effect almost every elementary school except Eliot, said Juanita Contin, district coordinator of enrollment and parent involvement.
The district staged four meetings at various sites in the past couple weeks to give locals a chance to weigh in on the issue. The parent advisory council also sat through a presentation. A total of 115 community members attended the meetings, Contin said.
Contin emphasized that the district didn’t abruptly decide to tweak the boundaries this year. When the boundary committee was formed in 2002 they began discussing how the borders would be altered in response to the city’s growth.
Contin said she did hear concerns from parents, particularly those attending Las Animas who wondered when and how the implementation would occur.
“Usually people don’t like boundary changes,” she said.
Contin will stage a presentation detailing the boundary changes at the district’s Feb. 2 meeting. The board will take action on the item at the Feb. 13 meeting. Both begin at 7:30pm.
