Schools

Gilroy Police locked down  Rod Kelley Elementary School and Mt. Madonna High School while they arrested two suspects nearby.On April 28, 2016, at 2:05 pm, the Gilroy Police Department learned that Cesar Resendiz was located inside an apartment on the 9000 block of Kern Avenue. Cesar was wanted for a felony warrant and is currently on supervised release. It was also learned that Cesar was in the company of his brother, Daniel Resendiz, who was wanted for multiple misdemeanor arrest warrants.Officers quickly contained and isolated the apartment, officers reported.Both suspects exited the apartment and were placed into custody without further incident. The schools were subsequently released from lockdown at about 2:45 pm.Both Cesar and Daniel Resendiz were later booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail.  Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Investigations Bureau at (408) 846-0350. Information can be left anonymously.

A Gilroy High School science teacher suspected of posing as a woman online to get boys to send him lewd pictures was arrested Tuesday.

Shag Beauty Bar in downtown Gilroy went from hair salon to Project Runway last Sunday as 27 sewing students modeled their handmade outfits to a packed house.

Waving blue pom-poms and screaming like their favorite team just scored the winning point, students at South Valley Middle School on Tuesday celebrated the school’s placement at the top of the leaderboard in a Bay Area math competition.Called LearnStorm, the initiative from Mountain View-based Khan Academy, is a nine-week math challenge open to all students in grades 3-12 that uses gaming concepts and a point reward system to encourage students as they gain greater math proficiency.At a special assembly on Tuesday, representatives from the academy along with Gilroy Unified School District superintendent, Deborah Flores; GUSD Board of Education member James Pace and school principal Anisha Munshi celebrated the school’s achievement in the math competition rankings, receiving a trophy for placing No. 1 on the Mastery Total Points leaderboard.“It is an amazing program,” said Valerie Kelly, South Valley Middle School math teacher and math department chair. During the assembly, Kelly presented top-scoring students with a certificates for their hard work.“The competition keeps them on task,” said Kelly, highlighting the point structure and the competition’s use of videos and diagrams to keep students engaged.All of the school’s math classes—more than 800 students—participated in the 9-week competition, which will culminate at a grand ceremony at Levis Stadium on April 5, where select schools in the Bay Area will be recognized.Flores said the competition, which started on January 29, and is made available to schools for free, rewards perseverance and reinforces skills taught in the classroom.“I love the way the program is set up,” she said, adding that her own son participated in a trial run of the competition last year at Gilroy High School. “It helps kids work through their math problems to figure out the answer.”Flores also appreciated the timeliness of the competition as a statewide math test is coming up in mid-April and the extra math preparation may help improve student scores.“I am hopeful that it will benefit individual performance in those assessments,” she said.Started as a pilot program at select schools in the region last year, the Khan Academy’s LearnStorm challenge is now available in counties throughout the greater Bay Area, from Napa to Santa Cruz.In the Bay Area, 1,000 schools participated in the competition this year, according to the Khan Academy.In addition to South Valley Middle School, Gilroy schools that participated include Gilroy High School, which placed second in Mastery below South Valley Middle School, Christopher High, El Roble Elementary, Glen View Elementary and GECA (Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy).To keep up with the latest school rankings, go to: learnstorm2016.org.

Dressed in suits, slacks and sensible shoes, nearly 150 local high school students “rocked the mock” last week, participating in workshops and a mock job interview session that aimed to prepare them for future employment.

The “Every 15 Minutes” presentation at Christopher High School was an intense educational experience. Students saw first-hand the dangers of distracted and drunken driving when some of their peers were “killed” in a simulated automobile crash.

It’s hard to imagine, but what if studying math were fun?

Chronic absenteeism in Gilroy schools has hovered around 12.5 percent in recent years, but a new approach has reduced that number and is keeping more kids in classrooms.

Hundreds of Christopher High School students saw some of their peers "die" in a massive car crash on the athletic field Wednesday.

A plan to slash the Gilroy school district’s energy bill dimmed slightly when officials discovered the price to repave the sprawling Gilroy High School parking lot will be more than expected.