Schools

Alondra Navarro, a 17-year-old senior at GECA (the Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy) is this week's "Student of the Week."

Gilroy's public school choirs will be allowed to perform in churches this year after all, but come fall 2014, an unpopular decision – backed by more than 1,000 petition votes – to keep student singers out of religious establishments will go back into effect.

Gilroy High School’s homecoming week, which begins Monday, Oct. 28, will culminate Friday, Nov. 1 with a parade beginning at 3:30 p.m. The GHS Mustangs will go head to head with the Everett Alvarez Eagles later that night at 7:30 p.m.

School choirs will be allowed to perform in churches and tablets will be piloted in a biology classroom thanks to decisions made at the Gilroy Unified School District board meeting Thursday. A group of parents also gathered to express their frustration that the list of under performing elementary schools was given to parents late and has caused some parents to move their children to Luigi Aprea, the only “performing” elementary school in the district seven weeks after the school year started.

The Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education has no plans to vote on the internal administrative decision barring choir concerts from being held in churches, despite opposition from dozens of parents and students who call the decision “ridiculous,” “terrible” and a “shame.”

James Walling II, a 17-year-old senior at Christopher High School, is this week's "Student of the Week."

Gilroy residents and CHS alumni are encouraged to set up their lawn chairs and enjoy Christopher High School’s Homecoming Night Parade 2013 from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24.

Pablo Mazon Balancio Jr., a longtime Hollister resident who became a staple on the Gavilan Community College campus in recent years while showcasing his lively personality, died at age 56.