GILROY
– Despite being in use for nearly three months, Ascencion
Solorsano Middle School until Tuesday had not been formally
dedicated by school district and city officials.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Despite being in use for nearly three months, Ascencion Solorsano Middle School until Tuesday had not been formally dedicated by school district and city officials.
Under sunny skies and warm temperatures, school district officials and employees, city officials and community members gathered to dedicate Solorsano, at 7121 Grenache Way. The crowd included relatives of Native American healer Ascencion Solorsano and parents who joined the Eliot Elementary School and Solorsano families to celebrate the campus and acknowledge those who worked on its development.
“Today, we are dedicating a school facility that sets a standard of excellence,” Superintendent Edwin Diaz said. “For our students to have the opportunity to attend such a fine school facility just brings a lot of joy to the city of Gilroy.”
The Solorsano campus will embody GUSD’s vision to provide excellent instruction in quality learning environments, Diaz said, praising teacher and student effort toward high academic achievement.
“I’m more excited about the quality of the instructional program that our students are receiving here at Ascencion Solorsano Middle School and Eliot Elementary School than I am about the facilities,” Diaz said.
Eliot students are temporarily housed at Solorsano while their school is razed and rebuilt over the next two years. The 360 kindergarten-through fifth-grade students will share the campus with 180 Solorsano sixth-graders. The school will also house seventh-graders next year.
School Board President Jim Rogers noted that Solorsano is the first GUSD site to be dedicated in the 21st century. Eliot and Las Animas Elementary Schools will follow, receiving new facilities in the next few years.
The dedication ceremony featured a ribbon-cutting for the Solorsano gymnasium, built by the City of Gilroy.
“It is an example of continued cooperation between the City of Gilroy and Gilroy Unified,” Rogers said. “We hope it will set an example of cooperation that can continue.”
Solorsano sixth-grader Sean Bay was chosen to read a statement describing the role she would like to fulfill at her new school.
As the first class to pass through Solorsano, Bay said, students must get involved not only in school but in the community.
“The choices we make today, this week, this month and this year will set the culture of this school,” she said.
About 30 relatives of Ascencion Solorsano, including grandson Joseph Mondragon, attended the dedication.
“Grandma loved children,” said Mondragon, who presented the school with a framed photograph of Solorsano. “I know she would be very proud to have this beautiful school dedicated and named after her.”
Parents also attended the ceremony.
“It’s awesome, the gym is wonderful, it’s high class all the way,” said Camille Coonradt, whose daughter attends Solorsano. “It’s nice that they have a good school to go to and have them want to respect it.”
Also participating in the ceremony were members of the American Legion Post 217 and the Gilroy High School jazz band, who performed the national anthem.
