GILROY
– In response to parent demand for more instruction geared for
gifted students, Gilroy Unified School District is looking for a
way to offer its Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program at
each elementary school site next year.
GILROY – In response to parent demand for more instruction geared for gifted students, Gilroy Unified School District is looking for a way to offer its Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program at each elementary school site next year.

Budget permitting, the fledgling idea is, essentially, to place GATE-trained teachers at each elementary site where they could offer enrichment courses for a portion of the school day. Currently, students who are not enrolled in the district’s only full-time GATE school, Rucker Elementary, attend after-school programs if they want GATE enrichment. Enrichment courses have ranged from astronomy and Spanish to music and digital photography.

“I’m certainly in support of GATE strands at each school,” said parent Janneke Brown. “The way I see it, as a parent whose child tested for GATE but could not be placed, is that elementary students not placed at Rucker are the most under-served.”

GUSD must find a way to pay for the new format despite a likely 11 percent reduction in state funding. And, to land state money, a formal instruction plan for GATE courses must be designed before May 15.

“This is really about using our existing resources in a different way and not having to find new funding in these tough budget times,” Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs said.

GUSD staff and members of the GATE Parent Advisory are researching how other school districts in the Bay Area are providing GATE instruction as they too start to cope with smaller budgets.

If the district cannot afford to offer GATE courses at each school site – or if there are not enough GATE students to justify the expense – students at different grade levels may be placed together for the enrichment courses.

Class sizes typically range from 20 to 30 students at the elementary school level. There are roughly 235 GATE students placed across eight elementary schools in the district. Since 2001, between 70 and 80 students have qualified for GATE instruction each year.

At the elementary level, GATE instruction begins in the third grade. Starting next year, GUSD elementary schools will house students in kindergarten through fifth grade. All but two GUSD elementary schools currently serve kindergarten through sixth-grade students.

Another cost-savings option would serve a cluster of elementary schools with one GATE teacher. This may lead to other financial impacts, however, since clustering would require bus transportation for a small number of students.

At issue for parents whose children are not receiving full-time GATE instruction is whether regular teachers know how to meet the needs of their often high-performing and sometimes eccentric children. Parents have long fought the district to provide GATE training with the same urgency it has given to programs for struggling students.

“I don’t know if I can say how much training is appropriate, but I know that a complete absence of training is not appropriate,” Brown said.

If experienced GATE teachers at each school or a cluster of schools are not possible, GUSD would consider providing so-called resource facilitators for each site. Resource facilitators are already used at schools to help regular teachers. They are, in most cases, experienced educators who have training in research-based teaching strategies. Facilitators use this knowledge to give demo lessons and coach classroom teachers.

Parents in the GATE advisory group gave a cold-shoulder reception to this idea, favoring one full-fledged GATE teacher per site or cluster. Veteran GATE teacher Sue Gamm also balked at the plan.

Gamm says regular classroom teachers are already hard-pressed to meet the needs of a variety of students.

“Adding one more thing to their plate is not realistic,” Gamm said.

The district is also looking at saving its limited funds by increasing the number of volunteers teaching the after-school programs, called GATE After-School Academies. Two of the four teachers this semester have refused paychecks for their services. One of the teachers is a father of a GATE student. The other is a retired GUSD educator.

Academies this semester include technology, digital photography, music and aviation classes.

GUSD administrators and GATE parents are also talking about increasing the amount of theater arts opportunities for students.

Rucker Elementary already houses a successful theater arts program which the program’s director, Pepe Espinoza, has expressed interest in expanding, district staff has said. Horejs and Joe Guzicki, the GUSD’s special education director, said they’d also like to establish cooperative projects with various performing arts groups in the community.

“There is a lot of talent and energy in this town and we hope to work collaboratively with that,” Guzicki said.

Horejs said the Rotary Club’s speech contest for high school students could also serve as a model for speech competitions at the middle school level.

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