GILROY
– Local schools will feel the impact of the statewide one-day
boycott to protest the repeal of a law that would have given
illegal immigrants the right to get drivers’ licenses.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Local schools will feel the impact of the statewide one-day boycott to protest the repeal of a law that would have given illegal immigrants the right to get drivers’ licenses.
Gilroy Unified School District will lose about $40,000 because 1,342 students stayed home from school as part of the boycott organized by several Latino organizations.
“That’s a repercussion that hits the district,” said Frank Valadez, district attendance officer.
The loss will hit especially hard during a year when the district is already looking for solutions to a $523,000 budget deficit.
School districts receive funding from the state based on actual daily attendance rates, so for each student who was absent on Friday, GUSD lost between $26 and $36 per student.
Valadez asked attendance personnel at each school to estimate how many absences could be directly attributed to the boycott. The number absent came to 13.94 percent of the district’s 9,630 enrolled students, above and beyond the absences due to illness or vacation.
Senate Bill 60, which would have made it possible for illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, was passed by the Legislature and signed by former Gov. Gray Davis last summer. During the recall election campaign, Schwarzenegger promised to repeal the measure, and two weeks ago legislators did just that.
Valadez believes the boycott organizers and participants, who wanted to demonstrate the economic power of the state’s Latino population, did not understand that students would hurt their own schools by staying home.
“The organizers I’m sure felt that they were hurting not only the school district, but the state government by having children not going to school,” Valadez said. “What it did was give the government a $40,000 gift …”
As part of the economic protest against the repeal, Latinos were asked to stay home from work and refrain from spending money in restaurants, movie theaters and theme parks.
School administrators and teachers made announcements during class in the days before the strike, reminding students that they are required, by law, to attend school every day.
Valadez even contacted Spanish radio stations to tell parents that they would hurt their own schools by letting their children stay home.
Consequences for those who were absent Friday could include being sent to detention or Saturday detention or even going before the School Attendance Review Board.
“It’s hard to tell (who was absent due to the boycott) because some of the parents will call in and say, ‘My child is ill,’ ” Valadez said. “It’s important to know how many were legitimate and how many were not.”
Some parents have acknowledged that their children stayed home in protest, he said.
A student may appear before the board after six unexcused absences. The board then issues a legally binding contract stating that the student is supposed to be in school every day and on time unless they have a legitimate excuse, such as an illness. The board may also require the student to attend counseling or their parents to attend parenting classes.
