Even though empty classrooms dot the campuses of two Gilroy
middle schools, a divided school board voted to spend nearly
$650,000 to add two extra classrooms and additional toilets at the
district’s third and newest campus, Ascencion Solorsano Middle
School.
Even though empty classrooms dot the campuses of two Gilroy middle schools, a divided school board voted to spend nearly $650,000 to add two extra classrooms and additional toilets at the district’s third and newest campus, Ascencion Solorsano Middle School.
With a projected population nearing 1,200 students next year, Solorsano will house almost as many students as both South Valley and Brownell middle schools combined. Originally built with a capacity of 900 students, Solorsano’s sprawling campus continues to expand every year as students from the two other middle schools request transfers. This year, the school received 178 transfer applications, mostly from incoming sixth graders, Solorsano Principal Sal Tomasello said.
“They don’t give us a shot,” said South Valley Principal Greg Kapaku, a note of frustration in his voice. “We’re losing kids that have never even been here.”
Under federal No Child Left Behind legislation, parents are given the option to pull their students from schools that are not achieving federal growth targets – also known as Program Improvement schools – to enroll them in schools that do meet those criteria. Brownell and South Valley are in their fifth and sixth years of Program Improvement, respectively, and lose students every year as a result. While eight classrooms stand empty on the Brownell campus and an additional five are vacant at South Valley, the district has installed eight portables and two auxiliary locker rooms on the Solorsano campus to accommodate the crush of students there.
“It’s time to draw a hard line in the sand I believe on this PI transition,” trustee Mark Good said at an April 7 board meeting. “Continuing to increase the size of Solorsano while we have empty classrooms at two other middle schools – from an economic standpoint, I’m done. It’s up to us as a board to show some leadership and stop those transfers. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s insanity.”
At two recent school board meetings, tempers flared as trustees discussed options to address the wave of students flowing into Solorsano. After more than an hour of talk at a May 6 board meeting, trustees voted 6-1, with Good dissenting, to pay $476,000 for a new bathroom building at Solorsano and 5-2, with Good and trustee Denise Apuzzo dissenting, to pay $170,000 to move two portables from Las Animas Elementary School to Solorsano.
Those funds will come out of Measure P, a $150-million bond voters passed in November 2008 to pay for the completion of Christopher High School and renovations to the district’s other schools. The district is burning through that money faster than it expected, Good said.
At the April meeting, Good suggested halting the flow of transfers altogether while Apuzzo and trustee Tom Bundros suggested establishing a satellite campus for Solorsano’s sixth graders at a district-owned facility on IOOF Avenue that used to house the El Portal Leadership Academy – a charter school that closed in June.
“I don’t think the answer is to shove some more portables (into Solorsano),” Apuzzo said, the time nearing midnight. “I think the answer is a lot more complicated and deep and we’re not going to solve it tonight.”
Apuzzo also suggested warning parents who transfer students about the ramifications of their actions.
“You want to transfer your child into a school with 1,200 students?” she said. “They’re going to be waiting in line an hour for the bathroom.”
But with the new bathroom facility, hopefully that won’t be the case, trustees said.
On Thursday, trustees will again tackle the options for the 2011 school year, which include continuing to allow transfers – an option that could inflate the campus to 1,500 students within a few years – creating a magnet middle school, turning South Valley or Brownell into a charter school, and housing transfer students at a new middle school site. Trustees will also consider denying transfers – an option that Gilroy Unified School District Superintendent Deborah Flores has previously said was not in line with federal policy.
Though he acknowledged the challenge his campus faces as a result of its size, Tomasello said he did not believe establishing a satellite campus would be a good solution.
“It’s this perfect storm,” Tomasello said. “Solorsano is not in PI. The other two middle schools are. There’s this No Child Left Behind mandate that gives families this choice. It’s unfortunate that all these things have come together, but I’m not in favor of splitting our campus.”
Meanwhile, Brownell has plenty of room, said Principal Greg Camacho-Light. Only about 630 students attend the school, which once housed 900, he said.
Teachers are struggling to move students toward federal growth targets and are employing renewed efforts, such as the advanced-track Gifted and Talented Education program, to change the community’s perception, Camacho-Light said.
“I love this school,” he said. “We just celebrated our 60th anniversary. It’s a nice, quiet, small school. And we are rebounding. Things are turning around.”
Once students give Brownell and South Valley a try, they tend to stay, Camacho-Light and Kapaku said. The majority of students who transfer to Solorsano are incoming sixth graders, Kapaku said.
Making matters worse, some of those students who are at Brownell and do make the grade then transfer to Solorsano, Camacho-Light said.
“It’s like trying to compete with one hand tied behind your back,” he said. The predicament is a “self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s becoming more and more difficult to overcome this. Unfortunately, there isn’t any release button.”
