The school board enthusiastically voted to establish a 60-hour
community service graduation requirement for all high school
students in the district.
The school board enthusiastically voted to establish a 60-hour community service graduation requirement for all high school students in the district.
The upcoming school year, which begins Thursday, will serve as a “pilot” year, allowing district and high school staff to fine tune the program while allowing students to get their feet wet, explained Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services Basha Millhollen. The requirement will kick into full swing next school year and the graduating class of 2014 – next year’s freshmen – will be the first class to experience the program in its entirety.
Millhollen’s recommendation came after months of committee meetings and interviews with superintendents in surrounding districts that required their high school students to complete community service hours to graduate. Although the district still needs to “work out the bugs” – such as who will monitor the children’s hours and what that might cost – trustees were pleased to usher in the new requirement.
“I’m really excited,” said trustee Javier Aguirre, a Gilroy High School graduate himself. “It will allow our graduates to continue being competitive.”
Not only will community service hours look good on college resumes, they are an essential part of growing up and becoming a well-rounded person, trustees said.
“We’re not forcing people to volunteer,” said trustee Denise Apuzzo. “We’re saying this is part of becoming an adult.”
Some trustees and Superintendent Deborah Flores actually pushed for a higher number of hours and hope to increase the requirement to 80 hours in the future.
“I would really like to see 80 hours,” Flores said. “Twenty hours a year you can do standing on your head.”
Students with extenuating circumstances will be able to opt out of the requirement, but those cases will be few and far between, Flores said. The district’s goal is to see every student, including special education children, donating their much-needed time to better the community, staff said.
“I can see a lot of people coming up with excuses,” Flores said. “Once we start going down that path, this won’t be a requirement.”
Flores will review requests to opt out of the requirement on a case-by-case basis.
