Hollister School District officials Tuesday showed broad support for the idea of gradually expanding enrollment capacity at the popular Dual Language Academy.
Launched in 2007 along with the Academic Achievement Academy, the Dual Language Academy on the Gabilan Hills School campus has drawn increased demand in recent years from local parents. The school has scored consistently well on standardized testing and now maintains a waiting list, the district superintendent said at the board of trustees meeting Tuesday.
With that increased demand, district officials have a new dilemma as well: State rules involved with a key funding formula require a gradual decrease in classroom sizes, while the dual language academy maintains a “50-50” model in which the kindergarten through sixth-grade classes are broken into two groups to isolate English and Spanish speaking.
So as Superintendent Gary McIntire explained the scenario to the school board Tuesday, it means the district could either stay on the current path and fill out with about 350 students or add two classes for each grade going forward to fill out at closer to 700 – and essentially double down on the commitment toward the popular program based at the Gabilan Hills School campus.
McIntire recommended doing just that after his presentation to the board. He talked about the success of using “dyads” as a model in which the two partnering teachers work hand in hand with each class, one in English and the other in Spanish. He called the lower enrollment model “less than viable.”
By 2021, the school must get down to an enrollment of 24 students for each classroom, while the number currently stands at 30-1. The requirement is part of state rules attached to the Local Control Funding Formula, which favors districts such as Hollister with a relatively high number of disadvantaged or English learner students.
“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of, the height of our district’s challenge and enthusiasm to meet the needs of all our students, including English learners,” McIntire said.
He gained support from the five trustees, who agreed to set a special meeting for April 8 – after the facilities committee gets a chance to weigh in on the matter Monday – to potentially make a decision on enrollment expansion starting with next year’s kindergarten group. After possibly making a decision on expanding the program, trustees then would turn their attention to separate considerations – what to do about a shortage of necessary facilities to accommodate a growing dual language academy and whether to fully move toward a K-8 model as opposed to the K-6 model used now.
For this week, though, the board stayed largely focused on the question about adding two classes for each grade.
Trustee Elizabeth Martinez mentioned how she grew up an English learner and called the dual language academy a “tremendous gift to the community.”
“The challenges of learning English – the comprehension, all those challenges that our kids face – being in a program like this, learning English and Spanish at the same time, is incredible,” she said.
McIntire, though, didn’t want to have the board weigh an approval yet because trustees still must address those other issue as well – namely, the challenge with lacking space at Gabilan Hills to expand the Dual Language Academy.
“We don’t want to get ahead of the facilities committee,” he said.
Hollister Dual Language Academy facts:
– Scored 817 on the latest API
– Recently received a $5,000 Target grant for common core training
– Logged 4,000 parent volunteer hours
