Hollister School District trustees this week approved an idea set to result in the doubling of enrollment at the Dual Language Academy in the next seven years.
Trustees at their Tuesday meeting gave unanimous approval to the measure after previously expressing consensus support for the idea at their regular March meeting.
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.
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.
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 the commitment toward the program based at the Gabilan Hills School campus.
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.
Enrollment expansion starts with next year’s kindergarten group. Trustees will next decide on how to accommodate the new students and whether to expand to K-8 at the school.
