Las Animas Elementary School will be home to a brand new $3 million wing of classrooms this fall, thanks to funds from Measure P, the $150 million facilities bond voters passed in November. The two-story wing of seven classrooms and one bathroom facility will relieve the school's overcrowding and add space for students wishing to participate in the school's Dual Immersion program, students living in the neighborhood of Las Animas who cannot attend due to space constraints and students attracted to the school because of its academic performance, Deputy Superintendent of Business Services Enrique Palacios said. Before the board's unanimous decision to move forward with the project, Las Animas Principal Silvia Reyes reminded them that the school is so crowded, enrollment tops out at 36 students in some classes.
"We are in desperate need of facilities," she said.
The new classroom wing will mitigate the enrollment issues the school is currently dealing with and add space for next year's growth, Palacios said.
Las Animas also received a $1,089 grant for its Character Counts program, the largest award of the $8,529 the Gilroy Education Foundation disbursed to district classrooms.
Four Eliot Elementary School teachers also received more than $500 each to implement the Salmon Trout Education Program in their classrooms to teach their students about the restoration and conservation of steelhead trout and salmon. Additional recipients including the speech and debate program, the California Student Opportunity and Access Program and the choir program - all at Gilroy High School - the district's Run for Fitness Program and Eliot teacher Tammy Vickroy's Reading your Socks Off program were awarded $1,000 each.
The board also welcomed a former elementary school principal and high school administrator from Southern California as the new interim assistant principal at GHS. Iraida Pisano will fill former Assistant Principal Mary Ann Boylan's shoes now that Boylan is serving as interim principal at the T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy.
"It's been very nice and exciting," Pisano said of her new job, which she began Monday. "It's good to be back at the high school level."
"Every day is a different day at the high school and I've been instructed to eat blue, drink blue and bleed blue," she said of her new school colors of blue and gold.
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