Just a friendly Southside school competition

            It started as a friendly competition between Southside School’s fifth and sixth grade classes.
            What it turned into, however, was a community service project benefiting hundreds of local residents.
            Thanks to the efforts of students and staff, Southside School raised almost 3,000 pounds of canned/dry food for the Second Harvest Food Bank last October, earning the school recent recognition from the organization.
            “I’m very proud of all the kids here,” said Principal Eric Johnson. “They have a very giving nature. It’s been a wonderful thing to see.”
            Many San Benito County schools participate in Second Harvest’s annual food drive, traditionally held in late fall just before the holidays. Southside School is no exception, but this year, according to Johnson, staff and students set higher goals than normal.
            “We really had a bigger push than usual,” he said. “We just decided to make a run for it, and the kids just went with it.”
            Although each of the grades at the small, K-12 school participated in the drive, Johnson said the upper grades turned it into a class competition.
            “It started with the fifth and sixth grade teachers challenging their classes and then the classes trying to outdo the other,” he said. “Then, the seventh and eighth grades got into it. They would come in and see what the other classes had brought in, and then try to bring in more the next day. They just took to it. We challenged the kids and they more than met that challenge.”
            At the end of the drive, the 220 students at Southside had raised nearly 3,000 pounds of food, more than seven times the amount of what the school typically contributes. The fifth graders squeaked out a narrow victory in the amount of food raised, followed closely, Johnson said, by the sixth grade.
            Helping others did not stop with Second Harvest, however - Southside students also raised approximately $2,700 for victims of Hurricane Katrina, and since community service has played such a major role at the school this year, Johnson says he has one more major challenge planned for his students before the last day of school.
            “We raised money earlier this year, but it went specifically to Hurricane Katrina, and the Red Cross here locally needs help also,” he said. “So, I’m hoping, during the last month of school, to challenge the kids to raise their own height in pennies. That equals about 18 pennies to the inch. And then we’ll donate that money to our Red Cross.”
            If the students’ participation in the school’s other two community service projects this year is any indication, the penny challenge set forth by Johnson should be well received.
            “I’m very proud of our students,” he said. “What has happened this year was wonderful. We wanted to see what would happen if (the students) put their minds to something, and it’s worked. They have this spirit of helping others in the community and nation. We may have earned a certificate from Second Harvest, but we learned what it feels like to help others, and that’s really exciting.”

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Looking at magnet school possibilities

Imagine an elementary school where students are allowed to learn to their fullest potential, where high achievers are challenged while those needing help get it, and students wanting to broaden their knowledge can be taught in a second language.
Not possible in a public school? Well, think again.
The Hollister School District is currently investigating the possibility of creating two Magnet School programs, and so far, the idea has been well received throughout the county.
“We have heard really, really positive feedback at the community level,” said Ron Crates, superintendent of the Hollister School District.
A  committee of community members researching the program has identified two schools within the district - Gabilan Hills and Ladd Lane - as candidates for becoming a Magnet School.
Under the program HDS hopes to implement, two types of curriculum will be introduced - a Dual Immersion Language curriculum and an accelerated learning program for high achievers. Crates said currently the plan is to set up the DI program at Gabilan Hills and the accelerated learning program at Ladd Lane.
“Through the Dual Immersion program, the school can offer the choice to families and parents to have their child become bilingual and bi-literate,” Crates said. “This would be geared for the child who wants to learn a second language, Spanish, and we find that the English speaking families are the ones who really want to participate in this. The accelerated achievers program will be offered to students with a high degree of academic success and intense curriculum for the kids who are able to handle it, much like the Gifted and Talented program (GATE).”
The idea is to split each of the participating schools into two separate campuses, each with its own principal, advisors and teachers, Crates said.
“It would be like we are creating two new schools within our district, but with the same amount of students,” he said. “Some students would stay in the school as it currently is; others would go to the new programs.”
Costs of implementing the program would be minimal, said Crates, with money being needed mostly for the additional administrator and supervisory staff as well as new materials for the different programs. Because the amount of students would stay the same, it is likely that no new teachers would need to be hired, and the schools could use already existing classrooms.
With a building moratorium still in place in Hollister, and no end in sight in the near future, local districts have been struggling with a loss of impact fees, which help pay for building renovations and construction of new schools and classrooms. Reduced state funding has forced staff layoffs and budget cuts, all of which adds up to a disturbing trend of parents looking for alternative ways of educating their students.
By establishing the Magnet School program, Crates said the district is trying to reverse the trend.
“We’re hoping to entice the parents who have their children in private schools to come take a look at us and our program,” he said. “The program definitely raises the academic standard for kids to excel, and we hope families will take advantage of it.”
The next step is to create a staff committee to review the first committee’s findings, and Crates says the goal is to have the program up and running by the start of the 2007-08 school year.
“We are beginning the planning and looking at how we would have to change staffing and other areas to make it happen,” he said. “We need to look at how to develop and fund the program, and we want to make visits to different schools and see their Magnet programs.”
While staff members have not yet officially weighed in on the program, Crates is hopeful it will be as well received by his staff as it has been with the community.

“Anytime you make fundamental changes, there are going to be some concerns,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is to make sure these programs are not considered elitist but reflect the demographics of the district.”

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