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City Beat
Willow Glen schools try to interest new students
Administrators tout programs that improve academic achievement
By Kate Carter
January begins a brand-new school year of sorts for middle and high schools in the San Jose Unified School District, for it's the month when education officials invite prospective students and their parents to classrooms hoping the youths will find a good place to spend their formative years.
Willow Glen Middle and High schools began the recruitment season last week with morning tours touting their various accomplishments and showing off their improved facilities. The schools are hoping to attract academically interested youths who will benefit from Willow Glen's developing college focus.
The district allows students to choose their middle and high schools. At the elementary level, children are generally assigned to their neighborhood school, although the district also has three magnet elementary schools that can be chosen: River Glen School in Willow Glen, Hacienda Elementary School and Hammer Montessori School.
After elementary school, however, students and parents decide where their children will attend school next. District schools hold tours to allow families to learn more about them and get their questions answered. Their goal is to help each child to find the campus that meets his or her special needs and desires.
"What's important is that we're a district of choice and that every school is different," Willow Glen High School Principal Pat Day said. "Every school is not intended to be for every student."
Fifth- and eighth-grade students in the district--about 4,700 children--will receive forms to enroll in middle and high school this month, said Bob McPeek, district manager of student enrollment and assignment. The first deadline to submit their enrollment requests for their first, second and third choice schools is Feb. 13, he said. Students can continue to submit requests after Feb. 13, he said, but their choices will be handled after the first round is processed.
Requests are prioritized first on increasing the ethnic diversity at schools, then on permitting students to enter their neighborhood schools, then on allowing students to attend the same school as their siblings and then on other considerations, McPeek said. Students who live outside the district's boundaries must wait until July to apply for enrollment in its schools, he said.
McPeek added that in his six years in the position, every student who chose Willow Glen Middle or High School during the first application period was admitted.
Middle School Principal Lois Allen welcomed about 30 people to the school's Little Theater Jan. 10, most from Booksin, Schallenberger, Willow Glen and Hacienda elementary schools, and said the school is looking for 400 new sixth-graders interested in being "lifelong learners." She, Assistant Principal Don Angelo, other staff members and four eighth-graders presented the school's curriculum, special programs and activities, and responded to questions before taking the group into several sixth-grade classrooms. The middle school also shows a slide show and provides brochures during its student- and-administrator-guided tours.
Allen emphasized Willow Glen Middle's strong relationship with Willow Glen High School, located next door, and said the schools often share instructors, facilities and even fundraising efforts. About 70 percent of Willow Glen Middle students go on to Willow Glen High, she said.
Allen stressed the schools' 50-year tradition, encouragement of parent participation and strong community relationship. She also said the middle school's programs, including its advanced math track, technology program, college preparatory classes, remedial education and activities that foster a caring school atmosphere, are good reasons that students who want to go to college should choose Willow Glen Middle.
The high school is also offering similar advanced math and robotics programs that build on foundations students can establish at Willow Glen Middle. The school hopes its classes taught in conjunction with San Jose City College, including Calculus II with Analytic Geometry, Introduction to College Reading, Elementary Statistics, Music Appreciation, Guitar and American Sign Language, as well as its advanced placement classes and Upward Bound program through the University of California, will show potential students that Willow Glen is a good place to prepare for college.
Vice Principal Carmen Mahood said some of the school's new programs were implemented after administrators received feedback from graduates about skills that would help them better in college.
"We're really committed to get students to college-readiness," she said.
In December, Willow Glen High School was listed among California's 300 top performing high-minority high schools by the Education Trust West, an Oakland-based nonprofit educational research organization. The organization used the school's Stanford 9 standardized test results and found Willow Glen was among the state's top third of high-minority schools at the ninth, 10th and 11th grade levels, in reading and in math, a feat Executive Director Russlyn Ali called "significant." The nonprofit will study the policies and practices at the top-performing schools to find out which work to help children of color or in poverty learn, Ali said.
Tours at Willow Glen Middle School are Thursdays through Feb. 7 starting at 9 a.m. at the Little Theater, 2105 Cottle Ave. The school will also hold a recruitment night Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Little Theater. For more information about Willow Glen Middle School's tours, call the school at 408.535.6277.
Both schools also offer "shadowing," allowing a prospective student to join one of its current students for a school day. Call the schools for more information.
The San Jose Unified School District has two enrollment centers: Erickson Enrollment Center, 4855 Pearl Ave., and Burnett Enrollment Center, 110 E. Hedding St. For more information about enrollment, call 408.535.6430 or 408.535.6410. To schedule an enrollment appointment, call 408.535.6436 or 408.535.6412.
Karla Fukushima, chairwoman Willow Glen High School's School Site Council, will host a coffee for parents interested in sending their children to Willow Glen High School Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. at her home, 2328 Allentown Court. For more information call 408.267.6705.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
