The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Parents' Day: Booksin parent Peter Hurd, left, is one of many who have helped rework the school's GATE program. As part of a San Jose civics class he developed, Hurd enlisted city leaders Frank Fiscalini and Gary Schoennauer, among others, to speak to the program's fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Parent committee revamps Booksin's gifted program

An innovative civics course is among the many classes offered

By Michelle Ku

When a group of Booksin parents came together last year to revamp the school's Gifted and Talented Education program, they knew they'd come up with a solid curriculum, but they likely weren't expecting civic leaders Frank Fiscalini and Gary Schoennauer to be teaching the classes.

But that's just what happened after parent Peter Hurd developed an innovative politics class, San Jose Civics, for the program's fourth- and fifth-graders.

"When I was in fourth or fifth grade, I really didn't understand where I lived or the world I lived in," said Hurd, a parent of a third-grader at the school. "I thought it would be great if we had a class on California, the United States and this place called San Jose."

Last Thursday, Fiscalini, a San Jose city councilmember for District 6, made his visit to the class and spoke to the 23 GATE students about how the city works. Fiscalini spoke on the history of San Jose, its type of government and the functions of the mayor, council and city manager.

"I think it's important to talk about the city and how it functions," Fiscalini said. "They could see, and I think they did see, the magnitude of the city."

San Jose Civics is an innovative course, said Shyril McGuiness, assistant principal at Booksin.

"It's very good because it not only lets the children see some of the San Jose leaders, but it gets the leaders into the classroom to see who they are serving," McGuiness said. "It brings the children to the leaders and the leaders to the children. They can get a firsthand view of who they're servicing."

The five-parent Booksin GATE committee has restructured the curriculum to provide students with more classes and a more balanced curriculum.

"I felt that the program wasn't really grounded and that it was a little bit ambiguous," Hurd said. "I felt that if the parents got involved and took ownership and responsibility for the program, we could make it better and keep it going."

Hurd wanted to create a strong program that would have good continuity. Since administrators in San Jose Unified School District are often shuffled from school to school, sometimes programs they developed while they were at one school leave with them, committee members said.

"I believe Booksin had a strong program in the past, but changes in the staff caused problems with the old program," said Dawn Kulish, a member of the Booksin GATE committee. "Parents who had worked on it thought they had a program for the following year, but when there was a switch in administration, it wasn't carried forward."

The major difference between this year's program and last year's is the broader academic focus. Students in last year's GATE program took three six-week classes throughout the year. This year the students are taking five five-week classes and will take a course in each of the major academic areas: science, math, art, social studies and language arts.

"The thing I like about this program is we do have a lot of parents volunteering and teaching," McGuiness said, "and all the academic areas are addressed. Some schools are heavy in math or reading, but we're hitting all the areas."

In addition to San Jose Civics, classes in chess, Egyptian culture, Spanish, stamp collecting, math, art and cartooning are being offered.

In addition to Fiscalini, the class will be visited by other city officials in the coming weeks.

This week, Gary Schoennauer, a retired San Jose city planner, will visit the class and discuss how San Jose development is planned. Students will get a feel for why a zoo is not built next to a Kmart and why land in the hills is often left open.

Walter Bugna, a San Jose Fire Department captain, and Tom Wheatly, San Jose's deputy chief of police, will also instruct students.

"I think that this is a great program for the children," Kulish said. "It gives them an opportunity that they wouldn't normally have, and it exposes them to subjects that they wouldn't be exposed to until later on in their education. It opens a lot of doors for them as far as developing a lot of their talents early on."

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