This article was written by BenitoLink intern Alexis Castro Juarez
The Hollister School District (HSD) is considering moving Accelerated Achievement Academy (AAA) from the Calaveras Elementary School site to Marguerite Maze Middle School where more space is available.
According to the Feb. 28 agenda packet, there is not enough space at the Calaveras/AAA site to accommodate future enrollment and program expansion for both schools. The agenda states AAA, which serves 5th-8th grades, has 165 students and Calaveras, which serves TK-8th grades, has 576.
During public comment at the board meeting there were several people, both parents and teachers, who spoke out against AAA moving to Maze.
Melinda Keys, a seventh-grade teacher and a parent of AAA said of the plan, “moving the campus may logistically seem like the perfect answer to the financial dilemma on how to accommodate the increasing number of students at the Calaveras/AAA campus. However, students in classrooms need to be looked at from a larger perspective rather than just solving financial problems.”
She added, “at our current location we are able to keep a close eye on our students’ social interactions, along with them being able to interact fully with Calaveras middle school students. The Calaveras and AAA principles closely guide the students at both middle schools to make positive and kind choices and this type of social guidance really helps to alleviate the students’ social anxiety. I fear that moving not only to the sixth, seventh and eighth graders but also fifth graders and potentially fourth graders to a middle school campus will create a dangerous social situation.”
Keys concluded that she urges board members to investigate other options regarding the overcrowding of the school.
Rebecca Nelson, a district parent and employee also voiced her disagreement with the move.
“AAA is able to tend to its students like orchids because of the staff, teachers, administration and campus dynamic,” she said. “Some schools cite roommate dynamics are not as positive; like a family sitting at a dinner table existing tensions are palpable. This energy seeps through to the students, to the teachers and ultimately it affects morale. AAA can only survive in an organic environment where all parties are not only co-workers but allies and even friends.”
A retired principal from Cerra Vista and a grandparent from AAA believes it will affect the students’ performance if they move the program to another site saying according to the data from 2022-2023 of all top performing schools in California AAA is third in the number of students who have free and reduced lunch or qualify for it which means AAA gets the least amount of money for that because of the socioeconomically advantaged children that make up a sizable percentage of the children.
Nancy Mesa, another spokesperson at the board meeting shared her concerns of AAA potentially moving to Maze Middle School.
“One of my concerns of a possible AAA move to Maze is the presence of younger children on a middle school campus that’s been mentioned this evening. The AAA curricular program was designed to service students in grades 4-8. The foundation of the AAA program in fourth and fifth grade strongly leads to the continued success of students in six through eight while the middle school campus is suitable for some; it’s not conducive to a positive educational experience for elementary age students.”
Mr. Ibarra, a sixth-grade teacher from AAA believes that moving the program to maze will cause a lot of students to leave the program and remain at the Calaveras School.
“I know that now discussion is about moving from AAA to Maze and I’m afraid that it is already a done deal based on the discussions you’ve had in the past, some of them without even being on the agenda,” he said. “It somehow led to the idea that it’s a done deal. I hope it isn’t, I know everything boils down to money and it is really sad to know that but if it does there is a solution that is way cheaper than the $1 million that we always use, that is $6,000 to move a portable or any portable from Maze to AAA.
Samir Wapa, a former assessment specialist who now works for AAA also disagrees with moving the school to Maze. Wapa told the board the program at the academy has been very successful and fears it would lose that success if moved
The final decision to move the academy has not yet been made.
School district may relocate academy
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