Gabriela Mistral Elementary School

Gabriela Mistral Elementary School is the Spanish/English Dual Immersion Magnet school of the Mountain View-Whisman School District. It shares a site with Mariano Castro Elementary School.HistoryGabriela Mistral Elementary started off as the dual immersion program at Mariano Castro Elementary School in 1996. While test scores appeared to be high at Castro, analysis showed a "persistent and wide achievement gap for low socioeconomic learners and for English Language Learners" which made up 90% of the students of the traditional program. The task force reports showed that 67% of students in the dual immersion program scored proficient in English Language, whereas only 32% did in the traditional program. On 2014-11-20, the school board voted unanimously to split off the Dual Immersion program from Castro.SiteMistral and Castro share the same physical site and street address, with a separate school office and classrooms designated to each school. The schools share the library and the multi-use building, which serves as the cafeteria and auditorium. There are four playgrounds and a large grass field, in addition to a blacktop for other sports. The El Camino YMCA provides on-site before and after-school care. Starting in 2015, construction will be undertaken to turn the site into a dual campus for two distinct schools. After the construction, the schools will continue to share the library and multi-use building.