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Wednesday's Internet Edition, January 07, 2009.
District advisory meeting
Elementary school district hosts first advisory meeting
By Kymm Griffin
Staff Writer
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Galt Joint Union Elementary School District is moving forward, implementing the district wide restructuring plans with the help of a new advisory committee. For the first time in the district, administrators, district cabinet members, teachers, parents and students are coming together to discuss key focus areas for the district. These key focus areas will serve as guidelines to how the reduced budget will be spent.
“In the next two months, some very important decisions need to be made,” said Superintendent Karen Schauer.
The advisory committee was updated on the many challenges facing the school district this year.
Students have just put down their pencils and closed their California STAR testing books, but long before the results will be known, the school district must move forward with planning for next year and the increasing demands on student proficiency.
This year’s results carry many implications. Fairsite Elementary still needs one more year of meeting testing standards to be lifted out of Program Improvement status. This year’s test results will follow students to the new campus next year.
This year also marks the first year that test scores are expected to improve by 10 percent every year until 2014 when all students are expected to pass the California STAR exam with a score of proficient or advanced proficient.
For the last three years, only 24.4 percent of students and all significant subgroups had to achieve proficient or better to keep their school out of Program Improvement. But this year the benchmark has been raised to 35.2 percent in English Language Arts and 37 percent in Math.
For a specific school to fall into Program Improvement, that school site must fail to meet the standards and receive Title 1 funds. Only Fairsite Elementary and Valley Oaks Elementary will receive Title 1 funds next year. But that does not mean that the other schools are not accountable. The district as a whole is also held accountable, and the same percentages must be met district wide.
“I want to work really hard to keep us as a district from falling into Program Improvement,” said Judy Bullard, curriculum director.
Next year’s budget challenges were also updated for the advisory committee.
In May, Governor Schwarzenegger will release his revised budget proposal and then the school district will have a better estimate of their budget for next year.
Jim Bauler, assistant superintendent, said that the district is projecting that they will receive 2.4 percent less per student next year. To date, the district expects enrollment to drop by 139 students next year. The district continues to project a $1.4 million budget decline for 2008-2009 school year.
Schauer announced that the district is pursuing a preschool grant and is “in the running” to receive a First 5 grant that provides money for preschool programs. The district has been approved by Sacramento County’s department of education and is waiting to hear from the state level if they will be awarded funds.
Another change for next year is the offering of all day kindergarten at Fairsite Elementary. Donna Whitlock, education specialist with the district, is currently working with five teachers to develop an all day kindergarten curriculum.
After hearing the district wide update, the advisory committee then reviewed last year’s “Key Focus Areas” and offered feedback and proposals for new focus areas.
The 2007-2008 key focus areas were:
Fifty percent of all subgroups will meet or exceed proficiency for every state and local measure throughout the school year; all classrooms will implement TAPPLE to increase student engagement: Teach first, Ask a specific question, Pause, Pick a non-volunteer, Listen to the response, and Effective feedback; all classrooms will implement English learner modifications through Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE) strategies to reduce linguistic demands; all English learners will receive quality English Language Development (ELD) instruction for 150 minutes per week; all K-5 teachers will teach Systematic Instruction in Phoneme Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words (SIPPS); all grade levels will participate in at least one service learning experience; all teachers will implement the adopted science instructional materials.
Some of the small group feedback included concerns about transportation to after school programs, parent training opportunities so they can be more helpful with homework, expanding preschool opportunities for all four year olds, developing continuity between elementary and junior high school as a support base to support students’ transition, and adopting the proposed new math curriculum.
The advisory committee will continue to meet monthly.
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