|
Alpine district faces challenges of No Child Left Behind act
By Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
ALPINE — Alpine Union School Board
members accepted $10,000 and talked about the “No Child Left
Behind Act,” at the regular meeting on Feb. 22. The group also
discussed the painting of BOES, presented information and
discussed how Joan Mac Queen Middle School monitors their
students’ test scores. Also at this meeting, School Site Plans
were address and asked to be revisited at a later time.
The agenda item to accept the generous donation of
$10,000 from the Alpine Chamber of Commerce was moved to the
beginning of the meeting to accommodate Steve Wiley and Pat
Cannon, who gladly handed over a huge check to AUSD from the
Education Committee, who raises funds for our Alpine Schools.
Each year the Education committee conducts an essay
contest where student authors are saluted for their writing
skills. Also the Committee holds an annual “Honorary Mayor
Campaign” as well as an “Honorary Inauguration Party” as fund
raisers. This year the Honorary Mayor Inauguration Party will be
a luau, held at the Campbell Creek Ranch. Steve Wiley passed out
invitations to all who were present at the board meeting for
this event, which will be held on March 24. Please call the
Alpine Chamber of Commerce for more details.
A brief discussion ensued regarding the painting of
BOES. Rob Turner, our AUSD Business Manager, explained that
deferred maintenance budgets usually cover the painting of
buildings and allows for buildings to be painted every 10-15
years for a stucco structure. BOES has not had a fresh coat of
paint since its final construction phase in 1994. The project is
anticipated to take place during the coming summer recess and
will take approximately 4-6 weeks for completion. This job is to
be publicly bid on, and the results of the bidding process will
be reported on in May of this year.
Superintendent Greg Ryan made a presentation to the
board to describe the legislative and political forces that are
impacting how school districts face the conundrum of education
these days. With the “No Child Left Behind Act” in place,
education today is challenged in many ways including major
accountability for children who are not succeeding. The schools
are faced with the directive, “All children are to be proficient
in 2014, or else!”
“We have to do everything we can to make sure that
students are proficient,” Ryan said.
Because of this, the state is consistently raising the
bar on API (Academic Performance Index) score requirements, and
looking for constant improvements in our schools.
“This puts a lot of pressure on educators,” Ryan said
as he continued explaining that the state will have little
tolerance for under performing schools.
AUSD’s educators have been revising the school
services, and reorganizing to provide improved educational
opportunities for our students. Currently, our schools are all
above the state targets for an 800 API, but this doesn’t mean
that the state will not raise the target to 850 next year.
Ryan is anticipating the constant higher expectations
and he is currently working on plans that help with improvement,
by using interventions on students who are struggling with the
curriculum. This will include using supplemental materials and
extra systemic research based teaching methods to strengthen our
students’ skills. Also, the district plans to create common
curriculum in all classrooms. This will help to hold all
students to the same standards.
Ryan said that this will open up teacher collaboration.
He added that this will take compromise and consensus, but it is
a courageous step in improving our professional learning
communities.
Katy Woodward, principal of JMMS, presented how the
school monitors the students’ test scores, and echoed Ryan’s
earlier statements with her report on Collaborative Planning
Time. At this time, JMMS shows strength in Literary Analysis,
and Woodward said that students entering the Alpine middle
school seem better prepared for the curriculum.
Discussions moved on to implementing school site plans.
Every school site under the Education Code 52853 shall develop a
school plan which includes: Curriculum and instructional
materials responsive to the needs of the individual,
instructional and auxiliary services that meets the needs of
diverse population, a staff development program that addresses
the needs of the diverse population of the students, an on-going
evaluation of the instructional program, other activities
established by the School Site Council, and expenditures of
funds per the Ed Code.
Each site has submitted their particular school site
plan to the board, and the plans include using the ExCEL reading
program to improve student performance in reading. Alpine
Elementary included also a Math program that echoed the ExCEL
program that allowed for student leveling in the Mathematics
curriculum. This means that Math classes will be structured by
level, with each student receiving the level of instruction that
meets their individual educational level.
Gina Henke spoke to this, requesting more information
on the ExCEL program, and Eric Wray asked to table the
implementation of the new school site plans until they receive a
report back next month, on how successful the ExCEL program
actually is.
In closing, Eric Wray said that he appreciated the
Peace Builders Program at BOES and Ann Pierce agreed that the
Peace Builders Program was great. Gina Henke added that she was
very excited to be visiting our Alpine schools and Greg Ryan
reminded everyone about the upcoming luau/fund raiser at the
Ranch.
 E-mail
the Editor
|
