School receives $200K grant

In an effort to continue to improve on an underperforming label given to Fourth Avenue Jr. High School during the 2007-2008 school year, the campus has received a $200,000 school improvement grant this school year.

Principal Jose Cazares said that the funds from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) are being used for a number of things, including professional development for teachers and salaries for interventionists.

He explained that approximately $10,000 is being used for consultant training and coaching on campus; $27,000 is being used for substitutes to allow for collaboration and professional development for current teachers; $15,000 for participation in the Professional Development Leadership Academy (PDLA) offered by ADE; $110,000 for two full-time equivalent interventionists (FTE) and one half-time interventionist; $28,000 for a parent liaison; and $10,000 for indirect costs.

Cazares said that they have greatly benefited from having a FTE language arts interventionist, a FTE math interventionist and a half-time math interventionist.

These positions were created to support the more than 60 percent of students that came onto FAJH's campus in the “falls far below” category on the AIMS test.

In regards to the addition of parent liaison Lisa Robbins to their campus for the year, Cazares said that she is a crucial component to the staff.

“She makes home visitations, interacts with the staff and parents on behalf of the students, works with the counselor, site facilitators, assessment coordinators to document information regarding students, and conferencing with parents as necessary,” he said. “Our parent liaison facilitates and assists with parent/teacher conferences and works extremely hard in interacting with parents and students with attendance.”

Lastly, the PDLA training offered through ADE gives the staff on campus tools and strategies through professional development to use to analyze data, help identify needs and to develop a school wide plan to set goals.

Fourth Avenue Jr. High is in its fourth year of PDLA training.

“This is money well spent,” he said.

In other meeting news, chief financial officer Kerry Jones reported during the monthly enrollment report that the district is down 234 students on the 100th day of school compared to last year. Jones added that the number has decreased from the 20th day of school when they were down 329 students.

He noted that he ran across U.S. Census data that showed that between 2009 and 2010 the population in the District 1 area was down 12,000 people.

“You can see where District 1's population is declining, there is some migration from our district into maybe lower cost areas with the change in the economy,” Jones said, explaining that other families may have also moved out of the state.

Lastly, Andrew Wait was approved to become the new principal at Woodard Jr. High School out of a group of 20 people that submitted applications for the position. Wait is currently the vice principal at Ron Watson Middle School.

Sarah Womer can be reached at swomer@yumasun.com or 539-6858. Find her on Facebook at Facebook.com/YSSarahWomer or on Twitter at @YSSarahWomer.