The school district will pass on its piece of a $416 million pie
awarded to the state by the federal government for persistently
low-achieving schools because of an awkwardly-timed deadline and
its promise to give underachieving schools another chance before
stepping in.
The school district will pass on its piece of a $416 million pie awarded to the state by the federal government for persistently low-achieving schools because of an awkwardly-timed deadline and its promise to give underachieving schools another chance before stepping in.
After missing state-imposed performance targets, Brownell and South Valley middle schools and El Roble, Rod Kelley and Rucker elementary schools – along with 49 of the 398 total schools in Santa Clara County – are eligible to apply for part of the $416 million School Improvement Grant awarded to the state recently. But the money comes with strings attached.
Schools awarded School Improvement Grant money must make one of four drastic changes during the 2010-11 school year:
– fire the principal,
– reopen as a charter school,
– close the school entirely or
– implement a series of improvement strategies, including increasing instructional time.
The Gilroy Unified School District won’t be applying, however, because trustees decided to wait to take a look at last school year’s test scores, which don’t come out until August, Superintendent Deborah Flores said. They made the decision earlier this year after a discussion about the two middle schools, which haven’t made the state target for proficiency in five years or more, Flores said.
“We decided not to implement any of the four models,” Flores said. “If we take the money, we have to do one of those four things. The board concluded that it was going to give both schools another year and after we receive (test scores) in August, we’re going to have another discussion.”
