Florence Unified School District #1 s7

FLORENCE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT #1 NOVEMBER 2010 BOARD REPORT MARY GRANT, DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/Grants . The Comparability Report was completed and the Assurance of Comparability was submitted to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). This report assures that the Title I schools receive a “fair share” of State and local education funds. FUSD was found “Comparable”. . Attended the monthly Title I Director meeting where updates to ESEA, Title I and II Grants, ALEAT and other topics are discussed with representatives from ADE. . I met with each of the elementary principals to support them in writing and uploading their school’s Title I Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) to ALEAT on the ADE website. All the CIPs were submitted to ADE before the October 26, 2010 deadline. . Collaborated with the Director of Finance on completion reports for Title projects. . Collaborated with Director of Educational Technology on the Title II-D Grant. . Carmen Martinez continues to make home visits to our migrant families. She also completed several documents requested by ADE about the Migrant Education Program. I will be uploading these to the ADE website. . Lillianna Falberg, our District Parent Liaison, is now offering an Active Parenting class in Spanish. She is happy to report that the parents are excited to receive the information and are putting it to use in their homes. Literacy/Professional Development . I was able to join the small group that visited Vail to see Beyond Textbooks (BT) in action. We visited an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. They were each kind enough to spend a great deal of time with us, answering our questions, and offering suggestions for implementation. Each site had a slightly different spin on BT, depending on the need of their students and the resources that were available. The amount of collaboration among the teachers and support/administration staff was impressive. In part, this is what made a foundation for success. They compared data together, and planned lessons and reteach interventions. . I have been planning for the Grade Band Reading Coaches that will be piloted at 3 schools, Walker Butte, Circle Cross Ranch, and Florence K8. Each site will have two of their teachers, primary and upper, that will provide professional development to classroom teachers to support reading instruction and Beyond Textbooks. The coaches will meet with me periodically to plan future workshops to address the needs of the teachers. . Wrote the Florence Comprehensive Literacy Guidelines for K12 in answer to questions about BT adoption. . I met again with the Language Arts TRIAGE/ELL teachers. This past month we discussed teaching academic vocabulary to students. Some teachers shared favorite lessons or resources. . Continue to meet with LA Triage teachers upon request for mentoring. . The Instructional Support team and the Special Education Department continue to collaborate in regards to supporting the teachers with the Beyond Textbook adoption to make the transition as smooth as possible. Special Projects . The 301 Performance Pay Committee has been meeting in October to discuss any changes to the current plan. The plan is based on the rubric provided by ADE. The plan will then be voted on by the teachers in November and sent to the Governing Board in December for adoption. . Collaborated with Molly Eger and Lisa Jimenez to code the violations for student referrals. It is hoped that this will make the transition from the old form to new; and old system to new, easier on everyone involved. . Continue to work with Transportation Department on the needs of McKinney Vento Students.