EL CENTRO (ELEMENTARY) SCHOOL DISTRICT
Innovative science project attracting national interest
By Jeremy Schwartz
Staff Writer
It isn't every day that Imperial County is held up as a shining example for the rest of the nation, but the folks behind El Centro (elementary) School District's innovative Valle Imperial Project in Science are going to have to get used to it.
At Tuesday night's ECSD board meeting, district officials received an evaluation of the first five months of VIPS' countywide efforts from Inverness Research Associates President Mark St. John, who told officials the program's initial results are raising eyebrows around the country.
"You probably don't think of El Centro as the national front edge, the leading effort in the country, but you are," St. John told board members, adding VIPS is looked upon nationally as the cutting edge in hands-on science teaching.
VIPS breaks down science subjects into individual units, which come with their own kits, complete with hands-on exercises and materials that are rotated among classrooms and schools.
The ECSD had used the program for three years before this school year. Then VIPS was extended throughout Imperial County, thanks to a $3.3 million National Science Foundation grant.
There are now 56 programs throughout the country using a similar teaching methodology, said ECSD Superintendent Michael Klentschy who has been receiving calls from educators across the nation inquiring about VIPS.
St. John praised the VIPS team for its leadership, professional development, materials refurbishment center and ability to drum up community support, and challenged the team to contribute to the further development of VIPS teaching methods.
St. John told officials they are lucky to have Klentschy, who he considers more experienced with VIPS teaching methods than any superintendent in the country.
"The power of the program so far has been the quality and acceptance of our teachers,' Klentschy said.
The board also received a timeline for bringing Internet connections to seven district schools via the federal e-rate grant the district received in December.
The $372,817 grant will ensure that all 11 district schools have two connections per classroom. The four schools not covered by the grant, Wilson Junior High, Kennedy Middle School, and Desert Garden and Hedrick elementaries, are already hooked up.
David Ngo of AMI Electrical and Telecom, Inc. of Orange County, which has received the contract to do the wiring, said the work should be completed by mid-May.
The work will be done in two phases at each school, with conduit installation, which includes drilling walls and cutting concrete, followed by the considerably less noisy cable installation.
Work will be performed from 1:30 to 10 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends to minimize intrusion on the school day.
It is expected to take about four weeks to set up each school. Work is scheduled to begin Saturday at Sunflower Elementary and from there work crews will proceed to Lincoln, King, Washington, De Anza and McKinley elementaries before finishing at Harding Elementary.
In other district news, the board voted unanimously to raise the daily rate for substitute teachers in the district to $90, reflecting an effort to remain competitive for what has become a critically small pool of subs in the county.
Finally, Klentschy outlined plans for the adoption of a new district promotion and retention policy mandated by recent state legislation.
Klentschy said the new policy would use a multiple measure approach to determine whether students should be retained, including STAR testing scores, grades, and reading and math proficiency.
While the legislation calls for policies for second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and between elementary and middle school, the district will adopt a policy covering all grades from one through eight.
The district will come up with a draft policy in February and after receiving faculty and parent input a final policy is expected to be ratified in May or June. The new policy will go into effect July 1, in time for the 1999-2000 school year.
"It is a very complex change and it needs a lot of review," Klentschy said.
