CIS Board of Directors The Orlando schools

CIS Board of Directors The school year was a tremendous success for the Florida schools, especially at the middle school level. The Florida schools’ educators across the state worked hard to improve student academic achievement levels and were rewarded for their efforts. The state of Florida awarded grades of A or B to 75 percent of its public schools. Not only did this show extraordinary progress for the Florida schools, but it also was a new record for the state. The strongest gains were made in the middle schools. For example, Lake County has nine middle schools. Seven earned a grade of A last year, with the other two earning Bs.

One of the B schools missed receiving an A by only one point. Osceola County has ten middle schools of which six earned an A, three earned a B, and one received a C grade. Middle school is a crucial stage of academic achievement for students. It is the time when students transition from developing the basic skills learned in elementary school to learning how to put them into practice. Here, students begin to learn more in-depth content in order to develop the foundation that is needed in high school. Secondary education then builds on the foundation by digging deeper into the content and using it to help students develop their minds and become well-rounded adults. If the middle Florida schools do their jobs right, as they did last year, then students will achieve a greater success in high school, be more likely to go on to college, and have a better chance to obtain and excel in a good career.

The major problems facing all middle Florida schools’ educators are the hormonal changes that youth experience at this age and the intense peer pressure students must deal with on a daily basis. These challenges make it easy for middle school students to get off track.

Florida schools’ educators are working hard to divert the students’ attention away from these problems by getting them more focused on learning. Many Florida schools are looking at last year’s strategies to review what worked and what did not. They plan to duplicate last year’s success, with the hopes of doing even better this year. Seminole County schools, for example, improved the reading scores of struggling students by incorporating two research-based programs into its reading curriculum. They encouraged their Florida schools to use small reading groups with frequent monitoring of progress and goal setting for each student. This year, they plan to use this successful technique with their math curriculum. Another example is Volusia County schools. Last year, they mapped their curriculum to set specific goals for each grade level and then assessed student progress based on achieving the goals. It is obvious that educators in the Florida schools are committed to building this year on the progress they made last year. As with public schools across the nation, there will be no shortage of challenges facing the Florida schools. Unlike many public schools across the nation, the Florida schools are making progress for the youth of their state.

The Orlando schools will be promoting health and wellness to its students this year. As part of the Orange County Schools, the Orlando schools will implement a new wellness policy that was just approved this month. The new policy is in response to a federal mandate, under the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of . All schools that receive federal funding for school lunch programs must have a wellness policy in place. The wellness program for the Orlando schools is designed to promote better health to their students. Healthy eating and physical activity will play a big part in the Orlando schools’ policy. The hope is to completely change the Orlando schools’ environments to healthier ones. With the new wellness program effective on the first day of school, each of the Orlando schools is challenged to be creative and innovative in implementing wellness activities and promotions. Each of the Orlando schools will create a Healthy School Team (HST). The organization of each team is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Coordinated School Health Model. There will be a member on each HST to represent each of the following areas of health:

• Health education,

• Counseling.

• Psychological and social services,

• School health services,

• Nutrition services, • Physical education,

• The healthy school environment,

• Health promotion for Orlando schools’ staff, and

• Family and community.

Under the belief that healthy children is a community-wide concern, each of the Orlando schools will enlist the involvement of parents, families, teachers, counselors, school administrators, healthcare professionals, businesses, and community groups and organizations. The Orange County schools already have experimented with the wellness program, which will benefit the Orlando schools. For almost three years, the program has been used in 13 schools within the county. The HSTs have been found to be quite effective in promoting health and wellness, not only for the students but their families and school staff, as well. The Orlando schools will use much of the information and experiences from these schools, when implementing their own wellness program this year.

The experimental HSTs have sponsored walking and running clubs for students, school staff, and parents. Another example of creative thinking by the HSTs is “wellness Wednesdays”, whereby students are rewarded for being involved in healthy activities, such as eating nutritious lunches, drinking water versus soda, or participating in a physical activity. Each HST at the Orlando schools will be charged with developing activities that meet the specific needs of each school and its students. The HST members are limited only by their own imaginations to develop creative promotions, events and activities. The new wellness program at the Orlando schools is all about health and wellness for children, and helping everyone concerned to understand the importance of good health and its effect upon a child’s ability to learn. From the federal mandate to the Orlando schools’ implementation of the wellness program, the sole purpose is to improve the health of students in order for them to be better able to learn and achieve — now and in the future.San Jose Schools Win Awards and Honors This Summer This summer several San Jose Schools won some kind of award or honor for their continued achievements in education. Three schools in the San Jose Schools system have won awards for successfully competing in the California Student Media and Multimedia Festival. River Glenn Middle School and Almaden Elementary entered a multimedia technology and science project into the competition. This project entitled “Environmental Concerns in the Community” won the Multi-Grades & Schools Collaboration for Grades 4-8 category. In this project three San Jose Schools interacted with each other electronically to collaborate on a scientific investigation of the impact of precautionary measures designed to protect area wetlands. The students participating in the project came from a fourth grade class at Almaden Elementary, a fifth grade class at Zanker Elementary and a class from River Glenn.

The two main coordinating teachers Mary Howland, Special Education Teacher of River Glen Middle School, and Beth Fensterwald, TSG of Almaden Elementary were also honored. Two San Jose Elementary Schools received 2006 California Distinguished Schools honors this year. Willow Glen Elementary and Terrell Elementary were called by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell to announce their selection as 2006 California Distinguished Schools. This honor is given to schools that have shown themselves to improve over the school year. The California School Recognition Program is designed to aid and publize the success of the California Board of Education and the school district , like San Jose Schools. The California School Recognition Program honors California’s best and inspiring schools with the California Distinguished School Award. Participation in the program is completely voluntary and decided by the school district. However, the award is very respect and many schools in the state strive to attain it. About 5% of the schools in California receive the California Distinguished School Award. Usually participation in the program includes about 40 school districts from across the state. San Jose Schools has participated for many years and plans to continue in the future. California’s Model Schools Project Recently, two San Jose Schools have been selected to participate in the California Model Schools Project.

The exhaustive application process narrowed the selection down to eight schools in Santa Clara County of which two are members of the San Jose Schools system. The two schools selected to participate in the California Model Schools Project were Gardner Academy and Willow Glen Middle School. These two schools will work closely with and be supported by other schools across Santa Clara County. They will also collaborate with the Successful Practices Network at the International Center for Leadership in Education. The main goals of the California Model Schools Project is to increase state testing scores, improve the quality of the schools instructional and leadership practices, and raise community involvement in the schools. San Jose Schools’ Schallenberger School Wins Excellence Awards Schallenberger School has received the State of California’s Excellence Award for their performance in last school year. This award recognizes those schools that have raised its overall academic achievement scores and have closed the achievement gap among its students. The State of California’s Excellence Award was presented in Costa Mesa. Schallenberger School has also been given an award from the California Business for Education Excellence Foundation at a ceremony.