Letters have been mailed to approximately 550 families in the Prince Street Elementary attendance area advising parents and guardians of the opportunity for Title I School Choice for the 2011-12 school year, due to Prince Street being a Title I school identified as a school needing improvement. There is a Parent Meeting on School Choice on July 21, and parents and guardians must return the letter of intent requesting School Choice by July 29 to be eligible.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind act, students in a Title I school that is in improvement due to not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) for two or more consecutive years must have the opportunity to attend another school that is not in improvement. Prince Street, which must receive local attention now that it has entered school improvement, must also offer Title I School Choice. (School Choice must be offered as long as a Title I school remains in improvement; leaving school improvement status requires making AYP for two consecutive years.)
Prince Street Elementary serves students from prekindergarten through grade 5. Prince Street families opting for Title I School Choice can request that their student attend either Charles H. Chipman Elementary or West Salisbury Elementary for prekindergarten to grade 2, and either Glen Avenue Elementary or North Salisbury Elementary for grades 3 to 5. The letter to Prince Street families includes a chart comparing state test results for the three schools with intermediate grades, and a chart showing the programs that each of the five schools offers. The school system will provide transportation for all Prince Street students attending another school by School Choice.
In the letter to Prince Street parents and guardians, Superintendent of Schools Dr. John E. Fredericksen said that many good things are happening at Prince Street, and he hopes families will elect to stay to be part of that improvement process. The difference between Prince Street making AYP and not making AYP was only about nine more students for reading and one more student for math reaching proficiency, out of a school population of 580.
“We are very proud of the many interventions that we have available for you and your child(ren) at Prince Street Elementary School. We will work to create additional programs to meet the identified needs of your student(s). Our qualified school staff is committed to providing the best educational program we can for all our students. It is our hope that you will elect to continue your child’s educational program at Prince Street School.”
A Parent Meeting for Title I School Choice options for Prince Street Elementary School families will be held in the school cafeteria at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 21. Staff members will be on hand to explain School Choice options, answer any questions, and receive letters of intent from parents and guardians who are requesting School Choice for their student to attend one of the Choice schools.
Letters of intent should be mailed in the envelopes provided to the attention of Sandra Drummond, Title I Supervisor. The address is Wicomico County Public Schools, PO Box 1538, Salisbury, MD 21802. For questions about the meeting or School Choice, please call Ms. Drummond at 410-677-4585, or Susan Jones, Director of Elementary Education, at 410-677-4496.
All Title I School Choice letters of intent must be received by Friday, July 29, to be eligible for School Choice. Letters of intent received after that date will not be honored. Requests for transfer under School Choice will be reviewed, and families will receive notification of their child’s school for 2011-12 later in the summer.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
9 comments:
The BOE should be real proud of their teachers at Prince St. Its been that way for at leasrt 20 yrs. Not one teacher or admistrator has been FIRED,just transfered.
Why should good schools get bad teachers from Prince Street? Just the mentality of BOE Bad move somewhere else or get a promotion. These teachers should be held accountable. Stop making life so easy for the bad teachers. Make them stay at Prince Street and work their butts off to get scores up. Some of them come early and leave late and still are ineffective.
Have some of you been to Prince Street school? The majority of the students behave like animals and so do their parents but yet again we want to blame the teachers. What a waste of money busing these kids to different schools? They will just ruin the numbers for the schools mentioned. Bottom line, a school will never be a success without the majority of staff, students AND parents working together. Also, Pemberton didn't make AYP and to help out the situation they have now lost Title One funding. Does this make an ounce of sense? A school is not making AYP but yet you take away title one??? Many parents don't even know what a benchmark is. I hold myself as a parent accountable also when my child gets a bad score on a test. I am calling the teachers, asking for a meeting and I ask them what can I do to help? Maybe if there was more of this at Prince Street they wouldn't be in this dire situation. Wake up parents!!!
I have known a couple of the teachers at Prince St., and they have indeed "worked their butts off." The problem rests largely with the demographics there. Many of the children come from families that have no interest in education; they do not work with the teachers as they should. There are also many students there for whom English is not the primary language. The students come with so much baggage, and there is just so much that a teacher can do to overcome that. To suggest that the teachers must be "bad" because the school performs badly is a huge mistake. In fact, some of the best teachers in the county are at Prince Street. This may sound very inappropriate, but the old saying that one cannot make a silk purse from a sow's ear fits here. There is only so much that the most effective teacher can do. (I'm a retired teacher; I know whereof I speak).
11:04 am- You are correct! There are some great teachers at Prince Street. A school has to be a team of teachers, adminstrators, parents and students that are working hard TOGETHER in order to be a success!!!
I'm a parent who got the choice but their 2 choices still stink. Both of the schools suggested are schools that have low scoring as well on tests and scores. It's aweful funny they still didn't give us the option to go to the better schools like North Salisbury or Pemberton. Not sure we got a good deal.
Pemberton didn't make AYP. They are greatly reducing the Magnet Program at both Pemberton and North Salisbury. Pemberton now has Magnet classes with only 8 students. This is because the board has made it more difficult to get in the magnet program. As a result, test scores went down at Pemberton. These WERE great schools because of the magnet program. Another fantastic school in the county is Westside Primary and Intermediate. Why? Just look at the demographics.
12:49
North has grades 3-5 and is one of the choices.
1:09 - you hit the nail on the head - demographics! Johnny Boy Fredricksen can say anything he wants, but the truth is that he can't control that bunch of wild animals any better than Nunzio, who lost control before he started.that school won't turn around. I actually feel bad for Nunzio - even though I think he's a jerk, he is really in trouble career wise on this one
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