Educating McDoniel

State grant to improve three school programs

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In the coming fiscal year, McDoniel Elementary School students will get a more worldly and in-depth educational experience, thanks to a $420,000 grant from the Nevada State Commission on Educational Excellence.

The commission recently approved the grant application, which will provide funding for the school's Innovation and Prevention of Remediation Programs through June 30, 2007.

Linda Goodman, McDoniel Elementary School principal, said the funds, which were made available to the school this month, would be spent primarily on the school's Everybody Reads, High Performers and International School programs.

Grant money also will be used to send McDoniel teachers to professional development classes and conferences.

"It's important for teachers to continue to go to conferences and talk to other teachers about how they are doing things," Goodman said. "We currently have five teachers signed up to attend national conferences, and one of the requirements of the grant is that they come back and share what they learned with the rest of the faculty."

The Everybody Reads program was started to ensure that all McDoniel students will be reading at or above their grade level by the time they take the Developmental Reading Assessment given each May.

The program will implement a remedial reading and writing program, provide after-school tutoring, extend the school library's hours and create a parent resource center.

Goodman said the funds also will allow the school to hire instructional aides for kindergarten, first- and second-grade classrooms.

The High Performers program is aimed at challenging and motivating high performing students. Some grant funds will be spent on technology upgrades, including nine mobile computers with projectors, and books for the school's parent resource center, where parents can check out volumns at the appropriate level for students.

Goodman said the funds also will contribute to the McDoniel Enrichment Academy, which will offer advanced after-school courses in a variety of subjects.

The McDoniel Enrichment Academy courses will be held in eight-week increments, and will offer students a variety of options, including dance, magic, yoga, sign language, Mandarin and advanced classes in the school's marine biology lab.

McDoniel art teacher Kaitlin Nichols will teach a paper and textiles class during the first eight-week segment. She said the class will focus on art techniques that are too advanced to teach in class, like paper making, quilting and weaving using looms, and will be aimed at students who love art class.

"This is stuff they don't get to do in class," Nichols said. "Each enrichment class will have only eight students, so those students will learn more complicated techniques and art processes that they don't get in regular classes.

"With a smaller student-teacher ratio, the lessons will be more hands-on than the students get in regular classes. I'll be able to instruct more advanced things and give each student more attention."

While Nichols' art class will be taught once a week, some of the enrichment classes will meet more often. The program is continual, so at the end of each eight-week course, students will have the opportunity to sign up for a new McDoniel Enrichment Academy course.

Fourth-grader Cody Milner, 10, said he is looking forward to the therapeutic effects of the yoga class he is signed up for.

"Sometimes I get a lot of stress in school, especially when tests are coming up," he said. "I signed up for yoga because it takes away the stress."

Milner said after the yoga class he hopes to take a magic class, which will be offered by music teacher Chuck Lane, or a football class.

Grant funds also will be used to help McDoniel meet its language immersion and global studies goals by June, 2009.

"I'm so glad the state understands, supports and welcomes this program," Goodman said. "The goals are two-fold; we hope to make students more aware of other places and cultures, and we want to continue our language immersion program."

McDoniel is one of only two CCSD schools offering Spanish-immersion instruction. According to the program, students are instructed in Spanish 50 percent of the time. The program is currently in progress at McDoniel in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms, and will continue into the higher grades with the current second-grade class.

The grant will provide more Spanish-language classroom materials, and will allow McDoniel to hire Spanish-speaking instructional aides.

"The overall goal is to produce bilingual students by the end of fifth grade," Goodman said. "This program begins in kindergarten, so when kids come into the school late, often they need help. The instructional aides will be able to help them catch up to their classmates."

Some of the grant funds also will be used for McDoniel's Summer Spanish Day Camp, which will help students improve their Spanish-speaking skills.

Goodman said many CCSD schools received grant funds from the Commission on Educational Excellence, including at least 27 schools in the Southeast region. McDoniel was one of the few schools to receive the entire amount asked for, and one of only four to receive $400,000 or more.

"Part of the criteria for requesting funds was that the grant proposal had to correlate the request with a school improvement plan," she said.

Goodman also said throughout the grant application process she received assistance from the CCSD and the Southeast Region. She also received help from school faculty, including vice principal Jean Lewis and parents, including Laura McBride, who assisted with the grant's executive summary.

"It really was a team effort to write the grant," Goodman said. "I'm very proud that the state supported everything we asked for, it's very exciting.

"We would not be able to do all of this without help. We are grateful that the state made these critical additional funds available."