Rialto teachers hope expanding arts program halts PI sanctions
Volume 12, Issue 6 - March 2008
Class doesn’t begin until 8 a.m. at Henry Elementary School in Rialto, but the band room fills with students at 7:30. Many of them look groggy until they take their places at the drums. Soon, under the direction of teacher Scott Jensen, the school’s visual and performing arts specialist, youngsters are pounding out loud and intricate rhythms on snare drums, bass drums and the “quads” known as tom-toms, along with a few xylophones.
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| Trevon Sanders and Aarajhon McGee greet the morning with a bass drum session at Henry Elementary School in Rialto. |
With each beat, students become more animated and lively. Some are wearing T-shirts showing their official membership in the school’s Hawk Fire Drum Line.
“Having loud music is a good way to wake up,” says fourth-grader Matthew Horzen at the end of the session, “and after that you’re not bored in class.”
One might say that Henry Elementary School is marching to the beat of a different drummer. In October, teachers were told that the school would undergo reconstitution next year. That plan called for closing and reopening the campus as a “demonstration teaching school” in 2008-09 with all teachers having to reapply for their jobs. Many of the district’s lead teachers would have been transferred to Henry Elementary School, replacing much of the staff currently there.
Instead, something unusual happened at the campus — in its fifth year of Program Improvement (PI) status under No Child Left Behind and labeled “failing” — despite a 200-point increase in the state’s Academic Performance Index over the past decade. In January, administrators decided to increase student achievement by expanding the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) magnet program created this year. Under the original reconstitution plan, the VAPA program would have been transferred to the new school.
In the new restructuring plan, created under the PI sanction titled “Other,” approximately 200 out of 600 Henry Elementary School students will transfer to the district’s new school that will open next fall as part of a boundary change that was already planned. The boundary change will not affect the school’s demographics, since students who will transfer in (and out) reflect the current population, which also has a high percentage of English language learners. Henry will go from being a year-round school to one following a traditional calendar. Supporters hope these changes will attract new students from throughout the district.
The plan also calls for eight teachers to be transferred from Henry Elementary to the new campus, which some see as partial reconstitution. It is hoped that some teachers will volunteer to teach at the brand-new school and be accepted for those positions. However, the new plan may be altered by a proposal from the governor to cut 10 percent of education funding. Rialto Unified School District officials have announced a plan to lay off 10 percent of its teaching force if that happens. Jensen’s position, though, will still be funded next year.
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| Scott Jensen, a visual and performing arts specialist at Henry Elementary School in Rialto, is excited about a new program that combines math software with music played on keyboards to improve students’ math skills. |
Mick Brown, assistant superintendent of elementary instruction for the Rialto Unified School District, says that the original plan for total reconstitution and transferring the VAPA program to the new school was abandoned for the current plan because it was the “right thing to do instructionally” in order to boost student achievement. Numerous studies show that students engaged in the arts do better on standardized tests. The plan to turn the school into a teaching “demonstration” model was abandoned because administrators feared that it would be disruptive to other school sites in the district, which is one of the recently labeled PI districts in the state.
Rialto Education Association (REA) members are cautiously optimistic about the plan for Henry Elementary School, which is the lowest-performing school in the PI district and has long been allowed to languish by district administrators, says association President Bill Hedrick.
Due to a stormy history with the school board and administration, there is also some mistrust about the new plan, he adds. Most decisions — including this one — have been top-down, or lacking teacher input. And teachers are especially nervous about the criteria that will determine who stays and who doesn’t.
“That hasn’t been determined yet,” says Hedrick. “Administrators have already informed me that they intend to follow the current language in our contract. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to negotiate it, there will be little consideration for seniority as a factor.”
Despite some misgivings about the plan, says Hedrick, “it’s not as drastic as it could be.”
Jensen, who also oversees the band, the choir and the school’s Mexican Folklorico dance program, is excited about the school’s partnership with the Mind Institute, which combines math software with students playing music on keyboards to improve math skills. The Santa Ana-based program, which has demonstrated proven success in numerous California school districts, will be available to all Henry Elementary School students after 40 new computers are installed a few months from now.
“Morale has improved at the school,” says Jensen. “It’s nice to see smiles on the kids’ faces because we’re having so much fun.”
Kim Ciabattini, a kindergarten teacher and the school’s union rep, is behind the changes that are planned for next year. With the arrival of Jensen and the VAPA program this year, she comments, “I’ve seen children smile and learn, something I haven’t seen for a long time.” Parents are becoming more involved in the school and excited about seeing their children perform.
“Change is inevitable, and you have to be adaptable and flexible,” says fourth-grade teacher Kari Nordahl. “Sometimes that means shaking things up a bit. I’m hoping that this will be successful. I believe that once students have success in one area, they will have success in other areas.”
Second-grade teacher Terianne Bowser says that student behavior has improved since the VAPA program arrived this year, “because they all want to be in the drum line and band — and now have a carrot hanging over their heads so they can participate.”
“I do hope they give this time to work,” adds Bowser, who says that part of the reason for low test scores is that teachers were constantly being switched from program to program without adequate time allowing new programs to work.
“We are really working our tails off and doing everything we are being asked. What more can we do?”
