Lovington Leader

Enrollment Still Going UP!

By JOHN GRAHAM

"And again we're up," said Lovington School Superintendent Steve O'Quinn as he explained the continual growth of Lovington's school enrollment to the Lovington School Board Tuesday night. Figures taken the 17th day of this year topped 3,289 compared to 3,166 on the 20th day last year-almost a four percent increase. In fact the Lovington School District has seen a steady growth in enrollment the last eight years-from 2,770 on the 20th day of the 2002-2003 school year to the current 3,289. "The steady growth just continues along," O'Quinn said. "It's good, but finding a place for them (the students) is becoming a problem," "Hopefully we can absorb the new students without adding additional staff," he added.

 In other business: The following new employees were approved for hire by the school board: Adilene Arroyo as a special education instructional assistant at Yarbro Elementary School; Haley Barbre as a special education instructional assistant at Llano Elementary School; Karla Campos as a dual language kindergarten teacher at Llano Elementary School; Michelle Fox as a math intervention teacher at Taylor Middle School; Graciela Franco as a custodian at Lea Elementary School; Jessica Gardner as a second grade teacher at Ben Alexander Elementary School; Haeley Lujan as a special education instructional assistant at Lea Elementary School; Josh Shankles as the band teacher at Taylor Middle School; Dora Vasquez as a custodian with the Lovington Municipal Schools; Analilia Vazquez as a special education instructional assistant at Llano Elementary School; and Courtney Watson as a half time special education instructional assistant at Llano Elementary School.

Resignations were accepted from the following employees: Corrina Caster, Tiffany Graham, Mona Granger, Tamara Jones, William McBee, Veronica Rose and Jose Quintana.

•The board gave high school science teacher Janet Bruelhart the approval to move ahead in planning an international trip for her students--possibly in the Amazon. The only fly in the ointment would be if the liability issues couldn't be ironed out.

•The board unanimously agreed not to pursue a funding formula lawsuit with other school districts against the state.

•The school's food service contract with Aramark was renewed.

IT'S WORKING

Jefferson Elementary Leads The Charge In Changing The Way To Teach (Right: Jefferson teachers Kim Mock, Jody Cunningham, Shannon Black and Kelley Moore stand under the banner Jefferson principal Ivan DeAnda put up to honor the students and teachers for reaching their goals in academic excellence.)

By JOHN GRAHAM

The old adage "you can't teach old dogs new tricks," is wrong--you can. Lovington's Jefferson Elementary School has been proving that as it has been trying new tricks to teach its students. The new tricks seem to be working. The school recently made Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) the second year in a row under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program that all schools in the state are under.

How hard is it to make two years of AYP in a row? Jefferson is one of only five schools in the state to do it. Only 252 schools out of 820 in the state even made AYP this last year. So maybe the crew at Jefferson is on to something. Every school has to have a designation, but the state only requires third grade through 11th grade to take the test. However, federal regulations require that every grade has to have a rating. So, Llano Elementary, Lea Elementary and Ben Alexander Elementary piggyback off of Jefferson's rating because it is the school they feed into. "We couldn't do it without kindergarten through second grade doing the things they need to do to prepare the kids before they get to us," said Jefferson principal Ivan DeAnda. DeAnda said that the last two years they have been at the top of the academic ladder, "and it feels good", but once you get up there it is harder to stay there. "The only reason we will stay successful is because they (the teachers) want to be successful." The teaching at Jefferson has been evolving. The bottom line according to math teacher Kelly Moore is "combining common sense with hard work" and making it fun such as hosting a math tournament. Competition seems to come up a lot at Jefferson. The kids want to be winners. Moore said the school has multiplication challenges between the classrooms to encourage and motivate students to learn their multiplication facts and they compete for a traveling trophy. "Another change we made was implementing a weekly study guide that is directly connected to the state standards and benchmarks. With this, students are getting access to concepts earlier in the year and these skills are repeated throughout the year to ensure proficiency," Moore added.

An after school math program was also implemented that helps students who are struggling with some of the math concepts. "Read, read, read," said reading teacher Shannon Black. Through the 25 Book Club, students have to read 25 books. Through the book club, students are reading more books and are increasing their vocabulary as well as comprehension. "These third graders are having to actually do written responses. Compare and contrast, that's a high level of thinking," she said. She also has involved the community, where volunteers come into the classrooms on a regular basis and read to the kids. "The community is great," said DeAnda. "I think the most important thing about this school is this staff works together," said Black. "We share our ideas with each other and work together in the same direction." And Jefferson's success breeds success as the students move on up the ladder to the higher grades. Last year, Yarbro was just one student shy of making AYP. Its scores in general were very high. "We reassess each year, and that helps us re-evalute the kids we need to address," said Kim Mock. "I think that is one thing our school has gotten very good at. A lot of schools test, test, test, test, but we actually use those tests to guide our instruction," said Shannon Black. "They tell us where we need to go and what we need to do." When asked if the kids get tired of taking all the tests, Jody Cunningham who teaches science responded, "By us making it a competition, the students see it as something they want to do, instead of something they have to do. They want to beat the other class or the other child--there is a competitiveness." "And it's more than a competition, it's about setting goals," she added. The students are also rewarded when they reach their goals. "I just feel good. This is what you work for to be recognized as one of the best," said DeAnda. "We have a staff that works so well together, it makes it easy." "It's really like a family atmosphere," he added. "You can use those clichés but in this situation it really is true." "They do anything they need to do to see it happen," DeAnda said they evaluate each class that goes through the school. The teachers look at themselves and summarize what was their strength and what was the area they need to touch on a little harder for this year. "Basically it gives them a synopsis of what they did last year as far as instruction…so we can get better," said DeAnda. "We have to evaluate how well we are delivering instruction." "We're doing a great job with it now, but you can't just sit back and say 'hey, we did a good job' because the target continues to go up, so we have to continually get better and move along with it." "We also have to give the kids credit," said Mock. "Because they do work hard."

The Lovington School Board held special luncheons for the teachers at each of the four ElementarySchools--Llano, Lea, Ben Alexander and Jefferson--to show their appreciation to the teachers formaking AYP two years in a row. Pictured above, board members Lynda McGinnes and Slick Duncanare standing as the Jefferson teachers enjoy their meal.

A Very Special thanks to the Lovington Daily Leader for providing the picutures and information. For more information on these articles please contact John Graham at (575) 396-2844