Things are starting to look up for Lucia Mar Unified School District, financially speaking. On Sept. 23, a representative from the office of U.S. Rep. Lois Capps called the district office to tell officials their district had been chosen to receive a $7.2 million-grant from the federal government. The district has had approximately 20 percent of its funding cut over the last three years.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Incentive Fund grant provides schools with the funds and other resources necessary to attract and retain high-performing teachers. According to information from Capps’s office, Teacher Incentive Fund grants were awarded based on a rigorous peer review of applications, and the congresswoman wrote a letter to the Department of Education in support of Lucia Mar’s application earlier this year.
School district officials discussed the grant and how it would be allocated at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Board of Education.
“We’ve identified six district schools as participants of the grant,” Andy Stenson, assistant superintendent, curriculum and instruction, told the Sun in an interview after the meeting.
Stenson said the schools were picked based on how many of their students accept free and reduced lunches. According to grant parameters, at least 50 percent of the student body has to be considered “at risk” financially for the school to qualify.
Stenson said about 82 percent of the funds will be used to hire more teachers and literacy specialists. The remaining funds will go toward teacher bonuses based on in-classroom performance reviews.
To implement the grant money, the district has to participate in the Teacher Advancement Program, an instructional system that employs trained teachers in struggling districts to teach them how to improve their curriculum, test scores, and overall academic performance.
“We’re going to spend several months educating the sites about the grant program and process,” Stenson said. “And at a future date, we’re going to hold a vote at each site to see if the teachers want to go ahead with the program.”
Approximately 75 percent of the teaching staff at each school must vote in favor of the system for it to be implemented.
Stenson said the district felt the grant was “worth going after because we needed to move forward in the area of our professional development.”
In a press release to the media, district Superintendent Jim Hogeboom, said: “These funds will provide our district with much needed resources to help us provide our teachers with feedback and coaching, an effective instructional model, and monetary rewards for effective teaching and learning.”
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2010.