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Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Six Elementaries Start Classes

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
    The first day of school came early this year for students at six elementaries.
    While many of their classmates were still finishing up their summer school classes— sometimes in the room next door— students at Alamosa, Dolores Gonzales, Emerson, Hawthorne, La Luz and Lavaland elementaries on Monday began six weeks early.
    The new state program expands the school year for high-poverty, low-performing elementaries.
    Hawthorne Elementary teacher Janet Trump-Bowers said she jumped at the chance to have an extra five weeks with her second-graders after seeing how the state's previous program— an expanded year for kindergarten students— had improved progress for the youngest students.
    "Our goal is to have them start school earlier so they don't lose as much as they tend to lose over the summer," said Trump-Bowers, a 33-year educator whose 17 new students left first grade only five weeks earlier. "Sometimes it takes till December to catch kids up."
    Starting in 2003 with $400,000, the kindergarten-plus pilot program showed that giving students a jump-start in kindergarten left them better prepared for first grade.
    This year, the Legislature approved $7.5 million to expand the program to third grade in more schools.
    Some 1,700 students at 17 Albuquerque schools are participating in the program through $1.6 million given to APS.
    Schools with at least 85 percent of students qualifying for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program were able to apply for the program.
    "It's exciting to have extra time with our kids, to give them a jump-start," Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt said at a news conference Monday, "and, in some cases, hopefully close the achievement gap that we know we have with some of our students."
    Starting July 9 will be Duranes, La Mesa and Mountain View, and July 16 will be Edward Gonzales, Eubank, Kirtland, Kit Carson, Los Padillas, Reginald Chavez, Valle Vista and Whittier.
    Parents interested in enrolling their children in the extended-year programs at those schools may contact their neighborhood school or the APS Service Center at 855-9040.