Highlights of the Oct. 8 school board meeting:
- The board voted to continue operating the multi-track, year-round school program for the 2008-2009 school year.
- The board approved the bid of $198,000 to Benton Fencing and Drilling for a contract for fencing Northmead Elementary School.
Highlights of the Oct. 15 school board meeting:
- The board approved a cost overrun of $141,311 for Roek Construction for the Patterson High School gym modernization.
Patterson Unified School District staff development classes have met qualifications of the federal No Child Left Behind law, the school board heard Monday night.
No Child Left Behind requires districts to achieve the goal of having all teachers be highly qualified to teach core academic subjects.
“On our early release days, there’s been a lot of work,” said Kathy Pon, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services.
Pon reported that all teachers at Rising Sun, Grayson Charter, Apricot Valley, Las Palmas and Northmead met compliance. At Del Puerto, 86 percent met compliance, while at, Patterson High, and Creekside Middle School, 88 percent and 95 percent, respectively, of teachers met compliance.
She reviewed all the federal and state classes, which include training for such areas as the Advancement Via Individual Determination teachers. AVID is a program for academically average students who want to attend college. Meanwhile, the county-run California Technology Project, also known as C-TAP, helps the district update and write its technology plan.
On the local level, there are site coaches at every campus who work with teachers in direct instruction or English-learner programs.
Secondary schools and elementary schools work on various other programs during staff development time when children are dismissed early on a minimum school day.
One upcoming workshop will address how to teach writing to high school and middle school students. Meanwhile, elementary school sites have Direct Instruction training in math, reading and English language development. Direct Instruction is a fast-paced constant interaction between a teacher and student that focuses on student academic performance and improvement.
Northmead School Principal Cathy Silva said Friday the Direct Instruction lesson begins with the teacher training the students in the purpose of the lesson.
“It’s important for students to know what they will be learning, how it is connected to prior learning and why it’s important,” Silva said. “This gives students a focus for learning.”
An essential component of Direct Instruction is that as the lesson progresses the teacher calls on those who have not volunteered answers to make sure they understand the lesson being taught and engage all students in the lesson.
Then, when a teacher feels that most students understand, the students can do independent work that matches the objective of the lesson.
Meanwhile, Pon also said the staff development would carry through the district not only to teachers and administrators but also to classified staff.
“One thing we’re very proud of is we started to work on classified staff development,” Pon said.
She said yard duty, grounds, maintenance, cafeteria staff and office staff at various district schools would receive training in areas such as communication, working with the public and office spreadsheets, as well as health and wellness compliance. Some classes would be taught in Spanish something especially requested by staff that is not bilingual.
“The training is ongoing,” Pon said.
To reach Maddy Houk at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail her at
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