Post by gatormom on May 18, 2008 6:16:04 GMT -5
East High to add mentors, AP courses
• Parents crucial: New programs catch on
May 18, 2008
By HEATHER GILLERS
AURORA -- With an eye toward improving achievement from kindergarten through 12th grade, East Aurora schools are expanding a parent mentor program and adding high-level courses.
The two-year-old Parents United in Action program will increase the number of parent mentors it places at East Aurora elementary schools from 13 to 30 next year, said Kirsten Strand of Community Christian Church, which sponsors the program and provides most of the funding.
The expansion means there will now be 10 parent mentors at Bardwell and Brady elementary schools and allow Rollins and Beaupre elementary schools each to add five mentors.
"I'm very pleased and can't wait for it to grow," said Bardwell Principal Tom Hartman. "I have five parent mentors who were shy and a little cautious at the beginning of the year and now they want to come back."
Parents in the program are paid $750 to spend two hours a day in East Aurora elementary schools five days a week. They spend four of the days in the classroom, working with students, and a fifth day receiving training from staff.
"I could see the accomplishments we made with the students and just how fast they were moving along ... with just me being there for two hours," said Tonya Cotto, the mother of a first-grader and a fourth-grader in the district, who volunteers in a Bardwell classroom of 25 kindergartners.
Other parents -- some speaking through translators -- said the program had given them the opportunity to work one on one with kids, freeing up teachers to do more teaching.
Schools pay for one of every five mentors they receive with money from what Hartman calls his "pop and popcorn budget" -- funds raised by the school, not allocated by the district. The rest of the funding for the program comes from Community Christian Church or from grants.
At East Aurora High School, educators plan to add Advanced Placement computer science and convert an advanced German course into an AP class, said Joe Harmon, assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at the high school.
• Parents crucial: New programs catch on
May 18, 2008
By HEATHER GILLERS
AURORA -- With an eye toward improving achievement from kindergarten through 12th grade, East Aurora schools are expanding a parent mentor program and adding high-level courses.
The two-year-old Parents United in Action program will increase the number of parent mentors it places at East Aurora elementary schools from 13 to 30 next year, said Kirsten Strand of Community Christian Church, which sponsors the program and provides most of the funding.
The expansion means there will now be 10 parent mentors at Bardwell and Brady elementary schools and allow Rollins and Beaupre elementary schools each to add five mentors.
"I'm very pleased and can't wait for it to grow," said Bardwell Principal Tom Hartman. "I have five parent mentors who were shy and a little cautious at the beginning of the year and now they want to come back."
Parents in the program are paid $750 to spend two hours a day in East Aurora elementary schools five days a week. They spend four of the days in the classroom, working with students, and a fifth day receiving training from staff.
"I could see the accomplishments we made with the students and just how fast they were moving along ... with just me being there for two hours," said Tonya Cotto, the mother of a first-grader and a fourth-grader in the district, who volunteers in a Bardwell classroom of 25 kindergartners.
Other parents -- some speaking through translators -- said the program had given them the opportunity to work one on one with kids, freeing up teachers to do more teaching.
Schools pay for one of every five mentors they receive with money from what Hartman calls his "pop and popcorn budget" -- funds raised by the school, not allocated by the district. The rest of the funding for the program comes from Community Christian Church or from grants.
At East Aurora High School, educators plan to add Advanced Placement computer science and convert an advanced German course into an AP class, said Joe Harmon, assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at the high school.