The official word on summer school is finally out: registration for summer remedial courses and a high school credit-retrieval program is now open, according to a statement published by the Bellingham School District on May 25.
But, not every student in the district will be able to receive extra educational support over the summer as the scope of the program has been reduced due to budget cuts.
Elementary remedial programs in math and reading are only being offered at the district Title 1 elementary schools, where the program is federally funded.
The district Title 1 schools are: Alderwood, Birchwood, Roosevelt, and Sunnyland.
District subsidy of the general K-8 summer remedial program was cut by the School Board of Directors as part of the 2009 budget savings plan.
Students who qualify will be provided with registration forms and information on June 1 by their schools, according to the statement.
High school students interested in making up credits can also now enroll in the Bellingham Virtual Learning online summer school program, which will be held at Squalicum High School.
The online program has been reduced as well; it will be held only twice a week for one hour a day. In 2009 the sessions were three hours a day, and in 2008 the session was a full-day, seven hour course, according to Paraeducator Rebecca Pendergraft, who was on the summer school staff in 2008.
Students interested in the online program should contact their counselors, according to the statement.
Want to know more? Read about the reductions in the program in a previous story.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Construction of new northside elementary school to begin this June
After a four year delay, construction of a new elementary school on Aldrich road that will serve the Sunnyland, Birchwood, and Alderwood neighborhoods is scheduled to begin in June, according to the Bellingham School District Director of Communications Tanya Rowe.
The elementary school will enroll 343 students from the Northside elementary schools, Alderwood, Birchwood, Northern Heights and Sunnyland.
The majority of the students (a total of 125) would be transferred from Sunnyland, which is currently operating over capacity in terms of enrollment, according to the district.
“We have every class space being used in the [Sunnyland] building with six portables outside and no more space on the grounds for additional portables,” said Rowe.
Approved by voters in 2006, the new school was part of a $67 million bond that included a number of other projects, such as the seismic retro fittings of Lowell Elementary and Whatcom Middle School, said Rowe.
Construction of the school was delayed due to permitting issues and the fire at Whatcom in 2009, said Rowe.
Northside schools seeing increasing enrollment, but current class sizes not a concern for parents
According to the school district, total enrollment at Alderwood, Birchwood, Northern Heights and Sunnyland has increased by 182 students since 2006.
Lundy said that she feels that building a new school in the midst of recent budget cuts is unnecessary, and will divert important funding from other areas.
“[The district] is crying 'poor, poor, poor' and here they are building a new school, which I think is crazy,” she said.
But, because the school is being funded by a voter-approved, capital facilities bond, the money set aside for the school cannot be reallocated, according to state law, said Rowe.
“If we [the district] were to say 'We're not going to build Aldrich, we're not going to use that money from our voters' we wouldn't be able to use that money for staffing and other needs, we would just be turning it away,” she said.
School could temporarily be used for other purposes, depending on need
Expected to be completed in June 2011, the school could be used as a temporary facility to fill other needs depending on the rate of enrollment at the Northside schools and whether or not it will be necessary to reallocate students, according to the district.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Final fundraiser held for Jamaican orphanage, but volunteers still in need of funding for trip
The last fundraiser for the orphanage My Father's House, a spaghetti dinner hosted by Trinity Lutheran Church, raised nearly $2,500 towards the trip, according to Kim Lau.
Proceeds from the dinner will benefit Mark and Kim Lau's, and Jenny Bushaw's trip to Whitehouse, Jamaica where they will be running the orphanage for a year during the owner's absence.
Details about their trip in an earlier story can be found here.
Bushaw, a high school senior who will be interning at the orphanage, has raised almost all of the funds she will need for the year, according to Lau.
But, she and Mark are still short of meeting their fundraising goal.
“Jenny is very close to having all the funds she needs for the year, but Mark and I still need a few thousand,” she said.
Those interested in donating towards the trip can send contributions to Trinity Lutheran Church at: 119 Texas St. Bellingham, WA 98226.
Individual contributions should be made out to the Kingdom Builders Ministry.
Interested in learning more? Read all about the Lau's trip on their blog.
District decides to keep a limited summer school program
A limited summer school program will be offered this year, although school district officials were uncertain that it would be available to students due to budget cuts, according to Deputy Superintendent Karst Brandsma.
District personnel are currently preparing advertisements for the programs, and are posting job positions for the summer, he said. .
Registration should be available on the web site in the next couple of weeks according to Superintendent Sherrie Brown.
Summer school programs are almost entirely dependent on grants, which makes it impossible to predict ahead of time whether or not it will be offered, Brandsma said.
“If you would have asked me [if summer school was being offered] a month ago I would have
said it’s still too early to make that determination,” he said.
State-funded programs kept, but district no longer subsidizing K-8 curriculum
State-funded remedial programs will continue to be offered at Title 1 elementary schools, where a high percentage of the students come from families who live at or below the poverty line, said Brandsma.
Sunnyland Elementary is one of four Title 1 schools in the district; the others are Alderwood, Birchwood, and Roosevelt, according to Brown.
Special education summer programs are also being kept with the help of federal funding through the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act (AARA) that was signed into law in February 2009.
$2.1 million was assigned to special education programs, according to the district's web site.
A part-time high school credit retrieval program, “The Bellingham School District Virtual Academy” will also be offered. It is expected to start after July 4 and run through the second week of August, Brandsma said.
The program provides high school students with the opportunity to earn credits to make up for failed courses.
The program is tuition-based, with a sliding scale for families of students on free/reduced lunch But, a ten-week remedial summer session previously offered to K-8 students to help them to meet standards in math and literacy will no longer be offered at non- Title 1 schools, according to Brown.
“We've just had to cut back so much because of budget cuts,” she said.
The decision to cut district subsidy of the program was part of a savings plan approved by the School Board of Directors on March 17, 2009.
“There’s certainly some advantages to summer school, but it is really outside the scope of our mission,” said Brandsma.
Cutting the program was estimated to save $200,000.
The plan was an effort to reduce the district operating budget in anticipation of the expected $2 million cut in state funding.
A further decrease in funding of around $1.6 million for 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years was implemented with the completion of the state budget on April 12, 2010.
School officials worried about consequences for students
The recent decision to keep summer school has not yet been officially announced.
According to Jeannie Havland, a counselor at Bellingham high school, staff were notified earlier this year that summer school would not be staffed this year due to the cuts.
Havland was worried about the effect of the cut on struggling students, as reducing the credit-retrieval programs for students decreases their chances of graduating in four years, she said.
According to Rebecca Pendergraft, a paraeducator at Sehome high school who was on the summer school staff in 2008, most students who will not graduate in four years choose to drop out rather than return for an additional year of school to make up for failed classes.
The current credit-retrieval program is much more limited than it used to be, she said.
In the past the program used to run for seven hours a day, which allowed students to make up most of their missing credits, according to Pendergraft.
But, beginning in 2009, the program was cut to only three hours a day, she said.
Two of the students who assist her with the special education program will not be returning to Sehome next year as they will not be graduating on time; one is planning on joining the Lynden Job Corps, and the other is going to enlist in the military, she said.
“The district has really failed [to help] those kids,” she said.
Research put out by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction also suggests that graduating on time is critical to staying in school.
Students who are held back are more likely to drop out, according to a report put out by in 2006 entitled, “Helping Students Finish School: Why Students Drop Out and How to Help Them Graduate.”
According to the report, 49.6 percent of Washington state high schoolers who dropped out before graduating did so due to “lack or progress/poor grades.”
Monday, May 10, 2010
Three locals head to Jamaica this summer to run an orphanage
Three parishioners from Trinity Lutheran church are heading to Jamaica this July to take over the management of an orphanage for a year during the directors' absence.
Kim and Mark Lau have volunteered to run My Father's House, an orphanage in Whitehouse, Jamaica that takes in abused and abandoned children.
They will be joined by Jenny Bushaw, a senior at Sehome high school who will be interning there.
Current directors Jim and Penie Koch will be spending a year in the United States fund raising for and raising awareness about the orphanage.
There are currently six children at the orphanage, but Lau hopes to really utilize the space to help as may children as possible.
Local parishioners step in to fill a need
According to Kim Lau, the Kochs were in the process of looking for the right people to take over the management when she decided to email them and ask them if she could assist them in any way.
“They were praying for someone else to come in,” she said.
Both Lau and Bushaw have volunteered with the orphanage previously. Lau headed a week-long mission trip to the orphanage last year with the church's youth group, during which they built a house for the children.
Lau was reluctant to leave the place; when she found out that the orphanage was in need of temporary directors, she jumped at the chance to help, she said.
The orphanage is entirely donation based, said Lau. Contributions mainly come from teams of volunteers who come and stay at the orphanage for a week, she said.
The teams, usually made up of youth groups doing mission work, pay $400 per person for their stay, which covers room and board and helps fund the orphanage.
“Teams coming in is what keeps the orphanage afloat,” she said.
The teams that come through assist in various ways, including tutoring the children, conducting
bible study, and helping with the maintenance of the place.
Community helps with cost
Bushaw was initially worried about the paying for the trip,which was expected to be between $5,000 and $6,000 per person she said.
But, fund raising efforts and contributions from both the church and individuals have helped alleviate the cost, Bushaw said.
“At first I was scared about the money because I only work part-time,” she said. “But all the donations have really showed me how amazing people are. People are very generous, its kind of mind-blowing.”
For example, the cost of the plane tickets have been partially covered through donations, she said.
But, the group will not be paid to run the orphanage, so they are still in need of financial assistance, according to Lau.
Living expenses will be around $400 per person each month, and they will also be paying for insurance, she said.
“There will be absolutely no money [income] coming in,” she said.
The Laus are also hoping to sell their house in Bellingham and buy a smaller one, in an effort to raise money for the trip.
High school senior eager to serve after graduation
Having participated in several mission trips through the Trinity youth group, Bushaw said that
she is looking forward to graduating from high school and going abroad to make a difference in the lives of the children at the orphanage.
“I hate being stuck here in classes,” she said. “I'm excited to go there and have a purpose.”
Bushaw fell in love with Jamaica during her previous trip there, and enjoyed working with the children, she said. .
As an intern, she will helping with every aspect of the orphanage, included maintenance, cooking, and tutoring the children.
Mark Lau will also be leading the group in creating a garden for the orphanage, a project that Bushaw is looking forward to working on, she said.
Youth group serves abroad
According to the Rev. Dr. Doug Iben, pastor of Trinity Church, the youth group often participates in international mission work.
“There's always lots going on,” he said.
The group has traveled to Peru, Mexico and Jamaica in the past.
The church will also be sending 12 high schoolers and six adults to volunteer at an orphanage in Haiti this summer, he said.
A central part of the church's mission is impacting the lives of teenagers, especially by giving them a opportunities to help others, said Lau.
“Our church is very supportive of the youth in making a difference,” she said.
Ways to help
Trinity Lutheran Church will be hosting a spaghetti dinner at 5:30 p.m. on May 14, at the church's Grace Center. Proceeds from the dinner will go towards the trip. The church is located at 119 Texas St.
Individual contributions should be made out to the Kingdom Builders Ministry.
Those interested in following the Laus' and Bushaw's trip can read about it on the couple's blog at www.MarkandKimLau.blogspot.com.
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