Having endured budget cuts, districtwide, of more than $6
million over two years, Live Oak High has just received some good
financial news: the school is the recipient of a three-year
$498,755 federal grant.
Having endured budget cuts, districtwide, of more than $6 million over two years, Live Oak High has just received some good financial news: the school is the recipient of a three-year $498,755 federal grant.
The grant will be used to support the school’s smaller learning communities (SLC) project, which is something the school has been working toward since 1992, said Principal Nancy Serigstad.
Serigstad also addressed the issue that most often comes up when the small learning communities, otherwise known as clusters, come up in conversations with parents and the public.
“Clusters are a way of managing kids in their academic environment,” she said. “They are a way of managing the work that we need to do to make sure no kids fall through the cracks.
Parents sometimes fear that clustering means the removal of advanced classes and the “dumbing down” of students instead of offering challenges to rise up to.
“Absolutely not,” Serigstad said. “Students who sign up for AP (advanced placement) courses, students who sign up for an advanced curriculum, that’s a group of students that needs support as much as any of the others. That’s just as much a population at risk as any other. They need to be challenged, they need our support.”
Live Oak currently has several clusters including the computer business academy, the high-tech agricultural science group, the English language learners and special education.
“These are all examples of small learning communities,” said Serigstad. “This year, we focused on 10th grade clustering … Some parents think, ‘My child is going to have less choice.’ That’s simply not true. That cluster word throws people off somehow.
“This is about how can I personalize the learning environment, provide intervention and opportunities earlier, to meet the needs of the kids.”
Serigstad said small learning communities “are consistent with the direction outline in Live Oak High’s School Level Plan and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accreditation Report.”
The grant will allow Live Oak be paid for release time for training on SLCs and to expand the SLCs to include all students at all grade levels, she said.
“The focus for the first year is looking at ninth and 10th grade,” she said, referring to the projected opening of Sobrato High School in August 2004 which will allow district ninth graders to move into the high schools. “As we set curriculum for next year, which we are already moving on, then we can take into account the SLCs.”
Over the three years of the grant, Serigstad said, Live Oak staff will look at different ways to optimize the small learning communities.
“The grant is very open,” she said. “Just brainstorming, maybe we work in an advisory period during the day, an advocacy period, where teachers can have an opportunity to do some academic guidance counseling. We might look at some schedules that allow some flexibility for this kind of thing.”
After the grant ends, she said, the SLCs should remain in place.
