Application: 2006-2007, No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program (MS Word) s8

2006-2007 No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program

U.S. Department of Education

Cover Sheet Type of School:(Check all that apply)[ x] Elementary[ ]Middle [ ] High[ ] K-12[ ] Charter

Name of Principal- Mrs. Vicki McGuire

(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other) (As it should appear in the official records)

Official School Name – Hayden Elementary School

(As it should appear in the official records)

School Mailing Address – 55 S. County Road 685 W.

(If address is P.O. Box, also include street address.)

Hayden Indiana 47245-9998

______

City State Zip Code+4 (9 digits total)

County - Jennings______State School Code Number*__3385______

Telephone ( 812 )346-2813 Fax ( 812)346-6295

Web site/URL www.jcsc.org E-mail -

I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge all information is accurate.

Date______

(Principal’s Signature)

Name of Superintendent* Dr. Michael Bushong

(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)

District Name Jennings County Schools Tel. ( 812)346-4483

I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.

Date______(Superintendent’s Signature)

Name of School Board Mr. Mark Davis

President/Chairperson

(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)

I have reviewed the information in this application, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.

Date______

PART I ELIGIBILITY CERTIFICATION

[Include this page in the school’s application as page 2.]

The signatures on the first page of this application certify that each of the statements below concerning the school’s eligibility and compliance with U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) requirements is true and correct.

1.  The school has some configuration that includes grades K-12. (Schools on the same campus with one principal, even K-12 schools, must apply as an entire school.)

2.  The school has made adequate yearly progress each year for the past two years and has not been identified by the state as “persistently dangerous” within the last two years. To meet final eligibility, the school must meet the state’s adequate yearly progress requirement in the 2006-2007 school year.

3.  If the school includes grades 7 or higher, it has foreign language as a part of its core curriculum.

4.  The school has been in existence for five full years, that is, from at least September 2001 and has not received the No Child Left Behind – Blue Ribbon Schools award in the past five years.

5.  The nominated school or district is not refusing OCR access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a districtwide compliance review.

6.  OCR has not issued a violation letter of findings to the school district concluding that the nominated school or the district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes. A violation letter of findings will not be considered outstanding if OCR has accepted a corrective action plan from the district to remedy the violation.

7.  The U.S. Department of Justice does not have a pending suit alleging that the nominated school or the school district as a whole has violated one or more of the civil rights statutes or the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

8.  There are no findings of violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a U.S. Department of Education monitoring report that apply to the school or school district in question; or if there are such findings, the state or district has corrected, or agreed to correct, the findings.

PART II DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

All data are the most recent year available.

DISTRICT (Questions 12 not applicable to private schools)

1. Number of schools in the district: ____6 Elementary schools

____1_ Middle schools

___ 0_ Junior high schools

____1 High schools

____2 Other

____10_TOTAL

2. District Per Pupil Expenditure: ___$5,774.39______

Average State Per Pupil Expenditure: ___$5,815.94______

SCHOOL (To be completed by all schools)

3. Category that best describes the area where the school is located:

[ ] Urban or large central city

[ ] Suburban school with characteristics typical of an urban area

[ ] Suburban

[ X] Small city or town in a rural area

[ ] Rural

4. 1 Number of years the principal has been in her/his position at this school.

2 If fewer than three years, how long was the previous principal at this school?

5. Number of students as of October 1 enrolled at each grade level or its equivalent in applying school only:

6. Racial/ethnic composition of 97 % White

the school: 2 % Black or African American

1 % Hispanic or Latino

% Asian/Pacific Islander

% American Indian/Alaskan Native

100% Total

Use only the five standard categories in reporting the racial/ethnic composition of the school.

7. Student turnover, or mobility rate, during the past year: __10____%

[This rate should be calculated using the grid below. The answer to (6) is the mobility rate.]

8. Limited English Proficient students in the school: _0_____%

_0_____Total Number Limited English Proficient

Number of languages represented: _1______

Specify languages: English

9. Students eligible for free/reduced-priced meals: __47____%

Total number students who qualify: _159____

If this method does not produce an accurate estimate of the percentage of students from lowincome families, or the school does not participate in the federally supported lunch program, specify a more accurate estimate, tell why the school chose it, and explain how it arrived at this estimate.

10. Students receiving special education services: ____22__%

____75__Total Number of Students Served

Indicate below the number of students with disabilities according to conditions designated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Do not add additional categories.

__2_Autism __1_ Orthopedic Impairment

__0_Deafness __1_ Other Health Impaired

__0_Deaf-Blindness __33_Specific Learning Disability

__5_Emotional Disturbance __56 Speech or Language Impairment

__0_Hearing Impairment __0 Traumatic Brain Injury

__4_Mental Retardation __0__ Visual Impairment Including Blindness

__0_Multiple Disabilities

11.  Indicate number of fulltime and parttime staff members in each of the categories below:

Number of Staff

Full-time Part-Time

Administrator(s) ____ 1______0_____

Classroom teachers ____15______0_____

Special resource teachers/specialists ____ 7______0_____

Paraprofessionals ____10______0_____

Support staff ____ 8______0____

Total number ____41______0_____

12.  Average school student-classroom teacher ratio, that is, the number of students in the school divided by the FTE of classroom teachers, e.g., 22:1 - 16:6 is recorded on the State Web Site, however, Hayden participates in full day kindergarten. With these students counted, our ratio is 23:1

13. Show the attendance patterns of teachers and students as a percentage.

PART III SUMMARY

Hayden Elementary is the smallest of six elementary schools in the Jennings County School district. It is located in Hayden, Indiana, which is a small village of 250 people in Southeastern Indiana. The school is situated in a rural area that is removed from industry, but includes local businesses such as an electrical contractor, a tool and dye business, farming, and construction.

Hayden currently registers a 47% level of free and reduced lunch equaling 159 at risk students. Student population contains approximately 339 students in grades kindergarten through six. Our kindergarten program is an all day, every day program. The school draws its student body from the rural farming community and a mobile home park consisting of low-income rental properties with a highly transient population.

In recent years Hayden Elementary has achieved Four Star School status, been nominated for the National School Change award, and named an Indiana Lighthouse School through the Indiana Leadership Initiative. These accomplishments would not have been possible without a dedicated staff working toward the best learning environment possible for their students. We attribute the success of our school to parent and community involvement as well. The PTO is extremely active in our school. It pays for all classes to go on field trips, including transportation and other fees, purchases playground equipment, gives each teacher money to spend in their classrooms, and each year awards anywhere from 8-12 scholarships to seniors in the local high school who previously attended Hayden Elementary. Classroom volunteers play a big part in the younger students’ day. We have a training session for new volunteers that provides them with the skills they need to assist in the educational process at our school.

Dramatic changes have taken place at Hayden Elementary School during the last decade. Through a long-term school improvement process beginning with an Indiana School Academic Improvement Program grant and continuing with the Indiana Lighthouse School Leadership Initiative, our school came to several important revelations. First, we learned to stop seeking quick fix programs but to adopt and implement a comprehensive process to promote true school reform in order to achieve the level of improvement that we desired. Secondly, we stopped trying to change our students and parents and concentrated on what we do have the power to change. We now place emphasis on the core business of schools. We have eliminated the blame game and developed a pro-active attitude in which we positively strive to meet the diverse needs of our students. We adopted the school motto, “Hayden Elementary, Home of the World’s Greatest Kids,” in hopes that if students would believe it they would be it. Our focus shifted from what we felt were shortcomings or problems in our students to the quality of the work we provided them.

During the past few years our traditional beginning-of-the-year Open House has transformed into an ice cream social where parents are challenged in two areas: school attendance and checking homework completion each evening. Because of this change, parent involvement and attendance have improved. For the past six years every child has had a parent representative attend the parent/teacher conferences in the autumn; therefore we have had 100% attendance at these conferences.

Our training through Schlechty Center for Leadership and School Reform has taught us first, that students do not learn from work they do not do. Second, students will engage and persist in work they find meaningful and associated with a final product that the student values. Finally, the quality of the work we provide students determines their level of engagement and achievement of those academic goals placed before them by the school, community, and state. Therefore, our mission is to do all we can to provide our students with work in which they will engage and persist, thus acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for success.

During the last school year a team in our district was trained in Indiana Gold Star Counseling. Our counselor is presently in the process of developing and implementing this program at Hayden Elementary. We hope and plan to be awarded Gold Star Counseling status in the fall of 2007. This program was developed to align counseling programs throughout the state with the Indiana state academic standards.

Hayden Elementary School’s staff desires to be the best it can be, are extremely dedicated and see themselves as knowledgeable in their profession. The average teacher age is 46 with most of them having taught together for several years, which have given the building a pleasant family atmosphere as well as a comforting feeling of safety for students. We believe in our motto that we have the “World’s Greatest Kids”. We continue to hold a common vision of “leading and learning in a safe environment”. We continue to strive to accomplish our mission to “provide quality work so that every child, every day will gain knowledge and skills of exceptional value.”

PART IV – INDICATORS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS

1. Assessment Results: Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP+) was created by the Indiana General Assembly and was administered for the first time in 1988. All Indiana students in grades 3-12 are required to participate fully in the assessment program under standardized conditions. The website for information on state assessment system is www.doe.state.in.us/ .

Grade three students participate in three English /Language Arts assessments. One of these includes a writing activity in which students respond to a prompt that is provided by the state. Students also participate in three math assessments, which include computation, problem solving and reasoning skills. Pass+ in Grade 3 English/Language Arts requires a minimum score of 510 points. Pass requires a score of 404-509. A score below 404 is considered non-mastery. Pass+ for third grade mathematics requires a minimum of 491 points. Pass is 393-490 and below 393 is considered non-mastery.