Sawgrass Elementary School Improvement Plan

Sawgrass Elementary School Improvement Plan

Executive Summary

2016 - 2017

Description of School

When walking into the front office of Sawgrass Elementary School, you immediately embrace a sense of family and warm welcomes. Sawgrass Elementary was built in 1993, it is located south of Flamingo Rd in Sunrise, Florida. With an influx of residents in the Sunrise area, in 2005, Sawgrass an additional two-story building with 24 classrooms was added to the campus.

Currently, Sawgrass fulfills the learning needs of 1,160 children in grades PK-5. Over the past three years, this is an increase of 130 students. Within the PK-5 classroom instruction, Sawgrass also has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Cluster that provides additional services to over 300 students with disabilities. For the past four years, we have taken on the role of being a Title 1 school; 53% of our students qualify for Free & Reduced Lunch. Over 300 students qualify as LEP leaners, which is about 31% of the entire student population. When looking specifically at student demographics, 41% of our students are of Hispanic, 25% are of African-American/Black, 24% are of Caucasian, 7% are of Asian, and 3% are of a Multi-raced ethnicity.

Our faculty is comprised of over 100 employees, with 1 Principal, 1 Assistant Principal, 1 Curriculum Specialist, an ESOL coordinator, an ESE specialist, an Autistic Coach, one School Resource Officer, specials teachers for Media, Music, Art, PE, Spanish, and Computers, 15 teacher aides, five custodial members, two Speech Language Therapists, two VE teachers, four Pre-K teachers, two Intensive Pre-K teachers, four Austistic cluster teachers, thirteen Kindergarten teachers, ten 1st grade teachers, nine 2nd grade teachers, ten 3rd grade teachers, eight 4th grade teachers, and seven 5th grade teachers.

Sawgrass has a few unique challenges which includes it’s location, FTE size and historical demographics. The school’s FR/L percent was as low as 26% and now it is almost doubled. The abundant support, in personal and monetary, the school was enjoyed has diminished. As a result, most students are not getting the out-of-school experiences of past peers. Another challenge is its location. Sawgrass is located on the board on a major highway system and near an industrial park. Many parents drive into the area for employment, drop students off at school and pick them up in the late afternoon. This makes Sawgrass a major “commuter school;” parents are not consistently participating in many school events and students targeted for pre/post school enrichment are not able to attend.

School’s Purpose

Within our academic programs, Sawgrass offers Dual Language programs for grades K-4, as well as gifted and Advanced Academic Placement classes across all levels. All students participate in school programs. This includes our Pre-K and ASP students.

The mission of the school is to make a significant difference in the lives of our students by instilling a lifelong love of learning and creating a challenging and stimulating environment, sensitive to the individual needs of students, as demonstrated by all students achieving learning gains. This mission statement is a direct correlation to expectations that are set in each of our classrooms. We embodied our mission with our Dual Language (Spanish) and Academic Accelerated Programs, our teachers are consistently creating challenging and stimulating environments, while allowing for all children to be successful.

Outside the academic block, our students are involved in a variety of after school programs and clubs. Currently some of our after school programs consist of Chess Club, Math Club, Book Club, Art Club, Student Government, Safety Patrols, KAPOW and after school tutoring. Several of our after school clubs, partner with the City of Sunrise to highlight and support our students to their highest potential. In working with American Heritage School, Sawgrass is currently in the process of a wall-based make over in the Media Center. Students from the high school, Arts Honor Program is currently painting a variety of story book characters on the inside walls of the media center to help promote the importance of literacy. These are some examples of how Sawgrass embodies it’s mission to make a difference in the lives of our students.

Notable Achievement and Areas of Improvement

Student Achievement / Student Population / Parent Participation
Past
2013-2016 Notables and Areas of improvement / Over the past three years, Sawgrass has been rated as an “A” school twice and “B” once, based on FLDOE School Grading. Learning Gains were consistently between 70% – 80% / The student population has been steadily decreasing; students were leaving for charter schools. At the benchmark date in 2013, FTE count was 886. / Sawgrass’ PTA, SAC and volunteer programs, numbered in the 100s. They participated in and supported numerous aspects of the school improvement process, including Five Star, First In Math and School Advisory groups
Future Achievement
2017-2020 / Currently student performance data rates the school as a “C”. 61% in Reading and 65% in Math and 51% in Science are proficient and only 42% in Reading and 29% in Math are making Learning Gains (L25%). The goal moving forward is 70% proficient and 60% making Learning Gains. / After a marketing effort, student population has increased to 1,160 students. Students have enrolled from charter and neighboring schools. We currently have 13 Kindergarten classes.
The goal is to maintain the high enrollment and make increases in the intermediate grades / PTA, SAC and School Volunteer programs and groups are fully functioning and engaged. The goal for the coming years is to maximize the potential of these parent groups to increase student achievement, clubs and school improvement. The goal is to record over 10,000 Volunteer hours.

Additional Information

In spite of the recent decline in student performance, Sawgrass was recognized by Governor Rick Scott for its performance on the 2016 FSA ELA assessment. Two students received perfect scores and at least 80% of students in AAP classes scored at or above Level 4. In addition, while the population at most schools in the area declined, Sawgrass’ population increased by over 100 students, despite the letter grade drop and opening of charter schools.

In the classroom, our teachers, many have additional endorsements in Reading and Gifted, are engaged in meaningful professional learning teams and book clubs to strengthen their pedagogy in order to have a more positive impact on student achievement. We have waiting lists for our AAP and Dual Language Programs and our afterschool and summer enrichment programs have grown tremendously. For more information, please visit our website at sawgrass.browardschools.com.

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