Hollister
– Three Hollister School District elementary schools will
receive new state funds for recruitment and retention of qualified
teachers.
Hollister – Three Hollister School District elementary schools will receive new state funds for recruitment and retention of qualified teachers.
R.O. Hardin, Calaveras and Gabilan Hills all qualify for state funding, amounting to $25.45 per student, to help attract qualified teaching staff and make the schools more appealing. The three schools qualify because they are designated as low-performing, or program improvement schools based on achievement in state testing.
With the money, school officials are hoping to attract more teachers to the school district.
“I want to make Hollister School District a place like Google, a place where people say, ‘Yeah, I want to work there,'” said Dennis Kurtz, assistant superintendent and director of human resources. “That’s how we’ll get the best people.”
All the schools must come up with spending plans, which are up for approval at the Hollister School District Board of Trustees meeting tonight.
“The idea is to help recruit and retain teachers in schools that are program improvement,” Kurtz said.
The Teacher Recruitment and Retention Program is part of the 2006 California State Budget. The program provided $50,000,000 to qualifying schools throughout California. The money goes to improving the culture and environment of the educational systems at the schools, according the California Department of Education.
The money will help the schools develop programs to appear more attractive to potential candidates, Kurtz said.
“Basically you want to set it up so you can use the money to help the students but also to support the teachers,” he said.
These three schools have not necessarily lost anymore teachers than other district schools, Kurtz said. Traditionally, low-performing schools can be less appealing to teachers and can have a more difficult time retaining the qualified teachers they do acquire.
The Hollister School District will receive a $47,507 to divvy among the three schools. R.O. Hardin qualifies for $18,687 in state funds, Calaveras for $12,195 and Gabilan Hills for $16,625. Each school has an individual spending plan.
Plans for R.O. Hardin and Calaveras both dictate that the money primarily go to helping English language learners and socio-economically disadvantaged students through small-group instruction.
The plan at Gabilan Hills looks at working with teachers to improve the quality of instruction and to help improve student achievement.
These plans must be reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees before the schools can receive the state money.
All three plans focus not only on aiding teachers in the classrooms, but also at trying to improve the schools so they are no longer designated as low performing, Kurtz said.
