School:  Benavidez Elementary

Principal: Kimberly Valera

Vertical Team: Bellaire District: Southwest

Date presented to parents and community: May 24, 2004

Date presented and approved by school: May 24, 2005

Roy P. Benavidez Elementary School is located in the Gulfton area. It was built to alleviate overcrowding at L.T. Cunningham, and opened its doors on January 21, 1992. The school was designed for seven hundred and fifty students. Our present enrollment is 950 plus students. The school consists of forty-five Bilingual and/or ESL classrooms, six regular classrooms, two Special Education classrooms, and a school-wide Title I program. The school is a recipient of numerous grants awarded to assist the school in providing a gifted and talented program for LEP students, provide staff development I the multiple intelligences, and for reading intervention in the early grades. (Grades range from pre-kindergarten through fifth). Special Education programs offered at Benavidez include a Resource Program, an Early Childhood Program, Multiple Impaired Program, and Speech therapy. There are approximately 200 students enrolled at Gordon Elementary, and approximately 60 students enrolled in other HISD schools, all of whom are zoned to Benavidez.

Benavidez has a high percentage of minority students, 2% White, 3% Asian, 6% Black, and 89% Hispanic. Our entire student population resides in apartments within a ten-block radius.

Many of our students are recent immigrants or first-generation American citizens from Mexico and Central American countries. Most of our students are from lower socio-economic households and over 90% participate in the National School Lunch Program.

The shared decision making committee shall be named Shared Decision-Making Committee.

Meetings – Meetings of the Committee will be held on the third Wednesday of the month. All meetings will be held in the conference room. Any agenda items not discussed at the current meeting will be discussed at the next scheduled meeting. Minutes will be taken by a designee of the principal and distributed by Monday of the following week.

Agendas – Any faculty/staff member, parent, or community advisory member may place an item on the agenda to be discussed at the meeting. An Input Form (IF) must be turned in to the chairperson one (1) day prior to the next scheduled meeting where it will be placed on the agenda. Input Forms will be available in the office. Faculty/Staff members will volunteer or be appointed to serve on Sub-Committees. Each sub-committee chairperson will turn in a Record of Meeting Minutes to the Shared Decision-Making Commitee after each meeting. Sub-committees will meet at least once monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Each sub-committee will keep track of attendance of the membership and report to the principal via the Report of Meeting Form no later than the Monday following the meeting. Sub-Committees will be as follows:

Student Recognition/Attendance

Discipline/Safety Committee

Staff Recognition

Courtesy Committee

Fall Festival

Curriculum/Textbooks

Budget

Professional Development

The Shared Decision-Making Council will review and approve all decisions of the sub-committees.

The agenda of the SDMC will also include a review of the School Improvement Plan to check on the status of projects.

The Principal will serve as the chairperson and as a member of the Shared Decision-Making Committee and will determine the size of the committee. In addition,

· Two-thirds of the professional staff members elected to the school’s Shared Decision-Making Council must be classroom teachers, nominated and elected by classroom teachers.

· The other one-third must be school-based professional staff, nominated and elected by the school’s non-instructional staff, including classroom teachers.

· The school’s non-instructional staff member will be nominated and elected by the school’s non-instructional staff as the representative to serve on the Shared Decision-Making Council.

· The Shared Decision-Making Council must have at least two parents selected by the school’s PTA/PTO and at least two community residents appointed by the Principal.

· The Principal has the authority to appoint additional community residents or business representatives to the committee with consciousness toward representation of the greater Houston community.

Anyone may request to be on the agenda for a given meeting or request an agenda item to be discussed at the meeting. An Input Form (IF) must be turned in to the chairperson one (1) day prior to the next scheduled meeting in order to be placed on the agenda.

Consensus will be reached by the voting members of the appropriate body. Consensus is met after discussion and input has been given on a specific issue. If consensus is not reached, a majority vote will constitute consensus.

PTO/PAC Meetings

Newsletters

Faculty Meetings

Grade Chairperson Meeting and Minutes

SDMC Meeting Minutes

Calendars

Totals:

As a school with 950 students and staff members numbering over 115, Benavidez Elementary experiences a variety of needs. Issues such as aligning curriculum, establishing expectations, instructional support, teamwork and communication are crucial. Special emphasis will be placed on each of these areas as well as the coordination of several grants that have been awarded to Benavidez. Project AXBE focuses on implementing a Developmental Bilingual Program, Bilingual Gifted and Talented, Fine Arts, and Multiple Intelligences. The Evenstart grant contains a parental involvement component. The goals of the grants will be incorporated and integrated to improve vertical and horizontal alignment of the curriculum. Teachers will be given the opportunity to meet, confer and work as teams to develop a curriculum that will be aligned with the goals of Benavidez. With this curriculum alignment, teachers will be able to provide quality instruction to their students by establishing expectations, working as teams, and strengthening communication thus ensuring academic gains for all students.

ENGLISH TAAS

Based on the progress performance from the 2002 school year, Roy P. Benavidez Elementary reflect many factors we need to consider in order to implement our plan for school improvement.

READING

An analysis of TAAS scores reflects steady growth in 5^th grade and a decrease in 3^rd and 4^th grades

After reviewing the performance on individual objectives, school-wide focus will continue to be on summarization. A special emphasis will be placed in Reading for all grades, beginning with summer-long reading activities. The school will jumpstart Reading for next year by sponsoring Book Swaps and Storytime every week at the school during the summer months. Additional activities will include staff development and the establishment of literacy centers in every classroom.

MATH

Problem solving is an overall area of needed improvement in all grades. However, the overall math scores have improved in the past year. In order to continue to improve, a math specialist will continue to work with the classroom teachers to help them enhance their teaching strategies.

For the last two years, all grades have been following a writing schedule whereby each class submits a bi-monthly writing assignment which focuses on a particular writing style. According to fourth grade teachers, the students are coming better prepared to fourth grade since this writing strategy was implemented. Other grade level teachers, however, report a need for workshops on writing. At least one day-long writing workshop is planned for the fall to meet this need.

Due to school-wide first year implementation of a Developmental Bilingual Program from a Transitional Bilingual Program, Spanish TAAS scores decreased in previous years. We had predicted and expected the students to make at least 5% gains in Reading and Math in areas that percentages were below 70% in that the students were in the second year of implementation of the Developmental Bilingual Program. As illustrated by the tables below, significant gains were made in the Spanish TAAS scores. The guidelines set forth in the LPAC manual of the Developmental Bilingual Program will continue to be followed and implemented. Significant strides are again expected in the Spanish TAAS scores with a major focus being placed on the instructional program.

After reviewing the performance on individual objectives, school-wide focus in both English and Spanish will be on Reading in all objective areas. While our scores were exemplary in writing and math, at least 30 more students would have needed to pass TAAS Reading to rate at the Exemplary level overall.

We will continue to place on emphasis on math problem solving by continuing to implement Everyday Counts, Number of the Day, and the Problem of the Day. These strategies proved very successful this past year along with the implementation of the Algebra Math Initiative at the second, third and fifth grade. Next year we will also include fourth grade in this initiative.

The writing scores reflect a slight improvement from 90% to 94% in the last two years. Again, the staff credits the implementation of the school-wide writing wall strategy whereby all classes submit a bi-monthly writing assignment. For next school year, this strategy will continue. In addition, a full-day writing workshop will be planned in the fall.

Science

Benavidez has made several steps to improve science skills across all grades. This year, the school has a new science lead teacher who has been leading in-services after school at our monthly faculty meetings. He has worked with each grade level to ensure that the teachers know of the various resources available in the district.

Our garden and wildscape area are also being used by teachers at each grade level. These give students an opportunity to experience environmental science first hand; environmental science is one of the main focuses of the science test.

Total 9.0

The total amount of compensatory education funds for Benavidez Elementary is $86,174 which is used to provide services to students in at-risk situations. Nine instructional aides will work with small groups of students to improve student achievement. In addition to the personnel listed above, compensatory education funds are allocated for strategies, programs, and services designed to improve and enhance the regular education program for students in at-risk situations. Materials and supplies will be purchased with state compensatory education funds for after school tutorials. This information may be found in part two of the School Improvement Plan.

Three staff development days will be provided with the first topic addressing Reading strategies. The staff development committee will seek to have a core of experience teachers present an inservice on establishing literacy centers in the classroom.

The second topic addressed on the second staff development day will be math strategies. The teachers will have the inservice presented by Anna Wilson, Math Specialist.

The third workshop will address writing strategies. Consultant money will be provided to find a suitable presenter for this inservice.