2004-2005 No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon Schools Program
U.S. Department of Education
Cover Sheet Type of School: X Elementary __ Middle __ High __ K-12
Name of Principal Mr. Frank Gomez
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other) (As it should appear in the official records)
Official School Name Santa Margarita Elementary
(As it should appear in the official records)
School Mailing Address One Carnes Road
(If address is P.O. Box, also include street address)
County San Diego School Code Number* 37-73569-6038913
Oceanside CA 92054-6660
City State Zip Code+4 (9 digits total)
Tel. ( 760 ) 430-7110 Fax ( 760 ) 430-1415
Website/URL http://www.oside.k12.ca.us 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 February 1, 2005
Principal’s Signature)
Name of Superintendent* Mr. Kenneth Noonan
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)
District Name Oceanside Unified School District Tel. (760) 757-2560
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 February 1, 2005
(Superintendent’s Signature)
Name of School Board
President/Chairperson Mr. Roy Youngblood
(Specify: Ms., Miss, Mrs., Dr., Mr., Other)
I have reviewed the information in this package, including the eligibility requirements on page 2, and certify that to the best of my knowledge it is accurate.
Date February 1, 2005
(School Board President’s/Chairperson’s Signature)
*Private Schools: If the information requested is not applicable, write N/A in the space.
PART I ELIGIBILITY CERTIFICATION
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 of Civil Rights (OCR) requirements is true and correct.
1. The school has some configuration that includes grades K-12. (Schools with one principal, even K-12 schools, must apply as an entire school.)
2. The school has not been in school improvement status or 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 2003-2004 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 1998.
5. The nominated school or district is not refusing the OCR access to information necessary to investigate a civil rights complaint or to conduct a districtwide compliance review.
6. The 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 the 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
DISTRICT (Questions 12 not applicable to private schools)
1. Number of schools in the district: 17 Elementary schools
03 Middle schools
00 Junior high schools
04 High schools
_____ Other (Briefly explain)
24 TOTAL
2. District Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,903
Average State Per Pupil Expenditure: $6,881
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
[ X] Suburban
[ ] Small city or town in a rural area
[ ] Rural
4. 8 Number of years the principal has been in her/his position at this school.
If fewer than three years, how long was the previous principal at this school?
5. Number of students enrolled at each grade level or its equivalent in applying school:
Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade Total / Grade / # of Males / # of Females / Grade TotalK / 43 / 47 / 90 / 7 / N/A / N/A / N/A
1 / 42 / 39 / 81 / 8 / N/A / N/A / N/A
2 / 40 / 31 / 71 / 9 / N/A / N/A / N/A
3 / 35 / 26 / 61 / 10 / N/A / N/A / N/A
4 / 34 / 21 / 55 / 11 / N/A / N/A / N/A
5 / 19 / 20 / 39 / 12 / N/A / N/A / N/A
6 / N/A / N/A / N/A / *PS SDC / 17 / 9 / 26
TOTAL STUDENTS IN THE APPLYING SCHOOL ® / 423
* PS SDC includes our Preschool Special Day Classes for 3-5 year old special education students
6. Racial/ethnic composition of 54 % White
the students in the school: 14 % Black or African American
23 % Hispanic or Latino
8 % Asian/Pacific Islander
1 % American Indian/Alaskan Native
100% Total
7. Student turnover, or mobility rate, during the past year: 76 %
(This rate includes the total number of students who transferred to or from different schools between October 1 and the end of the school year, divided by the total number of students in the school as of October 1, multiplied by 100.)
(1) / Number of students who transferred to the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 95(2) / Number of students who transferred from the school after October 1 until the end of the year. / 235
(3) / Subtotal of all transferred students [sum of rows (1) and (2)] / 330
(4) / Total number of students in the school as of October 1 / 434
(5) / Subtotal in row (3) divided by total in row (4) / .76
(6) / Amount in row (5) multiplied by 100 / 76%
8. Limited English Proficient students in the school: 0.9 %
4 Total Number Limited English Proficient
Number of languages represented: 2
Specify languages: Spanish, Japanese
9. Students eligible for free/reduced-priced meals: 40%
170 Total Number Students Who Qualify
If this method does not produce a reasonably accurate estimate of the percentage of students from lowincome families or the school does not participate in the federallysupported 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: 17%
72 Total Number of Students Served
Indicate below the number of students with disabilities according to conditions designated in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
6 Autism 4 Orthopedic Impairment
0 Deafness 6 Other Health Impaired
0 Deaf-Blindness 10 Specific Learning Disability
0 Hearing Impairment 41 Speech or Language Impairment
2 Mental Retardation 0 Traumatic Brain Injury
1 Multiple Disabilities 2 Visual Impairment Including Blindness
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 21 0
Special resource teachers/specialists 2 4
Paraprofessionals 7 1
Support staff 1 2
Total number 32 7
12. Average school student-“classroom teacher” ratio: 20
13. Show the attendance patterns of teachers and students as a percentage. The student dropout rate is defined by the state. The student drop-off rate is the difference between the number of entering students and the number of exiting students from the same cohort. (From the same cohort, subtract the number of exiting students from the number of entering students; divide that number by the number of entering students; multiply by 100 to get the percentage drop-off rate.) Briefly explain in 100 words or fewer any major discrepancy between the dropout rate and the drop-off rate. (Only middle and high schools need to supply dropout rates and only high schools need to supply drop-off rates.)
2002-2003 / 2001-2002 / 2000-2001 / 1999-2000 / 1998-1999Daily student attendance / 96% / 96% / 96% / 96% / 96%
Daily teacher attendance / 97% / 95% / 98% / 98% / 95%
Teacher turnover rate / 13% / 14% / 6% / 10% / 14%
Student dropout rate / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
Student drop-off rate / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
PART III SUMMARY
Santa Margarita Elementary has become a “home away from home” for many of our students with the deployment of military fathers and mothers to the war in Iraq. The staff members realized that our goal was to comfort, care and educate the students. We fulfilled our goal over the years as noted in the increased Academic Performance Index (A.P.I.) from 637 in 1999 to 819 in 2003. The tremendous gain of 182 point in our A.P.I. has resulted from a clear communicated vision, instructional practices based on standards and research, professional development on an ongoing basis, weekly teacher collaboration meetings, and a plan for student growth that incorporates regular review by our school community. In 2000, we received the National Title I Achieving School Award Honorable Mention and in 2004, we received California Distinguished School Award.
Every year since the inception of the STAR assessment program, Santa Margarita Elementary has continued student achievement levels. The academic growth has continued to increase even though our student mobility levels the last three years reflect figures of 64%, 72%, and 76% due to the school being located on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base. We have had over 300 students with a parent deployed due to Operation Iraqi Freedom during the last two years. Even with the trauma of having a parent going off to war, all students continue to show overall gains as shown in our A.P.I. of 819, the second highest of 23 schools in the school district.
The school delivers a feeling of community that affords students with a sense of belonging. Students, in this time of emotional fragileness, did not care about how much we knew until they knew about how much we cared. Staff members met to brainstorm strategies to keep students focused for learning and ways to meet their emotional concerns. We decided to maintain high academic standards and routines to keep students on task and provide emotional support. Some students brought a stuffed animal to school, others needed an additional hugs and increased dialog with staff.
Our Marine Corps Community Services supported Santa Margarita over the last two years by sending us trained counselors who developed deployment groups over six-week cycles. Students maintained communication with their deployed parents through emails and a letter writing campaign by our Parent Teacher Organization. We also provided on-site Internet access for our families to use to keep in contact with their military members in Iraq. Many local and national news agencies including NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, CNN, National Public Radio and newspapers reported the support interventions that our school had in place.
The instructional program we designed is built on the vision “All students will succeed” and “All adults will succeed”. The school community is a cohesive team where we feel responsible for the educational and emotional well being of our students, parents and colleagues. We adopted core values of respecting and supporting individual differences and viewpoints; being honest and taking responsibility for our actions; accepting and working with change; being supportive of individual growth; and willingness to accept, ask for and offer help to colleagues. The framework for our professional development and ongoing collaboration within grade levels for certificated and classified personnel has been a cohesive one. Buddy teachers and grade level mentors provide new teachers with support to help them adjust to procedures and instructional practices at our school.
Our military families come from all over the world to the small corner of the land called “Santa Margarita Elementary”. Testimony from our new parents arriving to our campus reflects a sense of coming home. The parents who have left write us from the four corners of the world stating, “We miss the people at Santa Margarita because you made us feel like family”.
PART IV – INDICATORS OF ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Assessment Results: All students in the state of California in grades 2-5 were given the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth edition (SAT/9) in reading, language arts and mathematics in 1998-2003. The California State Testing and Reporting (STAR) program included the California Achievement Test, Sixth Edition (CAT/6) and the California Standards Test (CST) beginning in 2003. The SAT/9 and the CAT/6 are norm referenced standardized tests. Students are tested on reading, language arts, mathematics, and spelling. The scores from these tests are reported in the enclosed charts in percentile rankings. Test data is analyzed each year by our school staff and our school community. The CST is aligned to the California Content Standards. All students in grades 2-5 are assessed in reading, language arts, and mathematics. Reading and language arts scores began in 2001 and the scores for mathematics started in 2002. Data is reported in a cumulative percent of students who perform in the categories defined by the State of California as Advanced, Proficient, Basic, Below Basic and Far Below Basic. All significant subgroups, those students that number 100 in one group or 15% of the population, are reported as the percent of students at or above Proficient level.
The Academic Performance Index (API) each year in California is based on the combination of the SAT9/CAT6 and the CST scores. The state establishes goals for each school and each subgroup is expected to make annual progress. An API score of 800 is the expectation established for all schools. The API is also used to determine if a school has met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements. The information for the assessment data can be found on the website at http//www.star.cde.ca.gov.