What if you had to pay for your kids to attend public school?

We had the Matsiko World Orphan's choir here again in Jan. We were one of their very first performances together last school year, and we were fortunate enough to see them at the very end of their year-long adventure this year, only weeks before they left for home. Their homes are in Peru, Liberia and India. They leave the comforts of warm clothes and hot food and hope, to a situation of despair and struggle, poverty and helplessness.

An education that we often take for granted in the US is a luxury in their countries, where students can attend school and earn an education if they can afford it. Do you see the problem with this? People in poverty can't afford to attend school, which can educate them, and liberate them from the bonds of poverty. The mission of this choir is to "provide as many of our world's 600 million orphaned and at-risk children sponsorship for a complete education through their nation's highest university or vocational levels."

Our Art teacher, Ms. Howard, along with the help of a few others, took it upon themselves to "adopt" as many of these these orphans as they could, in order to help them receive an education upon their return. We have staff members, and parents of students who are making donations. We know it's a financial burden to pay for a whole donation, so Ms. Howard is coordinating a month-by-month donation. If 12 people donate $35 each, we can provide an education for one child. Like they've done with Ruth already.

If you'd like to help, please don't hesitate to contact me (robdarling@selahschools.org) so I can put you in touch with Ms. Howard, or go directly to the Matsiko website. 

I know we do a lot for our students in our classrooms and schools. But why not do just a little bit more for students all across the globe? 

A dabbing unicorn?

Feb. 13th morning announcement from Rob Darling on Vimeo.

Attendance Matters!

Our goal at JCP is to have 95% attendance for every student. (We understand that kids will always get sick and need to miss a day or two.) We've even started posting our daily attendance around the main entrance points on campus to make parents aware. 

We had a group of 1st grade teachers who found a correlation between student growth in reading and their attendance rates. Here’s what they found:

• Students who were gone 8 or more days, about two weeks of school (that is roughly 10% or more of our year so far,) grew an average of 2 reading levels over the first 90+ days of school. It didn’t matter if these students were struggling or strong readers.
• Students who were gone less than 8 days grew an average of 6 reading levels over the first 90+ days of school.

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Those students who had better attendance increase their reading levels 3x's more than their peers with poor attendance. And this growth was the same whether the student was an advanced reader, or a struggling reader.

If their attendance rates remain the same, students with more absences will increase only 4 reading levels, while the group of students with less will increase 12. Which group do you think will be more prepared to the rigor of second grade?

If they're "big" sick, please keep them home. But with the sniffles, or a bad case of extra-whiney, please sent the our way. We can deal with the whining and snot. They can wipe their noses on their sleeves as they read, we're ok with that. 😀