Rio Hondo restructuring several school campuses

RIO HONDO - Elementary and intermediate school campuses will be restructured for the 2009-2010 school year to deal with what the superintendent called some students "failing miserably" on  standardized testing.

The school board on Monday voted unanimously to create two pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade campuses for the 2009-2010 school year.

School officials say the move will help the district's English Language Learners program.

At the regular monthly meeting, parents and teachers crowded into the meeting room at the Administration Building, which the large audience spilling into the building's lobby.

Superintendent Annie McMinn said the restructuring talks came from a Texas Education Agency monitoring team that found the school's ELL program isn't operating as it should.

McMinn explained that second-grade teachers don't worry about the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test and "feel their students are babies."

"Our ELL students are failing and are failing miserably," McMinn said.

The elementary school that now enrolls pre-kindergarten through second grade students has 30 percent ELL students. The intermediate school has about 16 to 18 percent ELL students, McMinn said.

Test scores from 2001-2002 show that the district had a 90 percent passing rate for third grade reading in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test.

As the TAKS was implemented, in 2003-2004, the district had a passing rate of 75 percent and has since stayed in the same percentile range, which McMinn sees as "flat-lining."

The new configuration of schools will allow for consistency and will help the district capitalize on resources for all students.

Two mothers who spoke to the board said that restructuring the schools was not the best option.

The better solution, they said would be to revamp the school's academic programs and have more accountability in administration and teachers.

"This will allow administrators and teachers to begin the year with a clear plan and a new and improved bilingual program that will lead our students to success," said Imelda Zuniga, a parent.

Ira Serna, another parent, said restructuring doesn't solve a long-term problem.

McMinn said the restructuring is the pathway to long-term goals that include improved TAKS scores and better-educated students.

"Academic success is the reason to restructure," McMinn said.

"Not everybody is going to be a Robert Garza and play football and make thousands of dollars," McMinn said, referring to a former Rio Hondo student now playing in the National Football League.  "I want all these kids to do better for themselves."