The State Board of Education on Tuesday announced the funding, which is the largest block of money awarded to a single California school district.  State officials did not specify when the funding will be disbursed.

The District is counting on the money to fund state-mandated transformation plans at Davidson and Rio Vista Elementary Schools and Arroyo Valley, Pacific, and San Gorgonio High Schools.  The funding will also go to schools that are using the turnaround model: Barton, Hunt,Marshall, and WilsonElementary Schools and Serrano and Shandin Hills Middle Schools.
Receiving nearly all the funding the District requested is a testament to the countless hours that principals, teachers, and community members devoted to drafting the SIG plans, spelling out how instruction will be overhauled at each school, said Superintendent Dr. Arturo Delgado.
“This is a good day for our schools,” Delgado said. “We’ve been counting on this money since the start of the school year.  These funds will mean the difference between planning and action.”
The special action plans were customized to meet the specific needs of the 11 schools and were drafted according to specific criteria set by the federal government and the state.
At Rio Vista Elementary School, a transformation model campus, the federal funding will be used in part to hire a literacy specialist to work with students in the lower grades who are struggling to read.  Another intervention specialist will be hired to work with students in upper grades who are also behind in reading.  Although Rio Vista has had some transformation efforts in place since school started, Principal Charles Brown said the funding will allow the most critical pieces of the plan to take place.
“I’m excited that we get to carry out programs that we know are going to support student learning,” Brown said. “It will definitely make a difference.”