Laurel School
95 Edge Road
Atherton, CA 94027
650-324-0186

Principal: Nancy Hendry

2000-2001
ANNUAL SCHOOL REPORT

SCHOOL DESCRIPTION

As one of the schools of the Menlo Park City School District, Laurel School pursues the District's mission:

""The Menlo Park City School District will offer all students a high quality education which prepares them for academic, occupational, and personal success, positive relationships, and effective citizenship. We believe all students can succeed. We will work with our community to advocate for or provide programs which support children in being safe, healthy, and ready to learn. We will promote sensitivity to individual differences. The school board and staff will work together and in partnership with parents, students, and community to achieve this mission"

Laurel School is located in a residential area in Atherton, two blocks from Menlo Atherton High School. As of the 2000 CBEDS reports, 24% of our 366 students are minorities, Hispanic (10%), Asian (4%), Black (3%), Pacific Islander (2%), and Other (5%). The 2000-01 school year is the thirteenth year of operation with the school configured as a kindergarten, first, and second grade school.

The school staff includes twenty-one regular education teachers, one reading specialist and one site administrator. Part-time staff includes: a Librarian, a District Music Specialist, a TEAM (special tutoring) teacher, a Resource Specialist, an ELL teacher, a Speech and Language Specialist, a psychologist, two reading coaches, a student counselor, and a nurse consultant for hearing and vision screening services. These certificated positions are supported by a school secretary, two office clerks, ten instructional aides, and one computer lab aide.

Attendance rates are extremely high. Parents and students hold education in high regard. Students find school to be enjoyable and rewarding. The actual unexcused absence rate is less than 1%.

Support from the community, and especially from parents, combined with the availability of sufficient funding, are critical factors that influence the success or failure of any school. Without this support, schools cannot be expected to produce the results desired for students.

A. Community Involvement and Support

The parents at Laurel School are very supportive. This year's PTA membership is 87%. Classroom teachers are supported by a large group of parent volunteers. The amount of direct assistance in the classroom is illustrated by the number of hours of volunteer time logged during the 00-01 school yearÑ385 hours per classroom. In addition, members of the PTA plan, organize, and teach an Art-In-Action program. A PTA sponsored music enrichment coordinator provides a supplemental music program to all classrooms. The PTA also provides a hot food offering three times a week. The Atherton Police Department supports the school by providing an officer to volunteer in our classrooms on a biweekly basis, as well as presenting school-wide programs on stranger awareness, bike/pedestrian safety, and the role of the police department. The Menlo Park Fire Department makes safety inspections, conducts monthly fire drills, and annually instructs the students in fire safety procedures.

In November, 1995, the district community renewed a parcel tax for eight years to maintain class size and support academic programs. Additionally, a $22 million bond measure was approved to upgrade all district facilities. In April 2000, the local community approved a new $298 per year parcel tax. The 2000-01 parcel tax income for the district was approximately $2,951,250. These funds are being used to reduce class size ratio; provide extra support for students; enhance programs in art, music, physical education and middle school electives; expand learning opportunities for teachers; and continue to implement the district's Technology Plan. Recently Laurel's Bond Project completed its total renovation of all the regular classrooms, office complex and multi-purpose room, as well as the additions of playground and parking improvements, a new library/media center, and five new classrooms. Financial support for the District was also provided by the Menlo Park/Atherton Education Foundation. Laurel School shared the advantages gained from a MPAEF grant of $625,000 from the 2000-01 school year.

The district's 2000/01 funding came to approximately $8,160 per student, which includes Foundation income, and of which $60 per student was allocated for instructional materials. School Improvement Program (SIP) fund at the school was in the amount of $39,741.

The programs and resources of the school provide the educational conditions in which the school accomplishes its goals for students.

A. Leadership and Instructional Support

Laurel School provides a broad-based, high quality education for all of its students. Leadership is provided by the principal through the Site Council, the PTA and the faculty and staff. The District direction is given by the Superintendent, Director of Curriculum, cross-district grade level meetings and professional development activities. The four principals in Menlo Park meet weekly with the Superintendent, the Director of Curriculum, the Business Manager, and the Director of Student Services, to discuss, evaluate and plan for instructional programs at the schools. Laurel's classroom efforts are augmented by English Language Learners services, the TEAM program, the Miller-Unruh reading specialist, psychologist, school counselor, two reading coaches for the teachers, and speech/language and resource specialist programs. A Student Success Team meets regularly to plan courses of action for students needing additional learning and/or emotional support. The PTA also holds French and Spanish classes on Thursday afternoons for those students wanting exposure to a second language at the primary level. A carpool pickup procedure is in operation to provide a safe, smoothly operating flow of traffic at the peak times. The leadership team for Laurel School is composed of a teacher from each grade level and meets regularly with the principal.

B. Conditions for Teaching and Learning

The students at Laurel School are well behaved. Good behavior is insured through the use of clear-cut playground rules and ample supervision. Laurel's playground has separate areas for the kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students.

Laurel School spirit is celebrated each Friday. Birthday ribbons and "Super Squirrel" certificates are personally delivered by the principal to those students caught doing something special for their school or peers, and a Super Squirrel mascot is rotated to each class to witness all the wonderful activities and positive interactions of our students. Self-esteem is also promoted through the use of a display of our "Students of the Month". By the end of the school year all students have had their pictures taken by a PTA volunteer and put on display. Classroom teachers send home individual awards such as "Classroom Stars" on a regular basis. Class size was constructed this year on a staffing ratio of 1 teacher for every 24 students in Kindergarten and 1 teacher for every 20 students at grades first and second. Each class has at least 1 1/4 hours of instructional aide support per day.

Teachers who serve as substitutes in Menlo Park classrooms must have passed the California Basic Educational Skills Test and possess a valid California teaching credential. The district continually strives to recruit high quality substitutes for our classrooms. All regular classes are staffed with teachers holding appropriate credentials. Part-time staff also possess the appropriate credentials for their assignments.

By district contract, all permanent teachers are evaluated every two years, and every non-tenured employee is evaluated three times each year. Administrators participate in ongoing inservice to refine skills in supervision.

The district values teachers' and administrators' professional development as a source and stimulus of student growth and achievement, and as an ongoing process of personal growth, learning, and satisfaction for the individual staff member. The professional development opportunities provided by the district include; SIP (School Improvement Program) staff development days, attendance at courses and conferences by individual teachers, opportunities for collaborative planning and curriculum development, systematic programs of observation and analysis of teaching, support services provided by the state funded BTSA program, and the Packard Humanities Institute supported reading coaches for the Open Court reading program.

The Math Advantage program, as well as MathLand, 'Math Their Way', and a variety of math manipulative programs, make up the Laurel mathematics program. Three years ago the District adopted the Open Court reading/language arts program. This program, as well as district established literature sets, provides the foundation for our reading/language arts program. Science materials include a variety of hands-on science kits which have been integrated within our program through a Hewlett-Packard cooperative grant with Redwood City School District. A $5.6 million National Science Foundation grant funds our science collaborative "Bay Area Schools for Excellence in Education". This partnership includes eight school districts and Hewlett-Packard, and provides training for our lead science teacher, as well as a menu of professional development opportunities for all classroom teachers in the area of science with connections to math and technology.

C. Material Resources and Support

Laurel has one full-time day custodian and one full-time, as well as one part-time night custodian. Maintenance/gardening needs are met by district employees, local vendors, service providers, and parent volunteers. Laurel's disaster plan is annually reviewed and updated by our Laurel Disaster Preparedness committee. Laurel School has a low crime rate.

Laurel School has a brand new library/media center. Our library is well stocked with books. The school's 70% librarian meets with each class on a weekly basis. Books are procured through the School Library Act funds ($34,066), and an Adopt-A-Book program. Our media center contains a state of the art computer lab facilitated by a part-time technology aide. Students and teachers in each classroom have access to the Internet via computers. Textbooks are reviewed and adopted in the cycle dictated by the State of California. This year our district supported the third year of implementation of the Open Court reading/language arts program and first year of the Math Advantage program. Recently our district adopted McGraw-Hill and Harcourt Brace as our History/Social Science textbooks. Laurel teachers serve as school representatives on District committees in the areas of Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, Science, Technology, and History/Social Sciences. Supplementary instructional materials are purchased through funds made available to each teacher through the general school budget, State School Improvement Program and PTA.

Continued school effectiveness and improvement are contingent on the identification of student/school needs and on suggestions for ways to meet the stated needs.

Every year the entire Laurel staff participates in an extensive self-study of thirteen school-wide program areas: Visual/Performing Arts, History/Social Sciences, Physical Education/Health, English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Special Needs/English Language Learners, Learning Environment, Staff Development, Planning/Implementing and Evaluating Program, School-wide Effectiveness, Leadership, and Parent Involvement. The Laurel School Plan is the result of the collaborative efforts of the Laurel staff and is approved by our School Site Council. Our school plan contains, for each of the thirteen designated areas, a narrative of our program as it presently exists and a list of our improvement suggestions. Every four years the school is involved in a State Program Quality Review process.

Laurel School has an active technology committee and a disaster preparedness committee, which coordinate with district standing committees and community services.

Our PTA school beautification chairperson, with the help of the administration and many Laurel families, continues to coordinate special trim-in days, to organize planting drives, to create ideas for gifts to the school for beautifying our facility, and to design plans for future landscape and facility enhancements.

The outcomes or products of the school are, to a large extent, a product of the support and input to the school from outside resources and parents, in combination with internal functioning of the school itself

The State Standardized Testing (STAR), administered in May of 2000, shows Menlo Park students scoring above national norms at all grade levels. Results are reported on the attached graphs.