It was only recently that the Rotary Club of Ballard learned that it had a new Title 1 school, Licton Springs K – 8, in the neighborhood. Title 1 schools are those in which at least 40% of its students are from low-income families. Upon opening Licton’s website to learn more about them I discovered that only 38% of their students met English and Language Arts (i.e. reading) standards in recent testing. Since my Community Service Committee had made elementary student reading success a high priority, I contacted Dante Rhodes, the principal of Licton Springs, to see if we could be of help in any way, especially given their low test scores.
To assist his students most in need of improvement in their reading skills Dante said he would like to contract with Lexia, an online structured reading improvement program. Once online to Lexia, each student is individually tested on each of five skill sets: phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, structural analysis, fluency and comprehension. After this placement round, the program will help each student gain mastery on each of those levels as needed at their own pace.
Dante was very enthusiastic about this program because he described it to me as being very intuitive and very flexible. “This program would be great so our teachers can still do small groups in the room while other students are engaged in an adaptive program that is tailored to their needs.” So Ballard Rotary’s Community Service Committee voted to underwrite the cost of that platform for the remainder of the school year. That’s dot numero uno.
We also got Dante in touch with a nonprofit organization called Team Read. Team Read trains high school students to tutor elementary school children, mostly in south King County because that’s where most of the Title 1 schools are located. The principals of those schools give Team Read’s tutors (who refer to themselves as “coaches”) very high marks.
We were hopeful that perhaps Team Read might be persuaded to train some of Ballard High School’s students to become coaches here on the north end of the county. That proved not to be possible for technical reasons (mostly revolving around school closing times differential) but Team Read is providing some of their coaches to tutor some of Licton’s students virtually. That’s dot numero dos.
While scrolling through the names and positions of Licton Springs’ staff on their website, I saw that one staff member was listed as their “Instrumental music teacher”. I emailed him out of curiosity to find out more about their program. I learned – which came as no surprise – that they are critically short of musical instruments (mostly clarinets, flutes, and a trombone or two) for kids to use. They own only one of each and they have to borrow instruments from other schools whenever he checks them out, not an acceptable situation for any instrumental music program.
Because of his longtime Rotary connection, I contacted David Endicott the ED of Music4Life to brief him on Licton’s situation. For those unfamiliar with Music4Life, it’s a nonprofit organization that collects musical instruments that are no longer needed or that need to be repaired. Once repaired they distribute them to schools requesting them. I explained Licton’s situation to David and he said he was certain he could be of help. As soon as Licton Springs submits a formal request, he will see what he can do for them.
By Terry Collings, Ballard Rotary Club
