Sonora expected to receive more state money

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Four of Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s

elementary schools are among the more than 1,300 eligible to apply for

the next round of state funding that will reward school employees, state

officials announced Thursday.

While Rea, Sonora, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools all made the

first cut for the Academic Performance Index funding by meeting the

program’s minimum requirements, only Sonora Elementary School is expected

to cash in.

“We’re excited,” said Lorie Hoggard, principal at Sonora. “We’re

thrilled at our results. We worked hard to get there and to get our

students’ achievement where it should be.”

The Legislature allocated $100 million for the funding under the

Certificated Staff Performance Incentive Act, which provides financial

rewards to school staff who made the greatest improvements in their API

score.

That index is the ranking system mandated by Gov. Gray Davis’ Public

Schools Accountability Act of 1999, which lists each public school

according to student performance.

Statewide, schools received a score between 200 and 1,000, based on

the Stanford 9 test results. The state has set a target score of 800 for

every school. Each school that ranks below 800 is required to improve its

score by 5% each year until it reaches 800. Schools that receive an 800

or higher are expected to maintain or improve their score each year.

Because the reward program has a set budget of $100 million, state

department officials estimate that the 200 elementary, 50 middle and 30

high schools that made the greatest improvements of the 1,346 will

actually receive money.

At those 280 schools, 1,000 employees with the greatest gains will

receive $25,000 each; 3,750 staff members will receive $10,000 each and

7,500 others will receive $5,000 each.

With only 87 elementary schools in the state making bigger leaps in

improvement, the staff at Sonora can expect to see some cash.

“That’s wonderful,” said Peggy Anatol, director of curriculum and

assessment for the district. “It’s an application process, and Sonora’s

ready for it.”