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An infusion of funds
Grant funding, some provided through stimulus dollars, will help several critical programs at district

By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Friday, November 20, 2009 10:38 AM PST

Ontario High School students leave the high school building on their lunch break Thursday. The Ontario School District received a little more than $100,000 in various grant funding to provide support for four different programs. The Ontario School Board appropriated that funding at Thursday’s regular school board meeting.

ONTARIO — A little more than $100,000 in grant funding will boost certain programs in the Ontario School District this school year following resolutions passed by the Ontario School Board Thursday night to appropriate the funds.

The bulk of the money, $60,000, came from a School Improvement grant and a federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act subsidy to be used for instructional and support services.

“That money goes strictly to Alameda (Elementary School) to help support their efforts to meet AYP,” Ontario School District Director of Instruction and School Services Melissa Williams said.

Because Alameda missed Adequate Yearly Progress targets for the second year in a row, pushing it into the improvement category, the school was required to offer transfers or free tutoring.

Williams said the additional funds will go toward after-school programs, especially dedicated to helping those limited English proficient students who missed federal benchmarks in mathematics.


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The school district also received $28,401 in a Supplemental Summer School Funds for Migrant Programs Grant that will go to the summer school program. The third grant was a Title X ARRA Grant in the amount of $7,447 to benefit the school district’s program for homeless students. The fourth grant, of $10,000, a Moving Math Education Forward Grant, will be used to expand the school district’s math leadership team to every grade and every school.

“Actually, most of them we weren’t expecting,” Williams said of the grants.

In other board news, the Ontario School Board approved its new district logo, motto and belief statements at the meeting.

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Comment Blog - Note: All Comments Subject To Approval

arf_arf wrote on Dec 4, 2009 8:59 PM:

" I'll that logo is pretty important. What besides the utter stupidity of the Administration is it supposed to prove? The District constantly makes excuses for it failure to educate its charges. The staff and administrators are so poorly educated themselves that they have no prayer of cleaning up this mess and they will get no help from the State where they are, if possible, even less competent. I sent four kids through this mess and I still want to barf when I think about it. My kids are all college grads, no thanks the school district, because I tutored them at home. Unfortunately most parents do not have the advantages I do. "

Huh HUH wrote on Dec 1, 2009 2:07 AM:

" Dear OMS Teacher: Knowing that one of your students could have designed that on a laptop, perhaps we should buy them a pizza and get a refund? "

Disappointed. wrote on Nov 23, 2009 4:46 PM:

" What's with the farmers? I remember when they were the leaders of this community. Now they are dragging it down. "

OMS Teacher wrote on Nov 21, 2009 9:17 AM:

" Yes, you do get to see the new wordmark. It's on the the district website.

ontario.k12.or.us "

Ray Dickerson wrote on Nov 21, 2009 8:01 AM:

" Perhaps the headline should have read: “ Withdrawal of funds from families and businesses damage their wellbeing.” For every infusion of money, borrowed or taken, to one critical or non-critical program of one type or another, taxpayers pay. How did this infusion stimulate the economy and how many jobs did it save or create? On the other hand, why worry about spending? If we don’t take it somebody else will. Now that is an attitude that will save our souls.

Twenty years from now when the OHS graduates are struggling to payoff their student loans, support a family, buy a home, care for their children and pay a third or more of their earning to the government, I wonder if they will be saying, we’re really glad OSD got that infusion of tax money for those support programs, ‘cause they’ve really helped us a bunch.” And later, their kids might be saying as they pay 70% of their earnings to the government, I’m really glad OSD got that infusion for those support programs for Gramps and Gram, but shouldn’t we about have that paid for by now? "

Huh wrote on Nov 20, 2009 10:31 PM:

" We needed a new logo?

We just need to dissolve 8C and start over. The current district has simply had it. "

What wrote on Nov 20, 2009 3:27 PM:

" Do we get to see the new logo and belief statement? "

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