Quality Education Investment Act
QEIA Facilities / New Classrooms
The Bakersfield City School District is proud to announce that they have added several classrooms to the QEIA sites. Thanks to funding from the Quality Education Investment Act the Bakersfield City School District was able to purchase new facilities for the purposes of lowering class size. The Maintenance and Operations department has worked diligently all summer long to ensure that the buildings were ready for the start of this school year. The Bakersfield City School District is committed to making a difference in the lives of children and know that by lowering class sizes in the upper grades we will be able to offer a better educational experience for our students. If you have a questions in regards to the QEIA program please give me a call at 631-4802. You can also e-mail me by clicking on the following link. Samuel Pacheco
| Here we have some pictures of the new facilities that have been added to the QEIA sites. They are a great addition to the school site and students are proud to be using the new classrooms. |
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CSR Technical Assistance Workshop at KCSOS
On April 3, 2008 from 1:00 - 4:00 the KCSOS office will host a workshop that will help our schools establish the Class Size Average targets that will be used in our implementation of QEIA. KCSOS will be providing guidance based on the latest updated and released information. Specifically the workshop aims at assisting our district to select the appropriate base year, calculating the CSR grade level averages, and projecting the targets. Natalie Arduain from Fiscal Services, and I will be attending this important meeting. I will bring back all information to share with our site principals. For more information on this meeting click on the following link.
CSR Technical Assistance Workshop Meeting
QEIA Professional Development
QEIA continues to develop and become more clear as the Kern County Superintendent of Schools provides support and clarification to many of the goals for this program. In January Kathy Hollis visited our district to go over the various assurances of QEIA. We are making tremendous progress in our implementation process and documentation for QEIA. One of the assurances of QEIA is that we provide Professional Development opportunities to the staff serving the needs of students. We need to ensure that each teacher and instructional paraprofessional participates in a program of Professional Development established and made available by the school and or district. Such a program for teachers should include opportunities to collaborate, analyze pupil data, and support standards based instruction. A possible Professional Development opportunity can include participation in SB472 in Reading and Math. The Professional Development must average 40 hours per year per teacher and at least one third of the teachers are to participate in Professional Development each year so that all teachers have participated by the end of the third year of full funding. Kathy introduced a QEIA Professional Development Verification Form which can be used to document our progress of this assurance. Although we are encouraged to attend Professional Development opportunities such as those provided by SB472 we are not limited in ways to accomplish this goal. The Professional Development Verification Form takes into account processes that are already occurring at these school sites. Things such as Grade Level Team Meetings, Data Analysis, Content Coaching Participation, Teacher Led Demonstration Lessons, or Curriculum Specific Professional Development can all be included as Professional Development. I have included this form as a resource for our principals to share with their staffs. It is our goal to have the best trained personnel at our school sites serving the needs of our students. If you have any questions in regards to Professional Development and how it relates to QEIA please contact me at 631-4802 or you can reach me by e-mail at Samuel Pacheco.
Resources:
QEIA Professional Development Verification Form
QEIA Newsletter Vol 1 No 1
QEIA Newsletter Vol 1 No 2
QEIA Seven Year Budget Planning
On December 12, 2008, KCSOS invited all QEIA participating schools to an important budget planning meeting. There was an introduction to Kathy Hollis as the person who has been hired to oversee the implementation for Kern County Schools. Jannelle Kubinec, Associate Vice President from School Services of California gave a very informative presentation with an in depth look into the budget planning that needs to be completed for QEIA. She continually stressed the importance of planning and looking ahead when making decisions. It is important that Principals make sure to track and monitor what has been done with QEIA at their site. Our next step is to complete the seven year budget plan to help guide our decision making. There is also a need to look at enrollment projections and determine class size averages to establish the amount of facilities that will be needed next year. If you have any questions, please call me at 631-4802.
Samuel Pacheco
Resources:
QEIA Overview Presentation
QEIA was featured at the November 5, 2007 administrative staff meeting. All administrators from the district were presented with the goals for QEIA. It is important that everyone knows what QEIA represents and how we are moving forward in the process to incorporate all assurances of the grant. Principals were told that QEIA establishes:
- Class Size Reduction Model for the intermediate grades - 25 or less in the intermediate grades.
- Teacher Experience Index
- Professional Development Plan
- Facilities Analysis
- 2007-2008 Planning year for QEIA
- Monitored through Kern County Superintendent of Schools
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It was great to present the assurances of QEIA to all administrators in the district. This process insures that everyone in our district is knowledgeable about the intent and goals for QEIA. If you have any questions please call the office of Academic Improvement and Accountability or you can reach me directly at 631-4802.
Samuel Pacheco
SSC Meeting for Approval of Single School Plan
October has been a very busy time for the four QEIA schools. They have been holding several meetings with the leadership team, parents and the School Site Council members in order to develop the Single School Plan. All four schools made sure to include all stakeholders in the process while developing the School plan. All four schools made sure to include QEIA into the plan by looking at facility needs, staff development goals, and by preparing the school for the next steps in the implementation process of Class Size Reduction.
Here we see Jefferson School meeting with the School Site Council as they go over the school plan action section. Parents were represented at the meeting and translation was provided. Mrs. Jimenez, principal at Jefferson Elementary School led the meeting and pointed out key actions of the plan aligned to student achievement goals. All Single School Plans will be posted on the BCSD website after the November deadline and board approval.
KCSOS - QEIA Overview
On October 2, 2007 our four schools were asked to attend a meeting to review the Quality Education Investment Act. The Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office gave us an overview of the program. The presenter reviewed the intent of the grant which is to:
- Improve the Quality of Academic Instruction and Academic Achievement
- Develop exemplary school districts and school practices that will create the working conditions and classroom learning environments that will attract and retain well qualified teachers, administrators, and other staff
- Focus school resources, including all categorical funds, on instructional improvement and services to pupils
- A 7 year plan for QEIA.
- Must complete and meet the criteria of an academic review process, including elements used in the SAIT process
- Establish a plan for Professional Development
- Requirements for Class Size Reduction
The presenter informed us about a great web site that is available to us for QEIA resources.
Resources:
Please click on the link to access any of the documents or web site that is being offered by the Southern QEIA Center.
- Professional Development Snapshot
- Timeline of Requirements
- School Plan Guiding Questions
- School Plan Directions
- CTA - QEIA
- QEIA - Southern QEIA Center
QEIA School's Facility Analysis
As we begin to examine the needs of each of the four QEIA schools it is important that we plan for the success of the program. One of the goals of QEIA is to maintain the current classroom size in grades K-3 and reduce class size to 25 in grades 4-6. In order to comply with this assurance we must examine the schools for future facility needs.
This year has been established as a planning year for QEIA and each of the schools will be incorporating QEIA into their school plans to make sure that we have a clear focus for the success of QEIA. Each school will be analyzed and considerations will be taken to see if they are in need of more classrooms to comply with the assurance of lowering class size.
QEIA Meeting Oct 2, 2007
Kern County has 20 QEIA funded schools: 9 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, and 6 high schools. Bakersfield City School District has 4 QEIA elementary schools. The Kern County Superintendent of Schools, under the direction of the Southern QEIA Center at the Los Angeles County Office of Education, is responsible for providing technical assistance to the districts that have QEIA schools. KCSOS has announced that they will hold their first meeting on October 2, 2007 for QEIA. The QEIA Planning Year and Program Requirements meeting will begin to give us an outline into District, County and school site responsibilities. The meeting will address the Planning Year requirements and Core Program requirements. This meeting looks to provide us with many resources. I look forward to our four schools participating in this important meeting.
Samuel Pacheco - Supervisor I - QEIA
Aug 2007
A message for Principals, Teachers, Students and the Community:
Welcome back to a new academic School Year. It feels so good to see everyone gearing up to provide the best possible instruction to meet the needs of all students. I have spent the past few days visiting several school sites. The message is clear, "as a school district we are speaking with one common language and with one common goal: to service the students to provide the best educational experience". The Academic Improvement and Accountability Team set the stage for all schools to begin with a common focus. The Directors of Learning Support have provided each principal with the support they need in order to get off to a great start. School principals are leading the way by delivering the Pathway to Teaching and Learning which is instrumental as we begin the new school year. Teachers have attended the three day professional development that principals and their academic teams have put together. As I visited the various school sites it was easy to see that the school leadership was prepared to have the staff get started on the right path. Teachers are ready to start the school year with a common focus that the Pathway to Teaching and Learning has structured for them.
QEIA -Quality Education Investment Act
It is my pleasure to announce the arrival of the QEIA program to our school district. Bakersfield City School District will recieve QEIA funding for the 2007-2008 school year for four of our schools. QEIA funds have been established for College Heights, Jefferson, Mt. Vernon, and Munsey Elementary schools. These funds will be used at the school sites to provide classroom size reduction in the intermediate grades and staff development in order to meet the needs of all of our student populations.
If you would like more information on QEIA please give me a call at 631-4802.
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