“Tutoring, mentoring group wins $50,000 Ashby award” plus 1 more |
| Tutoring, mentoring group wins $50,000 Ashby award Posted: 14 Jan 2011 03:56 AM PST Danville Regional Foundation president and CEO Karl Stauber (left) chatted with Kenny Lewis, executive director of the Danville Church-Based Tutorial Program. Out of a field of 16 "strong contenders," the Danville Church-Based Tutorial Program was chosen to be the 2011 recipient of the Danville Regional Foundation's B.R. Ashby, M.D. Award for Outstanding Community Service. At an award ceremony at Moffett Memorial Baptist Church on Thursday, the organization's founder and executive director, Kenny Lewis, and its board president, the Rev. Ed Pope, accepted a plaque and a check for $50,000 from the chair of the DRF's board of directors, Carolyn Evans. Evans told a crowd of about 75 people the tutorial program has helped 4,600 at-risk youth since its inception in 1996. In the 2009-10 school year, they served 264 at-risk youth, she said. Pope thanked DRF, and said the money would be put to good use. "It will be used very, very wisely," Pope said. "There are so many things we want to do … you've helped us a lot; we have so many hurting children." Lewis based the program, which uses churches for after-school tutorial, mentoring, fitness and other social development programs, was based on a program in Louisiana. He said the money will be used over the course of several years to do background checks on staff and volunteers, upgrade their website to make it more user-friendly for both children and their parents, upgrade or create computer labs at all locations and fill some gaps in their transportation and having supplies on hand for some children's projects. Lewis said he and his board of directors work well together. "We have a really good board," Lewis said. "They're creative, supportive and don't mind correcting me or disagreeing with me to make sure we do what's right for the kids." Lewis said one important element of the Ashby award is its flexibility — unlike a lot of grants, which require the funds be used for a specific program, the Ashby award can be used for anything, even operating expenses. "It will help support our children and make our programs more effective," Lewis said. DRF president and CEO Karl Stauber said the purpose of the award is to use a competitive process to choose a nonprofit organization in its coverage area of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Caswell County, N.C., to reward for providing exceptional community service. The second purpose of the award, Stauber said, is to honor the founding chairman of the Danville Regional Foundation, Dr. B.R. Ashby. The Danville Regional Foundation was formed with the proceeds of the sale of Danville Regional Medical Center to LifePoint Hospitals Inc. in 2005. The award was introduced in 2009, with the first award being presented in 2010 to the Caswell County Parish Inc. Starling McKenzie, senior program officer for DRF said the application process will begin in June for the 2012 award. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Costly computerized tutoring program mandated by TEA Posted: 13 Jan 2011 09:30 PM PST A state-mandated tutoring program that will cost Marshall School District thousands of dollars was discussed during Thursday's school board agenda review meeting. We do not have a choice about paying for the program, but we need to understand it carefully, before discussing it at Tuesday's board meeting," Superintendent Bruce Gearing told the board. Known as "Tutors with Computers," the program is a phone service for students to call and receive extra guidance taught by a computerized instructor. "It is a lot of money without any human contact," said Gearing. "I'm not saying what is happening is good or bad, but it is just the facts of how it works." The program was mandated by the Texas Education Agency for all students at Marshall High School who failed a portion of their TAKS test last year. The TEA issued supplemental educational providers from outside the district to all schools who are in phase two of not meeting the adequate yearly progress report, according to Deputy Superintendent Melinda Jones. "We are required to provide services from outside agencies that are not internal. And then we are mandated to pay for it," said Gearing. The high school has 217 students participating in the program out of the 355 students assigned to a tutoring service. According to Ms. Jones, the program is costing the district $1,209 per student, and the funding comes out of Title 1 Federal Funding. "We just do what we need to do, and we are paying out of federal funds. Even though these are not extra funds, they could have been used in a different way," said Gearing. Students must complete a certain amount of hours, costing the district $92 per hour, and if students go over the "cap," or more hours than needed, the district will not be billed. So far, only 50 of the students have actually reached the cap, said Ms. Jones. "That way, I do not have to monitor each student," she added. The program is supposed to issue incentives for students who participate, but require a certain number of hours before they can receive the incentive. "The students run out of hours because of the cap, so they run out of hours before they get the incentive," said Gearing. Gearing added the district has no way of telling if the program is doing its job until the TAKS test results are issued. "There are a lot of hours tracked that we are forced to pay for," said Ms. Jones. "And we are paying a lot of money for a service we hope has an impact on student academic progress." The board will meet Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. to take action on the items discussed at Thursday's meeting. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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