ESCONDIDO: Districts add Saturday classes

Extra day helps students improve grades, helps districts with funding

By SHAYNA CHABNER - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 8, 2008 12:16 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Several inland school districts are following the lead of one Escondido high school in trying to raise grades and increase attendance by opening their campuses up to students on Saturday.

Adding the extra school day, they say, is a way to provide struggling students with the extra time they may need with course material and the district with more cash during tight budget times.

Districts receive the majority of their funding from the state based on the number of students in school each day. They receive between $30 and $40 a day for each student who attends school for at least four hours.

A successful Saturday school program was launched by Escondido's Orange Glen High School more than a year ago. Similar programs have since been established at Escondido's two other comprehensive high schools ---- Escondido and San Pasqual ---- and at Valley Center High School.

District officials from Escondido's elementary district said this month they're also interested in implementing a Saturday program to boost funding, saying they're facing $14 million in budget cuts for the next fiscal year beginning July 1.

Kelly Prins, an assistant superintendent in Escondido Union, said a Saturday program has the potential to funnel millions of dollars back into the district.

In one of the district's medium-size school regions ---- consisting of Hidden Valley Middle, Orange Glen Elementary, Glen View Elementary and Oak Hilll Elementary schools ---- there were 3,668 absences in the month of February, or nearly one day missed for each of the 3,748 students enrolled.

If the district had students make up those missed days, Escondido Union could collect about $113,634 in state revenues. That is based on the fact that the district would recover about $31 per student.

"It's amazing," Prins said, noting that there are five regions in the 23-school district. "I didn't realize how many abscenses we had until I actually pulled the data. I didn't know how significant it was."

If the district does move forward with a program, it would probably just target one middle school and its surrounding elementary schools at first to see how well it was working, she said.

Orange Glen Principal Diego Ochoa said his campus has an average of about 250 students at school each Saturday. He said about 2,955 students have taken Saturday classes so far this year, up from the nearly 300 students who began using the program in 2006-07.

The school has collected about $100,000 in extra attendance money for the current school year because of Saturday school, Ochoa said.

The school attendance rate overall has also increased significantly. Before the program was started in 2005-06, the school's attendance rate average about 94 percent. This year, the attendance rate has averaged more than 96 percent.

"We have been able to channel it into a money-making program that helps kids," Ochoa said, emphasizing that many of the kids who attend don't have absences to make up and are there just to learn.

"This is what are schools need to do right now, he added. "We need to get a bigger piece of that pie."

Similar reports have come from Escondido's other high school campuses and Valley Center.

Valley Center High School Assistant Principal Jon Peterson said Monday that since the program started in December, the campus has offered freshmen and sophomore students special Saturday workshops in English, geometry, biology and dance. In the coming weeks, some of the school's Advanced Placement teachers will also host review sessions for students who begin taking national subject tests in May.

Advanced Placement courses are college-level courses that equate to college credits.

Peterson said there is no official data to back up the program yet. He said, however, that anecdotal evidence and reports from teachers suggests that dozens of kids are taking advantage of the program and that fewer kids are failing classes that they were struggling in before.

"We are definitely going to build on it next year because the teachers are finding it to be successful," Peterson said. "And we are able to recover enough average daily attendance to cover the teacher's salary. It's a program that supports itself."

Contact staff writer Shayna Chabner at (760) 740-5416 or schabner@nctimes.com.

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