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economist sun stouffville tribune saturday aug 28 1999 13 education school trustees seek proof 18 million program is getting results performance program questioned by jennifer brown staff writer trustees at the public board are questioning the success of a special pro gram aimed at helping schools in need the program called performance plus was implemented last year after provincewide tests showed some stu dents were performing well below expectations performance plus is aimed at helping schools where socioeconomic demo graphics and low test scores indicate the need for additional resources to help improve academic results questions were raised monday night after the board was presented with a report on the first year of the program how is the program starting to materialize in showing improvement in reading and math asked vaughan trustee harvey nightingale to who how much and what progress has been made we need some measure of progress the performance plus budget is 18 million annually allocated from a learns ing opportunities grant provided by the province those funds are- beyond the normal resources provided to schools and are used to hire 12 teachers and 15 support staff the money is also used to focus on early literacy extended day programs student leadership nutrition programs and summer schools ah additional 20000 was received from the canadian living foundation to aid in breakfast programs and to pur chase equipment such as inicrowaves the first real indicator of whether performance plus is working will be in december when results of provincewide grade 3 tests will be released there was also a concern that since performance plus was introduced a year ago some schools have not progressed as far as others some schools have not been as aggressive as some in seeking resources said georgina trustee reid cawston four schools in cawstons community are in the performance plus program but school superintendent jaimini randev defended the schools involved while acknowledging some are not as far along as others schools are at various levels of implementation randev said there is a whole process that schools and lead- ership teams need to go through but the need to see real results was emphasized monday night when trustees were informed the performance plus program will expand to three additional schools this year walter scott public schbol in richmond hill glen shields public school in concord and jersey public school in keswick the first real indicator of whether performance plus is working will be in december when results of province- wide grade 3 tests will be released but randev who heads up the performance plus program cautioned trustees that it may be too soon to con sider those results as a sign of whether those schools are improving bbs our focus is on achievement he said and we recognize that while the r eqao results will be forthcoming this is really a longterm program under the performance plus plan primary division teachers have also received additional training its still a little early to boast any suc cesses randev said adding the board has hired a researcher to look at the results of performance plus questions were also raised following apresentation on a pilot project held at sixteenth avenue public school this summer part of the performance plus plan for seven weeks during the summer the board offered a day camp called the summer institute at sixteenth avenue one of 12 schools identified under the performance plus program the institute for children aged seven to 14 cost parents 50 a week and attracted more than 2000 registrants including students from the catholic board and private schools feedback from parents indicated the cost was more than reasonable and that they would be willing to pay as much as 75 or 100 similar camps such as that offered by newmarkets parks and recreation department are 85 per week the program took in 95000 in rev enue but the expenses exceeded that amount as the board had to cover the purchase of startup items such as mountain bicycles the board hopes to expand the sum mer camps to three more communities next year but despite the success of the camp and the development of partnerships with the communities surrounding the performance plus schools trustees wanted to know how the pilot camp at sixteenth avenue will contribute to the improvement of student learning skills that matters most to your community conomist sim i pi fcbune 2000 dodge grand caravan se 38 l v6 abs brakes 15 alloy wheels 4 speed automatic air conditioning roof rack dual sliding doors amfm cassette 7 passenger seating with headrests power windows locks mirrors cruise control tilt steering 1 1 36 mths due on delivery 429 49335 plus lie 359 328785 plus lie 279 607085 plus lie introductory priced for a limited time 2000 dodge caravan v6 4 speed automatic air conditioning roof rack dual sliding doors amfm cassette cruise control 7 passenger seating with headrests power windows locks fit 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