Desert Heights Charter Schools

Additional support to our staff was needed to manage the new demands of our community due to Covid. We have budgeted for a .50 position is focused on providing daily, immediate support to all staff, parents, and teachers in grades K-4. In addition to daily leadership responsibilities, she attends professional learning community meetings to assist teachers in data analysis and development of individualized plans to address gaps in learning and to support extension for high performing and gifted students. In this same manner we have budgeted $41,820.00 plus benefits and Lead teacher for grades K-2 and $42,820.00 plus benefits for experienced Lead Teachers, providing additional support to teachers for discipline and classroom management strategies to support transition from on-line instruction/essential student only instruction to full return to in person learning.
We will also employ an accounting staff member to provide ongoing financial management for income, salaries and daily expenditures for Desert Heights Charter Schools. This position has additional responsibilities currently secondary to increased spending needs related to Covid mitigation and return to in-person learning.
All of these positions will be in place for the 2021-2022 school year.
Desert Heights Charter Schools have a long history of ensuring that all students needs are met through rigorous, evidence-based instruction paired with intense focus on the specific needs of our subgroups and individual student needs. The funds that are provided through ESSER III are and opportunity for this to continue and to expand and deepen the impact of an already powerful program.
The purchase of evidence-based curriculum or curriculum that demonstrates a rationale for strong outcomes to support strong instruction within the general education classroom will allow our teachers to provide consistent rigorous in-class instruction to all of the students at Desert Heights Charter Schools. Following review of district and confirmed with state assessment data it was determined that one focus of our efforts as we return to in-person learning would be on reading instruction in grades K-8. Reduced performance/loss of learning across these grade levels was noted with specific areas of weakness for our vulnerable subgroups. Based on this, $102, 069.87 is targeted for a new ELA curriculum. The CKLA (Core Knowledge Language Arts) Curriculum provides deep instruction for students. This also meets the needs of our students who are at the most risk or who have already been identified as having reduced acquisition of standards. This curriculum has differentiation for special education students and EL students built into the implementation processes. This will also allow for all of our students who may be at risk for learning loss (McKinney-Vento, migrant, students in foster care, and low-income students) to receive differentiated instruction at the level of performance they need to understand concepts.
Along with strong Tier I instruction our leadership team determined that small group (1 teacher to 2-5 students) interventions are needed. As part of our MTSS program we have an evidence-based reading intervention curriculum that is implemented for our students identified as in need of additional support. It was determined that a math intervention curriculum will also be purchased. $50, 827.94 has been established to purchase this math intervention curriculum to provide evidence-based instruction for students identified as having learning gaps. This will include specific emphasis on at risk populations (e.g. EL, special education, homeless, students in foster care, migrant students) The exact intervention program has not been chosen but is being reviewed by the Curriculum Review Team at Desert Heights Charter School to ensure it meets the needs of our vulnerable and at-risk students and will meet a Tier I level of Evidence. Student in need of interventions will be identified consistent with our MTSS protocol, in which a number of data points are reviewed by our teachers and MTSS instructional support during dedicated professional learning community meetings. This curriculum provides evidenced based instruction for students with built in differentiation for at risk populations (e.g. EL, special education, homeless, students in foster care, migrant) This curriculum meets a Tier I level of evidence.