During the first half of this school year, more than 120 Pittsburg Community Middle School students attended the school’s mandatory after-school tutoring program for students receiving a failing grade in a particular class.
Staffed by certified teachers, the Students Are For Excellence program worked with students to improve their grades and to provide encouragement for them to maintain passing grades. Lonnie Moser, PCMS principal, said the program was “highly effective” for many students, although it did not prove helpful with others.
“It was a valuable program,” Moser said. “If it wasn’t valuable, we wouldn’t have had it.”
Moser uses the word “was” because the SAFE program was a casualty of the more than $816,000 worth of budgets cuts Pittsburg USD 250 made this week. Pittsburg High School’s version of the after-school program, Reaching Success, was also eliminated. More than $12,000 will be saved between now and the end of the school year — mostly from overtime wages — by eliminating the two enrichment programs.
But while doing away with the after-school tutoring may save the district a significant amount of dollars, there’s also a risk that by not providing it, those students who needed it may struggle to improve their grades. The elimination of the programs is a prime example of how the reduction in state funding for education could negatively affect student achievement, something about which Superintendent Destry Brown has long warned.
However, as is being done at the district’s four elementary schools, PCMS and PHS both plan to provide the tutoring services throughout the school day, rather than do away with them altogether. Through the state's Multi-Tier System of Supports program — both schools plan to utilize the program — students who are not performing at their grade level or who have behavioral issues are still offered some additional time with teachers throughout the day.
“We have other programs that we utilize with kids that maybe will help pick up some of the slack,” Moser said. “We are working with the (MTSS) and one of the units will be on academic responsibility. As we go through that, my hope is that we can start filling in some of those gaps.”
Donna Zerr, PHS principal, said eliminating the Reaching Success program should not cause any educational lag at the high school, as the school will utilize the end-of-the-day Dragon Time seminar period to provide extra educational time for those students who need it most.
“Really, we’re not lot losing it at all,” Zerr said. “We’re just moving it to be during our school day.”
The high school program was open to just freshmen this year, although the plan is to add a grade level each year.
Moser and Zerr both said agreeing to eliminate the after-school programs was a difficult decision, but at a time when financial resources are lacking at the state level, “everything is on the table.”
“We are going to lose a lot of programs that are valuable,” Moser said. “It’s our job to evaluate and decide which things have the most impact on the most students. Compared to other programs, (SAFE) wasn’t as valuable. It’s all about prioritizing instructional needs.”
PITTSBURG —
