The Willow Glen Resident

Ed Park prepares to take advantage of new funding

Middle, high school awarded $300,000 Annenberg grant

By Maggie Benson

The adage "the third time's the charm" proved true for Willow Glen Educational Park this summer when it won the prestigious $300,000 Annenberg Grant on its third attempt. Now that the school has secured the funds, staff and administrators are devising a detailed plan for improving the school. After all their efforts, the school staff wants to be sure the money is used well.

"People put a lot of thought and a lot of heart into developing a proposal that would be acceptable, so we're really excited," Patricia Robertson, assistant principal of Willow Glen Middle School, said. "It's a chance for us to do some work in terms of moving our reform effort forward."

Sponsored by the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, the grant is intended to help schools improve as a whole unit, not simply on a project-by-project basis. The Ed Park is eligible for $300,000 a year for a total of four years, if it proves to the collaborative that the money is being spent wisely.

"We chose them because they gave us a plan that they had developed that involved a whole school change," Merrill Vargo, spokeswoman for the collaborative, explained. "They had a plan that wasn't just making teaching and learning better for a few; they had a plan for making changes across the whole school."

While writing the grant, staff, students and parents hashed out a purpose statement about what they would do if they were awarded the money: "We will create at Willow Glen Educational Park an environment that motivates all students to acquire knowledge and skills for successful lifelong learning," they wrote.

Gay Kuntz, the resource teacher whose sole charge this year is to implement the programs afforded by the grant, said a steering committee is in place to ensure the school will fulfill its vision.

Using its strongest internal resource--teachers--the Ed Park plans to implement a self-sustaining model for whole-school reform, one that is not dependent upon grant funds for survival. Therefore, most of the grant money will go toward teacher training, Kuntz said.

"All of this needs to be free-standing at the end," she explained.

The school will also need to set goals for itself and assess its progress along the way. The collaborative will determine whether to renew the $300,000 based on the results of these assessments.

As a starting point, the school will work with the districtwide standards that were developed by a 100-member committee of teachers, parents and business people. These standards, which were just released, were compiled during two years of laborious meetings. Called the Lifelong Learning Standards, they include goals such as making students effective communicators, informed thinkers, self-directed learners and responsible members of society. Willow Glen Ed Park is also planning to develop more standards for their school alone.

Kuntz said the effects will be cross-disciplinary, in keeping with the collaborative's requirements.

The collaborative is a nonprofit organization which, one year after its formation in 1994, was asked to oversee a $50 million donation from two Hewlett family foundations and former U.S. Ambassador Walter Annenberg. The collaborative, known for its exacting requirements, was to dole out the money to schools which could act as leaders for others in the region.

Just to apply for funds, schools and their districts must first be accepted into the organization. Fortunately for Willow Glen Ed Park, San Jose Unified had made the grade.

Out of Santa Clara County's 1,200 schools, only 185 are members of the collaborative. Of those, just 52 have been selected for the grant. Santa Teresa, Independence and Homestead are among the other high schools that were selected.

"Teachers and parents and kids, they care about this school," Assistant Principal Robertson said. "They want what's best--certainly the parents want what's best for their kids, and the kids, the students, want to feel that they really are being prepared for what comes after high school."

[ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ]